While many young girls make dresses for their dollies when they are small, very few grow up and turn their hobby into a business… but, having received her first sewing machine at the age of sixteen, that’s exactly what Julie Steeples did.

From the age of eight Julie has been making and creating clothes initially for her own toys but upon the arrival of her first Frister and Rossman sewing machine, dressmaking classes beckoned, and she has immersed herself in the world of fabrics and haberdashery ever since.

Now a mum of four, while her children were growing up she always made clothes for them and keen to further her skills completed a City and Guilds course which included working with boned bodices.

Back in 2010 she formed Overly Gorgeous making clothes for the larger lady. Initially working from her garden shed, she quickly progressed to a small shop before taking over the premises she currently occupies in Mill Street. Not one to sit back and watch the world go by, in 2015 she expanded further into the adjoining shop to allow for a comprehensive workshop facility. This allowed her to diversify into crafts, patchworks, and quilted fabrics as well as to stock a wide range of dressmaking fabrics. At this point it was time for a change of name, rebranding to Sidmouth Fabrics and Haberdashery.

Providing such a wide range of products and services is ultimately a commitment to the customer and extending that commitment Julie and her team also hand make a wide variety of clothes specifically to order for the individual which allows a sense of personal style and taste to be achieved by the client.

Having been into the store on several occasions to talk to Julie about her business it is obvious that a warm welcome greets you from the moment you walk in and any amount of advice and guidance can be offered from the basic skills required to find your way round a sewing machine to the more complex nature of some methods used which were sadly lost on a mere chap like myself.

Julie and all her team would like to wish everyone a very happy new year.