HELEN Tickle is not going anywhere until she can be assured her beloved Kaspers Embroidery will pass into the right hands.
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Even then, that may not be a guarantee.
“I think if someone comes in and offers me money, it still might be hard to leave,” Helen said.
“I’m going to think, ‘I don’t want to do this’,”
The Inverell native has decided to sell Kaspers to start a new journey in life after years of dedication to the business.
“I’m not really sure what I’d like to do, I’ve worked for so long,” she said.
“I’ve bought a caravan and we’d like to do a little bit of travelling, but go and visit my girlfriends, maybe do a few girly things, you know?
“Maybe help out with Legacy or help out with old ladies, probably a bit of community work.”
Helen purchased the business as a one-machine operation, dubbed ‘Kaspers’, from a local man not long after it opened.
She was a single mother with two grown children and decided to make a go and kept the name.
“I ran it from home in a third bedroom for quite a while,” she said.
“Then I built a room on the house, and then I bought another machine, and then we decided it got too busy and then we looked for a premises to come here.”
Helen now runs six machines and a busy workplace for local and national orders.
If you have attended a district school, worked in a business, played on a sporting team or wanted something monogrammed, chances are, it has come from Kaspers.
Helen’s relationship with a sewing machine began making clothing for her family about 30 years ago.
“I just taught myself, because I didn’t like to look like everybody else,” she grinned.
“I went to TAFE and learned a bit, but it just came naturally.”
The embroidery and screenprinting business is different to dressmaking, but Helen said they shared qualities of meeting a person’s preferences of colour and style.
The machines are usually humming all day, but there are certain times of the year that cause the place to vibrate with activity.
“Change of season is the rush,” Helen said.
“After Christmas, you’ve got school clothing, there’s the rush. Change of sporting season, there’s the change there as well.”
Her love affair with her business is still vital, and Helen said she would like to know Kaspers will continue to flourish.
“I enjoy the people and I enjoy helping people and making them happy, making them feel they love to come in here,” she said.