IzzoSew Yorkshire sewing courses and retreats teach skills for making clothes from dresses to anoraks

An early childhood spent in a small village on the foothills of the Himalayas meant Izzy Butcher grew up knowing that hand-making beautiful clothes was perfectly achievable.

She spent several years living with her family in Nepal, thanks to her father’s work as a surgeon. “All my clothes were made by local tailors, and I just thought this was really normal,” she says.

Izzy was seven when the family moved back to Manchester. The clothes-making bug remained, but she did not pursue it, and after school she went to Sheffield University, choosing what she thought might be a more sensible option than Fashion, a degree in Landscape Architecture and Town Planning.

She has lived in Sheffield ever since and her choice turned out well. She ploughed a successful career in the field for 15 years, designing outdoor spaces at schools, prisons, hospitals and public places, reaching senior management level and handling multi-million pound projects. But she did not find the fulfilment she craved.

“It felt like there was no creativity in it anymore, and it was more about managing people and projects and finances and Excel spreadsheets, which was fine but it didn’t really give me joy,” she says.

She had always found joy in making her own clothes, so she sat down with her husband, Tim, and said: “I would love, love, to have a sewing business, where I teach people how to sew and I design patterns.”

And that is what she now does. “It’s much more creative, much more about community and face-to-face interaction, rather than dealing with builders and contractors,” she says.

She prepared for her new leap by going to Nottingham Trent University to learn how to pattern draft. Three years ago, she set up IzzoSew Studio, still working part-time as a landscape architect, then finally quit her job a year ago to focus full-time on her own business.

There are a few strands to IzzoSew. First, there are size-inclusive patterns for home sewers to buy, two dresses at the moment, with a jumpsuit on the way. “But the big thing is the YouTube videos that I film and create - that takes up about half of my time,” she says. The pictures here are by Kirsten Johnson Photography

Izzy works freelance for an international fabric company called Minerva, based in Darwen, making educational content for their social media and YouTube channel. She says: “I run a very technical series all about how to make and draw your own patterns based on your own exact body measurements. People love it.”

Then there are the highly popular IzzoSew Studio sewing courses, which have many returning attendees. There are four two-day retreats a year at Kenwood Hall Hotel & Spa at Nether Edge in Sheffield, each for up to 12 people, costing £265, plus an overnight stay.

Izzy says: “Most people stay overnight because they get dinner, bed and breakfast. I book them a table together, and all 12 of them will sit down and have a good gossip and a good catch-up. They love that, and I love the fact that it is building up a community, so it’s not all just virtual, because there is a massive sewing community on Instagram, so they all know each other’s handles but don’t actually know each other face-to-face.”

Izzy and fellow course leader Sophie Parker, who studied Fashion Design and is a qualified teacher, are there to support the sewers all weekend. “To ensure they get a good experience and get what they want out of the retreat, I do a 20-minute Zoom Call about two weeks before, and that’s really helpful,” Izzy says.

Sustainable fashion in Leeds

Izzy also holds Social Sewing Days every month at the Jubilee Centre in Sheffield, where around 30 participants enjoy a day of sewing and afternoon tea (it costs £34). “I’m not teaching them but facilitating,” she says. “We end the day with Pilates, so it’s a nice relaxed stretch and breathe, beginner-friendly, to wind down and get their shoulders moving again after being hunched over all day.

There are also sewing masterclasses in Sheffield. These are high level, tackling tricky sewing, for example, jeans, although she does also try to fit in some beginner classes.

All course participants, so far, have been women, despite inclusive advertising.

Izzy is looking to expand courses to Manchester, perhaps Leeds and York, maybe have retreats in the Lake District and build up corporate sewing days in workplaces. Tim works one day a week in the business, and as a project manager architect for four days a week. They have two children, Zach, 11, and Albie, 8. Zach can already sew his own clothes. “Every holiday, I’ll be like, what shall we sew together?” Izzy says.

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There is the sustainability aspect, too, slowing down the making process, sourcing fabrics, knowing where they came from and all about the dyeing process.Sewing is a pastime that requires presence of mind, she finds. “When I first started, it was all about mindfulness,” she says. “You are really focused on a physical task with a physical outcome. I had a pretty stressful, intense job, and it took up a lot of headspace but when you’re sewing you are completely focused on this beautiful one task.

See IzzoSewStudio.com

“A lot of what we do day-to-day is on computers, and you can’t really see the outcome, whereas with sewing you have the immediate outcome, you physically wear it once you’re done.”

“A lot of our expression of who we are as people comes through in what we wear, so to be able to give people that freedom, myself included, to say, this is what I want to look like, this is what represents me, is amazing.”