We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Blanca Sáez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Blanca, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

How can a small fabric store-workshop help to improve the lives of some people?

When I started in 2012, I never imagined how far I could go and the community of people that has been created around La Retalera, my small shop-workshop.

La Retalera was born as a store selling imported fabrics from Japan and the United States, offering an original and quality product when in Spain we were not used to working with this type of fabrics.

In a few years, I introduced sewing classes and that’s where it all began, especially after the pandemic.

La Retalera has become a kind of “therapeutic center” for many people, mostly women, who come looking for occupational therapy recommended by their psychiatrist, psychologist or oncologist.

Sewing represents a kind of mental yoga, a playful activity that requires full attention and does not allow the mind to get entangled in dark and harmful thoughts because the work goes wrong.

Gradually, I realized that the number of people coming to us with pathologies was increasing.

Cancer, depression and anxiety are the main pathologies we see in class and it is exciting to see how they evolve towards a brighter and more communicative state of mind.

In La Retalera we are not trained to treat this type of pathologies: we are seamstresses and we sell fabrics but we know it works, we see it every day.

Getting to this point has been something totally casual and unintentional but I think that when you offer a space where these wonderful women feel safe, comfortable, that they perceive that they can talk, unburden themselves, share their sorrows and joys from the affection, attentive listening and empathy you do, in a way, therapy with them.

We accompany them, we listen to them, we laugh and cry together: we make community. Feeling accompanied is very important and there are many people who feel lonely and find human warmth in our space.

Do you know what we do when a student starts her classes and finishes her first garment? We applaud her, very, very loudly. They are usually very surprised and shy, but they deserve that applause. They have made a great effort signing up for classes and starting something new, surely in their day to day life no one tells them how well they are doing: they deserve it.

At La Retalera we don’t try to cure anyone, but we do try to make them feel a little better when they walk out the door and look forward to coming back. That is a huge reward.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Blanca Sáez, I am 55 years old and I have a 15 year old daughter. We live in a small town 40 kms from Madrid (Spain) but my workshop is in the center of the city.

Since I was a little girl I have liked to play with fabrics, wool, sewing, fashion… My mother knitted (and still knits) very well, my grandmother sewed and I tried to learn. When I finished high school I studied fashion design but I dropped out and although my professional life has been away from fabrics for many years, I have always liked that universe.

I have worked as a sales clerk, secretary and other things but when I became a mother and my daughter turned 3 years old I decided I wanted to have my own project, something that I fell in love with, a business that I would create from scratch. And La Retalera was born in 2012.

I started as a small online store, very very small. I bought fat quarters in the USA and sold them in Spain. Here they were very rare and original fabrics, great quality. I participated in craft fairs to make myself known and worked on my social networks. All at the same time I kept my job in a news agency and raised my daughter. Those were hard years, I worked a lot but I enjoyed it.

Around 2016 I started offering sewing classes, after being laid off from my job, and I dedicated myself full time to my small business. And so La Retalera grew, little by little.
I have been totally self-taught. I had to learn everything about this business: I learned to sew (well), to take product photos, to manage an online store, to manage social networks, to teach classes, to keep accounts, accounting, to participate in fairs, to work online, to deal with customers you don’t see… to sell my product in the distance, making the customer learn to trust me. To create my brand.

I have had no financial support from anyone, no grants, no credits or anything. I did it all by myself, little by little. I didn’t have equipment or employees because I couldn’t afford it.

My entire business, in the early years, fit in a big suitcase.

But I never gave up, I firmly believed that I could make a living from La Retalera, so I made up for my lack of support by studying on my own, taking free courses, reading a lot and asking questions. Therefore, one of the fundamental pillars of my business is to share with others what I know, so when a small brand comes to me I try to help in any way I can. I’ve been helped and I try to return the favor.

Dealing with the public is sometimes very difficult and you have to know how to keep your opinions to yourself and deal with situations that, in your personal life you probably wouldn’t put up with. But in a job like mine, where you talk to a lot of people, it’s a gift to know how to keep your composure. That’s why, when I collaborate with someone who teaches in my workshop, I choose the profile very well because it’s the image of my brand.
In my workshops you can learn sewing, embroidery, crochet and other textile arts. You can take continuous or monographic classes and my approach is that the customer leaves satisfied and wanting more.
To achieve this I offer a personalized treatment, adapting to the needs of each student or client and offering what best suits their needs and tastes.

My collaborators know that they must create a good working environment, be proactive and efficient with kindness. An atelier like mine creates long relationships with clients because we base our work on the quality of the product, the exquisite attention to detail and the quality of the service we provide.

One of the things that make me feel most proud is the closeness that I try to make my clients feel through direct contact or on social networks like Instagram, in direct contact, for example.

Let them know me, let us talk and let them know that I am here to help them. That makes me happy

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Reputation in a business is everything and is extremely fragile in a world in which anyone can express an opinion about you without knowing you or without it being true.

Building a good reputation is an arduous task that begins a new every day.

My bases in La Retalera are:

1.- Honesty: when I talk about a product, I know it, I have tried it and I know the virtues it has. If that product is not for you, I will tell you even if I don’t lose that sale. I want you to trust me and to do so I must be sincere.

2.- Quality: I choose my products carefully and I am responsible for them

3.- Transparency: I like to speak clearly and make sure there are no doubts.

4.- Attention: I take care of my clients, I respond quickly and try to solve their problems and questions quickly.

5.- Finally, perseverance. Every day I work, I public, I respond to people, I am there, close.

Hard work, top quality and trust

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I have been on social networks for many years and as I have mentioned before, I am completely self-taught, with the good and the bad.

I started with a blog where I talked about easy sewing, simple projects to start sewing. I joined several blogging communities to make myself known.

I also signed up for various forums and left ads and comments to attract visitors.

Later, Facebook was the platform that made me grow the fastest. I used a trick that seemed like a good idea to me at the time and that was to visit pages similar to mine and see the comments, I wrote them a message introducing myself and offering my products and classes.

Every day I sent 100 messages, which was the maximum allowed.

Today it would be bad practice but years ago…

I created events such as flea markets, private sales and sent all the invitations that the system left me, every day.

Later, Instagram has been my main social network. I do live shows to connect with the public, I publish a lot, I upload a lot of content to stay in touch and show my offer.

If I had to advise someone who has to do it themselves, like me, it is to be constant, very constant and to be clear in what you want to convey.

Take care of the writing (I apologize because this interview is translated from Spanish), the spelling and that the content is interesting and valuable.

It’s no use publishing today and disappearing for 15 days. Creates distrust in the business. You have to be constantly there trying to make the audience fall in love with you.

And know the client, how? Ask them, talk to them, ask for comments to find out what they want, what they think…

Consistency, quality, that’s the trick.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.laretalera.com
• Instagram: @la_retalera
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retalera