NORTH of Victoria Street, Sydney Road becomes “Wedding City”. A glittering strip of shops services the creation of that one special day. You’ll find everything you could possibly need there: gowns, suits, cakes, jewellery, hairstyles, invitations and bonbonniere. A key link in this chain is an alteration service that ensures the clothes fit just right on the day.

Stitch House is one of the many new shops that have opened in Sydney Road. As well as providing a clothes alteration service, this workshop is now also offering sewing classes.

Animating this is the vivacious presence of Jenny (Phuong) Tran for whom no job is too small or big. I was curious to find out where this spirit came from, so I sat down with Jenny after she closed the shop on a late Saturday afternoon.

How did she come to Australia? Her voice was cheerful, but the story was traumatic. She left Vietnam by boat in 1987. The memories of that journey are still vivid. She remembers when the engine failed and they ran out of food and water. They were just drifting on the water for ten days. She feared for her life when they encountered pirates off the Thai coast.

Eventually, they found their way to an island that belonged to Malaysia. “We couldn’t walk. After 13 days, all the muscles are frozen. My sister had to carry me on to the sand.” They were rescued in the morning and taken to a refugee camp.

After two years, they were sponsored by a cousin in Australia and Jenny arrived in Melbourne. But it was June, and she wasn’t used to a “European” city. All the leaves had fallen from the trees. “I was so scared back then.”

Jenny found a job as a machinist in a Springvale factory and then she started a family. But work dried up when textile manufacturing went offshore. So she established her own business making alterations, eventually moving to North Carlton and then Sydney Road Brunswick.

Without formal training, Jenny had to teach herself. “I had to learn on the job, often working backwards.” To gain the know-how to make a suit, she went to Savers to buy a second-hand suit and pick it apart. She learnt by experience how a suit is constructed.

“It was very stressful. I sometimes worked 38 hours straight.” A large increase in rent after lockdown forced her to move to her current shop on the opposite side of Sydney Road.

Now she wants to pass on her knowledge. “I don’t have any certificates, but I have experience.” She has opened a sewing school that operates on Sundays and Mondays. Jenny wants to work with textile students to provide skills that are missing from their formal education.

Jenny still has strong ties to Vietnam. Much of what she earns goes to her mother, who is back in Vietnam and needs to buy expensive drugs to treat her cancer.

For Jenny, the key to success is: “Be patient and be happy with what you have.”

Stitch House is a powerful reminder of how we should be grateful to refugees. They not only provide services that we need, but they also teach us a resilience that is likely to be ever more useful in the future.

Like Stitch House.

This article was originally published on‘Culture Makers’, a newsletter written by Kevin Murray.

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