CATASAQUA, Pa. – For 77-year-old Marie Coleman, every day is a labor of love.<\/p>\n
“At 12, I started sewing little things,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n
By the time she was 18, Coleman had to choose a career.<\/p>\n
“They said I would be good as a PPL’s lineman… or seamstress,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n
A fear of heights made the choice easy.<\/p>\n
Working on her latest commission at her home business Threads in Catasaqua, Coleman told us stories of being a seamstress at Hess’s Department store.<\/p>\n
“We had a lot of fun at Hess’s, each day was a new adventure,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n
An adventure that involved tailoring everything from pants to couture, which wasn’t always easy.<\/p>\n
Coleman remembers one task in particular when she was asked to alter French gowns without cutting them.<\/p>\n
“I said how am I going to do this? He said very carefully,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n
Coleman figured it out, and before long, her skills attracted a loyal fan base.<\/p>\n
“This one gentleman his wife insisted he drive forty miles in snowstorm.<\/p>\n
Coleman says the shop was always a flurry of activity.<\/p>\n
“We met a lot of celebrities at the store,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n
That included Hollywood designer Bob Mackie.<\/p>\n
“He was very nice to all of us who were there that particular day,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n
Coleman says she often thinks back on her 26 years at Hess’s.<\/p>\n
She remembers spending each birthday at the Patio.<\/p>\n
“Their apple pie was delicious,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n
She also remembers the people she fitted, but most of all the people she worked with.<\/p>\n
“There was a certain magic there,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n
For Coleman, Hess’s was the start of a nearly 60 year storied career that she continues to share today with each new client she meets and every piece she sews.<\/p>\n
“Just love what you do and go for it,” said Coleman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CATASAQUA, Pa. – For 77-year-old Marie Coleman, every day is a labor of love. “At 12, I started…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232],"class_list":["post-187575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}