Sew happy (From York Press)

Sew happy

10:17am Tuesday 20th January 2009 in Search By Maxine Gordon

MAXINE GORDON meets the York woman who ditched the nine-to-five grind to follow her creative dreams.

SHARON Winfield has bags of style.

She is not dressed in the latest fashions, or sporting the latest crop from York’s trendiest salon.

A self-confessed hippie at heart, Sharon has long hair dyed pinkish-red and she is dressed in grey and black, bar for a pretty scarf in shades of pomegranate.

Her new shop in Micklegate, Bolsita, is crammed full of her hand-made wares – fabric bags in an array of fabulous fabrics and colliding colours.

It took a leap of faith – and heaps of courage – for her to quit a career in local government and open her bespoke handbag boutique just before Christmas. But she couldn’t be happier.

“I am very creative, but I was working at the council and felt like a square peg in a round whole,” says Sharon, 39, who lives in York.

Sharon’s first passion is music. She has been playing guitar since the age of eight and performs in a duo called Two with Helen Turner.

Sewing has always been another love. “I was brought up surrounded by fabric and sewing. It was something my grandma and mother did and it was the natural thing for me to do.”

As a child, Sharon would play with her sister in her grandma’s attic. “You’d open a cupboard and there would be yards of ribbon, balls of wool, rolls of fabric and lots of cotton. She would say: ‘pick a fabric’ and she would make something for us.”

The basement of Sharon’s shop revives those childhood memories. It’s her storeroom-cum-cutting room. “It’s a bit messy,” she says apologetically. “I think my grandma would have loved it in here.”

Piles of tweed lie next to bags, half open to reveal a flash of bright fabric. On the floor, there’s a large blue gym mat with a pair of dressmakers scissors lying on top. Every morning Sharon comes down here to select and cut the materials she needs that day.

Upstairs in her shop, a sewing machine sits on a desk in the corner, surrounded by reels of braids. Sharon aims to make three bags a day, in between running Bolsita (Spanish for ‘little bag’).

Sharon began making bags five years ago, selling them at markets and festivals across the country. Her success gave her the confidence to open her own shop.

“The feedback I got from customers was that people loved them. At festivals, people would come to buy a new bag to replace the one they’d bought last year,” says Sharon.

At the heart of it, she believes, people like something hand-crafted and original – which they can afford. Sharon’s bags tick all three boxes. Prices are around £20 for a medium-sized bag, designed and made by Sharon. She also imports ethically traded items, including buffalo leather bags made by women rescued from human trafficking in Nepal, which are keenly priced at £29.99.

A bestseller has been goat leather satchels from India, priced between £30 to £40. Sharon sold around 90 in the run-up to Christmas and hopes to have more in by February.

She also sells bright scarves and huge woollen throws, including a gorgeous tartan mohair one which would look great thrown over an old battered leather sofa. At £19.99, it must be one of the best bargains in town.

Sharon says she can afford to price her goods keenly because she sources her fabrics at competitive prices. She wants to produce goods that people will love, and afford to buy. “If you can part with 20 quid, you can have a really nice handbag,” she said.

Her design inspiration comes from the fabrics in her basement. She loves mixing it up: pairing traditional Yorkshire tweeds with bright Indian braiding. “It’s kind of East meets West,” she says.

Her business is all-consuming – she even dreams about making bags – but she is not complaining.

“I no longer dread Sunday nights,” she says, recalling her previous job as a council officer.

“It doesn’t matter what it is that you do as long as you know in your heart of hearts that it is right for you. I feel much more energised. I felt tired working at the council. Now I’m up at the crack of dawn, working 12 hours a day and I love it. I felt grey before, but now I feel alive and confident and sparking full of ideas.”

Her renewed vigour is good news for her music too. She and Helen are recording their second album.

“Music is all about confidence,” she says. “After 12 hours in the business I still want to load up the van and do a gig.”

* Bolsita, 68 Mickelgate, York. Visit handbags-bolsitaria.com

* Catch Sharon and Helen perform at City Screen York on Thursday