The silver ankle-length dress on the form was sewn to replicate one a client always got compliments on. The ornate salwar kameez on the rack was widened for another woman who loved the traditional suit from India. And, a houndstooth jacket by the door had its shoulders lifted and silhouette taken in for a man who lost 100 pounds.
“It’s a beautiful jacket. Very well-made, very expensive,” said Lilia Chtcherbakova, at her tiny tailoring shop The Needle in the Haystack on Hillside Avenue across from the mall.
The master seamstress said she revels in a challenge and the chance to reinvent a garment. She could also say the same about her own life.
“The job of a tailor is to build relationships. People have to see the work and know you to come back. I find myself here doing that again,” said Chtcherbakova.
The 62-year-old moved to Victoria from Ontario last year, shipping her industrial sewing machines and driving across Canada with her dog to be closer to her daughter and grandchild.
She opened her small shop in December 2014.
“I’m happy to do everything. The only thing I don’t like is monotony,” said Chtcherbakova, who offers everything from a $10 hem and custom grad dresses to sailboat furnishings and uniform alterations.
“It comes from experience,” she said.
Chtcherbakova’s first love has always been sewing. She was taught by her mother from a very young age while growing up in Riga, Latvia. In high school, she designed and made her own clothes. A summer ensemble in 1970 won her a medal from Moscow and sent her garments to be displayed in the Great Exhibition for a year.
She got a job as a designer and technologist in a made-to-measure company but the pay wasn’t enough to get by.
“So my relatives suggested I become a policewoman,” said Chtcherbakova. She enjoyed the gig for more than 13 years, working mostly as a guard in a research institute. The 24-hour shifts followed by three days off allowed her to run a sewing business on the side.
When Latvia moved toward full independence from Russia in the late 1980s, Chtcherbakova was sent to the frontlines of the demonstrations. As an ethnic Russian and single mother, this worried her.
“I tried to resign but you can’t just quit,” she said. She took her appeals to several commanders and eventually a minister before she was given the OK to go.
In 1991, she decided to immigrate to Canada — one of the few countries accepting Russian Latvians. Her sister had moved to Ottawa the year before.
“I really didn’t know anything about Canada,” she said. “I was 39 years old and didn’t speak any English, so I had to go to school.”
It wasn’t long before Chtcherbakova was sewing again. She worked for a children’s clothing company, managed a Stitch It store and eventually opened her own shop.
“I was lucky many customers followed me,” she said. She has experience altering and mending uniforms for police officers, lawyers and members of the military.
She later moved to Cornwall, Ont., and opened another shop, catering to an interesting cross-section of old clientele from Ottawa, new clientele from nearby Montreal and the boating community.
“It was very busy. I enjoyed it,” she said.
Now she is starting all over again in Victoria, a little nervous but excited to see what new challenges walk through her tailor shop door.
