A woman was able to realise her childhood dream when she opened her new shop. The mother of four, Isabel Lopes, arrived in the UK from Portugal in 2011. She grew up in Sao Tome & Principe and moved to Portugal aged 18.
Isabel told the ECHO: "I have been making clothes since growing up in Sao Tome & Principe. It’s been my dream to be a fashion designer or a nurse. I learned by myself and made my first dress when I was about 12.
"I did not have a (sewing) machine and my mum saw what I had made and was very impressed as it was hand sewn. She asked me why I didn't find someone to learn from." Aged 15 Isabel found a lady who made clothes from her home and after she finished school she would go and learn from her.
She spent nine months using an old fashioned Singer sewing machine while there and now has one herself that she refurbished. Isabel said: "She had very little equipment, not even a tape measure and would use strips of fabric to measure people. We would not have a number, but would have the size from the length of fabric.
" After leaving Portugal aged 18, to follow aspirations to be a nun or a nurse, she spent four years in a nunnery and whilst there, she made designs, which a senior nun saw and asked if she wanted to learn at a fashion school. They arranged for her, over a few months, to attend an intensive fashion course in Lisbon. After leaving the nunnery Isabel made clothes for herself and on attending a friend’s wedding she said: "When I arrived women were asking .
