Working surrounded by inspiration, really keep Emily’s creative passions alive

Fred’s haberdashery has been in Chesterfield for over 40 years. Emily took over the creative business at the beginning of last year. She very kindly let us have a look around and chat about her business and the benefits of the creative industry. 

The shop sells everything to do with sewing, knitting, crocheting and general crafts. It’s a cave full of inspiration, a real creative persons dream.

Emily has always been creative, after university she went into an office job in Sheffield but decided to change paths and become a crochet teacher at Fred’s Haberdashery when the opportunity arose. 

Creative classes

The shop offered crochet classes before the pandemic and craft social classes where people could come along and work on their projects as part of a creative community. Emily is planning on providing sewing lessons when restrictions allow on top of the range of classes they already offer. 

Lots of people have taken on a creative hobby or craft in lockdown, crochet has become particularly popular with students. Macrame has also made a comeback from the 70’s craze with people creating plant pots, tops, blankets and wall hangings. This has helped the business. Everyone had more time to take up something creative. Emily thinks that learning a new craft takes a lot of time and effort, and lockdown gave us this luxury. She thinks people have kept up these creative hobbies since. 

Being attracted to a creative role

We asked Emily to explain what attracted her to a creative role, she said “I’ve always been creative in my spare time, rather than educationally. My mum had an art degree and my Grandma was a city and guilds sewing teacher, so we always had creativity within my home and family.” Emily wishes she had gone down the creative route at school or done graphics or gaming to fuel her interests in IT and design. 

Piles of felt with support our creativity pays campaign across the image

How do you stay creative? 

“When I started teaching crochet, I didn’t have qualifications so I decided to do an international diploma in crochet from home in my spare time. This pushes me creatively, especially the coursework projects.” Emily also creates the displays for the shop window, inspired by any trends currently in season and to showcase new products coming into the shop. 

“I also watch sewing bee for work now, It’s great!” 

What can we do to encourage creativity? 

Emily explained how sewing, crocheting, and knitting were necessary for days gone by as it was cheaper and the only option as clothes weren’t as readily available. Now, it is not always cheaper but it does make your clothes unique and yours. “People are appreciating the uniqueness of things. They are looking at fast fashion and seeing the problems economically in certain countries and also the environmental factors of transporting goods.”

Do you think the industry will kickstart after lockdown? 

“It’s difficult because fast fashion is cheap but I do think people are caring more. There are lots of smaller, independent places starting to make stuff, and people have a change of attitude about where things are coming from. People want a lifelong guarantee, it’s expensive but ethical and environmentally friendly. It’s more personal too, especially if it’s from a local maker.”

There’s a strong group of independents in Chesterfield across the town on the market square and in the shops. Support them through the Love Chesterfield campaign, it’s important we recognise our local independent talents.

Working in the creative industry – is it still an option? 

“It’s hard because the news has placed a negative stance on the industry but everything has a design behind it. Every product goes through the same process with design, look, feel and testing. So many industries and companies need someone with a creative way of working in their team.”

Emily believes awareness of the jobs available and combining creative subjects with more ‘academic subjects’ will help form careers that are seen as more ‘desirable’. 

Join the creativity plays campaign

Find out more about the range of courses and apprenticeships available at Chesterfield College.