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Betty Springer
Betty Springer was born and grew up in Barbados and came to the UK as a student in the 1950s. She has been a student with Silai for Skills for many years. Above is a photo of a jacket Betty made at Silai for Skills.
"I think they were doing summer courses and some organisation sent me a letter and that's when I found out about Silai. I did Fashion Design, I think that was a 6 weeks course and henna painting.
I was sewing from a very early age, back in the West Indies, we do a lot of sewing, at least we did then. You just learn from your parents and your grandparents and the other adults around you, you learnt from them as well. But everybody make their clothes and sew their own clothes when I was growing up. Instead of depending on the mass making in the shops. We did it in school as well, so it was something that come natural to a lot of us. So, coming here I learnt to do it the professional way instead of my way."
