Virginia Bautista threads her way through 12 hour days.
BY EMILY EVANS
NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – In a quaint corner toward the back of the consignment store, there’s a fashion mannequin wearing the latest work-in-progress blouse. An electric sewing machine ticks away and spools of color-coordinated thread line the walls.
Virginia Bautista hunches over the sewing machine, with hands weary of needle pricks, working away at a black, short-sleeve peplum top for the wife of a St. Petersburg minister.
The 70-year-old seamstress has become a fixture in the consignment shop and thrift store at 913 22nd St. S, one of four buildings that Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy are restoring on the street known as “the Deuces.”
“I originally came to the Deuces Live (Sunday) Market looking for a table to sell my crafts, which is another hobby I have,” she said. “But I ended up speaking to Mr. Elihu Brayboy, who told me there was a need for a seamstress. And here I am.”
The consignment shop is in a building that also has an ice cream shop and an art gallery.
The building has housed a variety of businesses since Clarence Moure, a hired African- American carpenter, and his contractor, Peter Primus Perkins, built it more than 50 years ago, said journalist and historian Jon Wilson.
Bautista moved to St. Petersburg from San Antonio, where she found herself living the dream. She was a shop owner and a vocational coordinator, teaching immigrant children ages 12 to 17 the life skills to make it in the U.S. – speaking fluent English, networking and finding a job.
“I had my own shop, called Virginia’s Fabrics to Fashions,” Bautista said. “I would take bigger-sized clothing and make it smaller, into something that the customer could wear and love.”
After her daughter fell ill, Bautista moved to St. Petersburg to help take care of her daughter and five grandchildren. But she also wanted to turn her love for crafting and sewing into a job.
From men and women’s clothes to custom-made wedding gowns, Bautista said, she is always busy. She works from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Time is not an issue for her. The black peplum top she is working on will take her two to three hours. A custom made-to- fit wedding gown will take two to three weeks.
With so many customers buying their clothing from brand-name retail stores, she said, the economy for hand-made clothing is shrinking.
“At my shop in San Antonio, I would charge up to $60 for a blouse,” Bautista said. “Here at this shop, I would charge maybe $30. There isn’t a demand for hand-made clothing.”