Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Carroll.
Hi Rachel, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
As a young girl I remember going down into the basement of our family home, putting on my roller skates at the bottom of the wrought iron spiral staircase and gliding across the black and white checkered tile floor. In the background would be the humming of a sewing machine and my mother fussing with her latest project. Depending on what it was, she would make me stop what I was doing and roll over to help her. I found that I was routinely holding up dress layers or handing my mother buttons and thread. Between the ages of five to eight I was beginning to understand patterns and learning the right cutting techniques. What I know now is that she was slowly tricking me into learning how to become a seamstress. This is where my unofficial tailoring training began. After all that, I knew that one day I would be working in fashion.
In my high school days, I dreamt I would become a big-name designer in some exotic place like New York City. As the years passed, I improved my sewing and design skills while creating a few pieces of my own with the patience and helping hands of my mother. My next step was to attend fashion design school.
In the years that I attended fashion design school, I quickly realized that the fashion industry was over saturated with brands pumping out product faster than I could think. I was beginning to develop a distaste for the industry as I struggled to find my place within it. I felt like the industry was more focused on marketing and manufacturing rather than the hands-on creative aspects of designing that I prefer. So, I left school and ventured into the work force. My plan was to save enough money to eventually make it over to Saville Row to study Bespoke Tailoring. However, the years passed, and financials always prevented that from happening. I ended up experiencing a variety of alterations and tailoring shops at big name companies that helped me to refine my skills and gain the confidence I needed to more fully realize my own talent.
With renewed passion, an idea bloomed within me. I decided to do something more specialized than just calling up a manufacturer and having them do all the work for me. We live in a world full of waste and I want as little to do with that as possible. Instead of contributing to the wasteful practices of the fashion industry, I decided to create in a minimalistic way by opening my own business.
My new vision led me to the idea of “The Editing Room.” This idea consists of me taking clothing and editing them into something new for my clients. An old garment that just isn’t quite right anymore, a beautiful wedding gown that has the wrong fit in certain areas, your favorite jacket that now has a hole in the sleeve are all examples of garments that can be altered or completely redesign to match who you have become or fit your new needs.
As I worked through owning my own business, I have realized that I am limited in my abilities to create custom garments as I do not currently possess the skills necessary to do so. I began working with Rory Duffy of The Hand Craft Tailor Academy in Ireland to do some online courses and completed the Pattern Drafting for Bespoke Menswear in 2017. However, I realized that I am a very hands-on learner and decided that I need an in-house course to gain the most knowledge. I had finally saved enough money to head over to Ireland in 2020 when the pandemic shut the world down. I once again found myself stalled in my career. With the frustration of all this I began searching within the United States for anything related to Bespoke tailoring when I came across The American Bespoke Tailoring Academy. I applied for the in-house Complete Bespoke Program and received my certificate in 2023.
I then moved to Jacksonville and re-opened The Editing Room in January of this year and I am so excited to build and grow as I become established here.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a rocky road for sure, but the more obstacles I over come the more accomplished I feel. The journey to me owning my own business has taken almost 33 years, from that little girl beginning to learn how to sew, to becoming not only a professional seamstress but a business woman.
Some of the biggest struggles I had to overcome along the way were the confidence in my abilities as a seamstress and I had no idea how to run a business. At times I had no idea how much I really knew because it was just built into me by my mother all those years ago.
I took my first seamstress job at a bridal store in 2009 and I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. They ended up firing me for being late one day, but I’m sure it was really because I was too slow and I asked too many questions. I then went on to work for a costume manufacturing company in Chicago while I was attending fashion design school in 2012. I gained more confidence in this position mostly because the manager was very kind and willing to show me her tricks. She saw me struggling one day and came over sat down and said let me show you something, your going too slow. In about 2 minutes she taught me how to speed sew and from there my confidence soared, my productivity went up and so did my paycheck.
I always thought there was some secret I was missing by not finishing the path of higher education in a major fashion school. But as I began to work in the industry as a seamstress I realized I had a wealth of knowledge and knew more than other seamstresses who had more years of experience in the industry. I found myself teaching them little tricks to make the process easier, faster or less complicated. This is where I really started to recognize my own abilities as a seamstress. After that, I decided to try a different roll in a tailoring shop, so I took a job as a temporary administrative assistant. During this short few months I was determined to learn as much as I could, as fast as I could, so that I would get as much insight into running a shop of my own someday. I ended up being the fastest assistant they had ever had and they didn’t want to let me go when the job was over.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The Editing Room is set up in a private suite in the Baywood Center right off I-95 and Baymeadows rd. I chose this space to give my clients a personalized experience for their individual needs. Every client must have a scheduled appointment in an effort to give them uninterrupted time with me.
The majority of work I do is Bridal wear. I work off referrals with a few Bridal shops here in the Jacksonville area.
One Bridal in San Marco was the first store to start referring to me when I opened. They have been such a pleasure to work with and I am so grateful to them for their trust in me.
Vow’d in St. Johns Town Center is also another store that has been pivotal in my ability grow quickly. I met the manager at the Premier Bridal expo in January. She was so excited to start sending her brides to me! I just received a call from a bride today that said the Vow’d bridal shop she got her gown from in Denver referred her to me from their website and she will be coming down to work with me in August!
As well as bridal, I work with a few other retail brands in the area like Maison Hipp Custom Clothier in Jax Beach or
every other Tuesday you can catch me at J. Mclaughlin in Avondale from 1-2pm doing fittings for their clients.
I also will travel to clients homes for things like wardrobe overhauls, curtain hemming and really anything someone needs sewn.
Some other services I offer are consulting and training for retail stores. Stores can hire me to come in and train their sales team on fitting and marking garments. Their sales team can also Facetime me with questions while they are working with a client so they have real time answers for their clients.
Pickup and drop off services for retail stores. This services is for stores that do their own fitting and have to send garments out to be sewn. I consider this the modern substitute for an in-house Tailor, since there’s not enough of us to go around anymore.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I am a habitual student so continuing education in Tailoring is always something I look for.
Rory Duffy is a Saville Row trained Bespoke Tailor in Ireland and the owner of www.handcrafttailor.com. He has a Vimeo series on the making of Bespoke garments that i intend to work through in the slow seasons as a refresher,
The Gaia app for when things get stressful, a guided meditation helps keep me calm
Podcasts about money, like Financial Feminist Or youtube videos about building and growing a business are things I listen to while I’m sewing in my studio.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bytheeditingroom/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-carroll-89114897/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theeditingroomsewing
