Boles offers alterations and custom designs

Retiring from nursing just before Memorial Day, Indian Valley native Leslie Huey Boles decided last fall she wanted to turn her attention back to an earlier career in sewing, introducing her next gig as the Savvy Seamstress. (See the Signal American’s business card ads on page 10).

 Built on skills she had learned starting at age 9 from her mother in their Indian Valley home, Boles told the Signal American that she had made a majority of her kids clothes for them, “even though they were boys.”

 Boles said marriage had taken her to other parts of the country, and 40 years went by before she returned home.

 “Years ago I had an alterations business, doing alterations in Duluth, Minn., for a bridal shop and a high-end clothing shop,” she said. “I started out working for a uniform shop in Duluth, doing their alterations, and that kind of branched out where I brought it to my home and did alterations for the bridal shop. And it’s nice to be able to work from home.

 “That was successful, but my husband was in the Coast Guard, and we moved,” she added.

 Going into nursing before returning “home” a few years ago, Boles said she hadn’t done much sewing in that time frame, but a year ago, a co-worker who was getting married had made several trips to Boise just for alterations on her wedding gown.

 “I thought ‘what a great idea,’” she said. “I could do this locally and save brides around this area time and expense in just the travel alone.

 “I consider myself an expert seamstress, and I’m happy to make custom dresses, as well,” Boles said. “I made a custom dress for a bride last November who got married in Council. My turn-around time for bridal alterations is in the neighborhood of three weeks.”

 But, she said it’s about the same time frame to make a custom-designed dress. She can manipulate commercial patterns, interchanging sleeve styles, bodices, skirts, all of the pieces that come together for a whole dress, and she can also design patterns.

 Boles’ artistic eye goes beyond her sewing skills. After completing the city’s permitting process to operate the business at home, she and her brother have converted her garage into an attractive and efficient sewing studio with fitting rooms.

 Winding down her nursing profession, in just the last few weeks Boles has picked up at least two young sewing students, as well.

 Boles said one of her students had asked for her own sewing machine, but her mother hadn’t ever learned how to do it and didn’t know where to start.

 “They are coming here from Boise for the lessons,” she said.