Anita McAdam, the owner of Studio Faro, has been in the business for 37 years. 

“My grandmother lost her husband when her boys were teenagers and on the evenings and weekends did dressmaking,” she said.

“That was how she managed to put her boys through college and university and when we were growing up she and my mum would make clothes.

“It was always a check fabric so the dresses and the shirts could be made out of the same material.” 

When Ms McAdam was 11, she decided she didn’t know much about fashion.

“I made my first dress when I was 11,” she said. “I used to work at Woolworths and after it shut on Saturdays, I would race and buy some fabric to make a frock to wear out that night.”

When Ms McAdam finished school she worked in administration, but after four years decided to go to college and study fashion. 

“In the mid-80s I decided to travel to the U.K,” she said. “I was lucky enough to stumble across the idea of freelance design and spent five or six years in London freelancing to local and offshore, design and manufacturing companies,” she said.  

“The majority of my work was design and range development for a large variety of men’s and women’s product.”

In 1991, Ms McAdam secured a senior lecturer position at the Manchester Metropolitan University where she taught and considered research.

“I then lived in Sydney until 2017, but we decided to move to the country,” she said. “We moved to Coolamon. Coming out here it’s a lot different because you don’t have as much local production, so there is no freelancing.

“It’s all about teaching the classes and it seems what people want out here is how to fit their garments.”  

Ms McAdam hosts Design, Fashion Illustration and Pattern Making Classes in the Riverina. 

“I am so grateful for Faye Verral, the owner of Simply Stitches, who provides a location for my classes,” she said. 

Ms McAdam said in the last 10 years, more people are moving to make their own clothes due to concern over sweatshops and landfill. 

Workshops at Simply Stitches are held every second Saturday. October 6 will focus on fitting sewing patterns.

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