Seamstresses busy with uniforms as school year approaches

It was minutes after midday when THE STAR team visited West Street in downtown Kingston yesterday.

As expected, the vending area was buzzing with activity – music blasted from speaker boxes inside a store while vendors paraded their goods on the sidewalk hoping to catch a sale. The highlight of the street though was the colourful display of school uniforms on sale on the sidewalk. With the new school year just days away from its official opening, the vendors and seamstresses have their hands full. Among them is Nickesha Tait.

The 35-year-old said that for the past several years, her sewing shop has been located outdoors on the sidewalk of West Street. As she stitched a piece of fabric together, she stated that she has not rested well since the beginning of August.

“This time of year really tiring and busy because you have people who will just come and expect you to create a miracle. Some of the customers want you to deal with them same time and don’t like to wait. It is kind of stressing but I am growing used to them. The last Thursday and last Saturday of each August is when we hardly get any sleep. From August chip in, we know what time it is,” she said.

Tait said she has been a seamstress since she was a student at St Andrew Technical High School but has been making school uniforms for the past six years.

“Good thing is that I have help as I have persons who help me trim and pick out the thread. A typical uniform take like two hours to make. Mi reach at West Street about 10 a.m, and leave about 7 p.m. The work don’t stop when I get home because I work until about 3 a.m. at times. A nuff time mi buck down the machine because sleep a mash mi up,” she said.

As she watched Tait placing final touches to a uniform, a policewoman, who had already collected her son’s khakis, said West Street has been her shopping hub for years.

“Is years mi a buy uniform down here. Mi buy for my other children here as well. Mi nuh buy from anyone else because I do police work in the area that they live, so I know of their talent. My little son is at primary school now and whenever he gets to high school, I will still be buying his uniform here,” the cop said.

Among the uniform vendors is retired Sunshine Girl Sabrina Spence, who says that for the past 18 years, she has been using her summers to sell along West Street.

“I have a regular job now but even when I was on the national team, whenever I got the chance, I would come out and sell for my mother. My mommy stays home and sews. The demand for uniforms now is very high and I really don’t know why people always wait until the last minute to shop. I love my customers though, and we have lot of repeat customers. A lot of times when I get here, they are waiting already, and while we are packing up, some are just coming,” she said.

Spence noted that the prices for uniforms depends on the sizes.

“But sometimes the customers will complain about the prices as they don’t always take into consideration the time, material, and we have to pay for storage and pay the cartmen to bring it to and from the storage,” Spence added.