Arts
Sketching and stitching from morn till night
Thushani: Doing what she loves. Pix by Nilan Maligaspe
The more complicated the design the more she loves it, says the mother of young seamstress Thushani Rodrigo whose hearing impairment hasn’t hindered her love for designing and sewing
garments
A good tailor is always hard to find. Making and altering clothes is a difficult business, which is why everyone seems to have a story or two of the bad experiences they have had in the past. Tailoring requires many skills, one of the most important being a good understanding of how one part of a garment can affect the look of the entire outfit.
This is 23-year-old Thushani Rodrigo’s area of expertise. She can sew anything – from a saree jacket to a dress with great skill and flair. In fact, she specialises in sewing for women who have difficulty finding clothes which fit them perfectly because they aren’t a certain shape or size which the existing market of readymade clothes caters to. If you give her a simple order, she will turn out the garment you asked for – but it’s the intricate designs and the specific ideas which some of her clients have in mind that she loves to make and thrives on.
“Give her a simple design and she’ll make it – but give her a complicated design that is almost impossible to make and then she’ll be very happy,” says her mother Ruwanthi. Thushani sketches her designs on paper and uses watercolours to illustrate what her finished garment would look like.
All this is even more praiseworthy considering Thushani has been hearing impaired from birth. As a child she struggled to communicate, only beginning to speak at the age of eight. Although continuous speech therapy and a cochlear implant have helped her immensely, communicating is still something she finds difficult. She began her schooling at the Chitra Lane School for Special Education and later went to Lindsay Girls School before finally settling down at Alethea International School. Thushani excelled in sports while in school – having taken up swimming, badminton, dancing and athletics. Ruwanthi feels that the flexible schedule which Alethea allowed Thushani to follow helped her explore her creative side and hone her skills.
Different designs: Some of the garments Thushani has sewn
Thushani has also benefited from the support she receives from her parents. Ruwanthi feels that for every expectation which she has had for Thushani, she has not only met her standard but also raised the bar even higher. “When she was small all I wanted was for her to communicate what she needed and then little by little, as she progressed – so did my expectations and she has raised the bar every time,” says Ruwanthi.
When Thushani began sewing at age 12, she would use a small room in her home in Himbutana and as she improved, her parents built her a sewing room and enrolled her in the Singer School of Dressmaking where she began her diploma at 15.
From then on, her career grew gradually. She first began making clothes for family and friends and then for clients who heard of her through word of mouth. She now sells her clothes under the label ‘Todos’ at the Good Market on Saturdays, which has helped her acquire a large client base. Although she offers readymade clothes, what is really incredible is the fact that Thushani accepts orders at the Good Market and attempts to have them ready by the next week. She even has a mobile fit-on room for her clients to try on their new clothes.
Thushani manages to meet the demand due to her commendable work ethic. A typical work day for Thushani would begin at seven in the morning and end at 11 in the night. She doesn’t believe in excuses – she feels that if she promises that a garment will be ready by a certain day, then it must be ready by that day. Thushani also has stringent standards – she believes that her garments must always be of the greatest quality possible. Her work ethic can be described with the words ‘nikang inna bae’ which is what she says to explain why she must work hard. Says Ruwanthi, ‘She believes that if she can do it as a person, then so can everyone else’.
Thushani dreams of opening up her own shop one day. She would like to train hearing impaired children like her to sew and make clothes. She feels that in the same way that she has learnt the many skills needed to run her own business – from managing accounts to advising her clients, she can also help others like herself acquire the same skills and in turn empower them. Helping people is something which she believes in and to that end, she even keeps a fraction of her earnings aside to help the less fortunate.
To contact Thushani please send a text to : o778195088