ya girl got a job!
Ten months after moving to England, and over a year since I left my last regular job, I am once again employed! I've been working in the alterations shop on base for about two months now, and have been really enjoying it. I applied for a job at the dry cleaners, but when the interview mentioned an opening in alterations, I said I have sewing experience and they hired me there instead! So far, I have learned more about sewing, become more confident using a sewing machine, and also learned a LOT about the Air Force uniforms and their regulations.
The alterations shop is contracted by an English company, so I get paid in Great British pounds. It's kinda cool getting paid in something other than US dollars! Especially since the GBP is notably stronger than the USD right now... I make the UK's minimum wage, which is actually different for different age brackets - over 23 is in the oldest/highest one. But, when converted to USD, it's actually more than I've ever made hourly at jobs I've had earning above minimum wage in Pennsylvania.
My role in the alterations shop involves sewing, obviously, and also customer service. When someone rings the bell at the front desk, I'm the designated employee that pauses what I'm sewing to help the customer. Customers are mostly airmen, but sometimes Space Force, Army, and JROTC come through, as well as the occasional fellow civilian that needs slacks hemmed or a backpack strap re-attached.
While it's fun to do something different, like hem a teen's trousers for prom or sew patches on a spouse's punk jacket, the autism in me appreciates the predictability and consistency of the uniforms with the standardized work we do to them.
Patches like name tapes, rank, and occupation badges always go in the same places, and my supervisor showed me the fast-but-accurate tricks to measuring those placements without getting out a protractor & using a bazillion pins.
Hems on the dress blues are measured to end at a certain point on the back of the dress shoes, and we have pairs of dress shoes at the alterations counter for people to step into so I can accurately mark where to hem them.
Hemming pants for dress blues, or really any dress pants, is one of my favorite alterations to do because it involves my favorite hand-stitch technique (invisible hem). My second-favorite alteration is tapering OCP pants (the everyday camo uniform), because undoing the stitching on the old seam is soooo satisfying. Both of those alterations involve using the overlocker/serger at various steps in the process, which is just thrilling to use as well. I was super nervous at first to undo seams and use the overlocker on people's uniforms, but I have gotten confident with it and now make alterations with reckless abando-- I mean, with precision and accuracy.
Overall, this job has been great for me and I'm hoping to stay at it for the rest of our time at Lakenheath. I like getting to interact with the airmen in this capacity, work with some lovely English seamstresses, earn my own money, and use & improve my sewing skills (shoutout to my mom and grandma for teaching me the basics when I was young, and big thanks also to Prof. Karen Glass at SHU for that costume tech course!). Plus, my husband appreciates getting free rank updates and alterations to his uniforms. I also enjoy being able to add another oddly-specific/niche-interest-skill-job to my resume!
Has a random skill ever gotten you a specific job? And/or have you ever worked in another country? Tell me about your working-abroad or oddly-specific job experience in a comment!
take care of yourself <3
~heather
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