Kevin N. Hume — staff reporter
LAKEPORT ? Patsy Manwill took her first 4-H sewing class when she was about 10 years old. Little did she know that the skill would support her years later.
Manwill, 70, grew up in Lakeport. At age 39, her husband of 20 years, Manuel Moreno, left her and their blended family of six children.
Manwill said it was around Christmas time and she had little money to buy gifts. She began sewing gifts for friends and family.
“There was a box sitting around full of material, and so I started making Christmas presents,” she said.
Manwill made 50 aprons out of the mixed materials in the box and gave away 23 of them to friends and family. She said a friend knew someone who would be interested in purchasing some of the aprons.
Manwill said the man sold aprons in his Healdsburg market. He purchased the remaining 27 aprons and ordered an additional nine aprons for his store.
“The next week, he called me and said, ?Can you make some more?””
She”s been making them ever since.
Manwill created a business, PJ”s Creations, and started going around to craft fairs, farmers” markets and other places selling them.
She makes them out of all kinds of patterned materials, from sports team logos to prints of animals riding motorcycles.
Not one to waste material, she makes Christmas stockings, half aprons and bibs for babies and adults from the leftover material used for the aprons.
She said one year she made a large amount of bibs with a lobster theme on them before heading to a crab feed in Fort Bragg.
“I must have sold about 300 of them,” she said.
Manwill said she worked many jobs in her life, including numerous farm jobs picking produce as well as 23 years at the Finley Post Office. But PJ”s Creations became successful enough to allow her to buy a car and take vacations to Idaho and Hawaii.
Recently, Manwill said she encountered health problems and business has slowed down a bit. But she isn”t stopping.
“I”m up (sewing) way before the birds in the morning,” she said. “I love it.”
Anyone interested in purchasing PJ”s Creations aprons can contact Manwill at 263-9188.
