New family business ‘tailor-made’ for Uxbridge
Lisha Van Nieuwenhove
Have you set your warmest winter coat aside, ready for the garbage bin, because the zipper broke, you certainly can’t fix it, and you don’t know anyone who can? A new Uxbridge business can help you keep your coat, and the owners have come from Afghanistan to offer that help.
Rouhina Sadaqat and her mother, Majabin, opened Uxbridge Tailoring two weeks ago, on March 1. Tailoring is a family business - Sadaqat has an uncle, an aunt, and siblings who operate tailoring shops around Ontario. If one travels to Orangeville, one finds Orangeville Tailoring. Owen Sound - Owen Sound Tailoring. Tillsonburg - you know who to look for. Each one is owned by a member of Sadaqat’s family, which hails from Afghanistan. They have all moved here at various times over the past several years and set up their sewing machines in communities that seemed to need a tailoring service. When asked how Sadaqat chose Uxbridge, she explains that a quick Google search revealed that there appeared to be few tailoring or alteration services in Uxbridge (many home tailors and seamstresses offer tailoring services, but these may not have been found using a search engine).
Rouhina Sadaqat, right, and her mother, Majabin, recently opened Uxbridge Tailoring on Brock St. W., continuing a family tradition of sewing and alterations. Photo by Lisha Van Nieuwenhove
“It was a choice between Uxbridge and Bradford,” says Sadaqat, “and we came to Uxbridge and liked it, so we chose Uxbridge.”
Sadaqat explains that she, along with her parents and her younger brother, left Afghanistan in 2019, for what she says were “security reasons.” “We were not safe,” she says. The four moved to Tajikistan, where Sadaqat found employment at a clothing company sewing clothes. After three years in Tajikistan, the four, along with Sadaqat’s sister and brother-in-law, moved to Canada and settled in Orangeville, eventually setting up the family trade.
“People in Canada are so kind,” exclaims Sadaqat. “They are honest and friendly, I really love it.”
Moving to Canada meant Sadaqat left her fiancé from Afghanistan behind. The two recently reunited in Iran, and married on Feb. 13. He remained in Iran, and Sadaqat
returned to Canada because she and her mother were scheduled to open their 24 Brock St. W. shop on March 1.
The Sadaqats currently commute to Uxbridge from just outside of Barrie, and are looking for a place to live in or around Uxbridge.
Sadaqat and her mother can accommodate most tailoring and alteration requests on site, as they offer everything from pant hemming to zipper replacement to wedding dress and formal dress alterations to drapery hemming.
Sadaqat notes that they do not do custom work.
“We don’t do custom work, but we can customize anything,” she explains.
The quiet, uncluttered shop is set up with two sewing machines, a serger and a blind stitching machine at the ready. The only wall decorations are colourful spools of thread and various sizes of zippers.
“If you have a piece of clothing that needs repair, don’t throw it away,” says Sadaqat. “Bring it to us and we can bring it back to life. We’re good for the environment!”
Uxbridge Tailoring, 24 Brock St. W., 905-852-9888.