Making a beeline onto TV has kept Julie in stitches

Yorkshire housing officer Julie Gromett may not have won BBC’s Sewing Bee, but she stole the show and it has led to her becoming a successful businesswoman. Catherine Scott meets her.
Julie GromettJulie Gromett
Julie Gromett

Julie Gromett has had an amazing year.

The 52-year-old grandmother has gone from being a full-time housing officer to launching her own children’s tailored clothing range which is about to go global.

“Twelve months ago I was working full-time as a housing officer for the council, and now I have my own successful business and have never been busier,” says Julie from Castleford.

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Julie launched her business, Tweedy Gromett in October 2014 not long after she appeared on the second series of BBC 2’s The Great British Sewing Bee.

“I didn’t win,” says Julie. “But I seemed to make an impression. The waistcoat I wore on the first episode received lots of comments, as it was a little different to the standard waistcoat. I actually adapted the pattern from a tennis dress. I was getting Tweets from all over the world.

“After I left the show I made my five-month-old grandson a tweed waistcoat, and lined it with London guards as his dad was from London. My daughter put it on Facebook, and everyone was liking it and asking where she had got it from and she told them ‘My mum made it.’. It then occurred to me that maybe there was a market for this type of thing. I did some research and found there was little or no tweed for babies or toddlers – mainly because traditionally, tweed is quite a harsh fabric. But if you choose a light weight tweed and combine it with a soft cotton, it is fabulous.”

Although the Sewing Bee gave Julie the platform to launch her business, it is down to her sheer hard work, determination and bubbly personality that Tweedy Gromett has seen such a speedy rise in its fortunes which is now seeing Julie’s designs in demand as far afield as Italy and Dubai.

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“I still can’t believe it,” says Julie, who despite her success still works two days a week in the housing office.

“Six years ago I couldn’t even sew.”

The mum-of-three and grandmother took up sewing to make her daughter Gracie’s ballroom dancing costumes.

“The costumes were getting too expensive that I decided that I would learn to sew so that I could make them myself. I’m one of those people who thinks they can do anything,” says Julie. “They are such difficult fabrics to work with, but once you have learnt to work with difficult fabrics you can sew anything.”

Ironically as soon as her mum learnt how to make her dresses, Gracie, 16, decided to give up ballroom dancing.

“I have never made a ballroom dancing dress since.”

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It may be for this reason that she then moved into sewing with much more coarse fabrics such as tweed.

“I have always had an eclectic dress sense, matching the traditional with the modern and I really love country clothing such as brogues and braces, and beautifully tailored clothes, I think that is one of the things that got me noticed on the Sewing Bee.”

Julie says she has always loved all things country, despite growing up in the town.

She decided the enter the Great British Sewing Bee after watching the first series.

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“I thought ‘that looks easy, I can do that’ and so I decided to apply.”

It was quite a few months after she filled in the application form that she heard from the show.

“I had a phone interview and was then asked to send off three of my garments and if they thought they were good enough you’d be invited down for a further interview.”

Julie made the grade and was in the final 200 invited for an interview and screen test.

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“They then whittled it down to 40 and over four days they reconstructed the show and I was the first one they picked.”

Although the interview process was gruelling Julie loved taking part in the actual show.

“They are long days, but I am terrible, I love the camera.”

Although she didn’t win she has remained great friends with the person who did...

“We have done workshops together which I really enjoy.”

After the show and spotting a gap in the market, Julie set about starting her business.

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“I knew that I wanted to make waistcoats and flat caps for children in tweed, but that I wanted to line them with soft and funky fabrics. But I was a bit naive, I didn’t realise just how expensive tweed was.”

And so Julie set about visiting the textile mills close to her home and convinced some of the owners to give her off-cuts and end-of-line fabrics at a reasonable rate.

“I didn’t have any money. I have three girls aged between 27 and 16 . I have worked all my life and really it was just a hobby when I started out.”

Julie didn’t have the cash to open a shop and so she launched a website and travelled to country fairs across the country where she thought her unique and affordable children’s clothes would go down well.

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“I couldn’t believe how much in demand my clothes and flat caps were. People were asking me to make things for their children and grandchildren and now country fairs approached me and ask me to attend.”

Business has taken off so much that Julie now employs tailors to make her designs, leaving her to come up with new designs and to expand her growing business further.

“I am talking to people in Italy and Dubai who want to stock my designs, which is amazing.”

But despite her success, the ever the cautious Yorkshirewoman is taking nothing for granted,

“In November I did go down to two and half days a week in the housing office.”

Twitter@ypcscott