"After 30 years in the RAF I started a soft furnishings business with a interiors and gift shop in Broseley"
While serving in the RAF, Mia Harrington used her sewing skills to make cushions and curtains to inject some personality into her military housing.
When she left the air force, after 30 years, the former air traffic controller and air safety manager decided to embark on a new career and set up her own handmade soft furnishings business.
"I knew when I left the air force I wanted to do something creative rather than corporate,” explains Mia, who trained at RAF Shawbury, near Shrewsbury. "I have made soft furnishings since I left home at 19 – I’m now in my 50s. I have always set out to personalise my own home since the early days of being in military housing,” she says.
Her business, Handley’s Stitch Interiors, began in 2021 with Mia intially working from the spare room of her home in Broseley.
In addition to the skills she has honed over many years of making soft furnishings for her own rooms, Mia completed a formal training course, which resulted in her being awarded a Diploma in Professional Curtain Making & Soft Furnishings from Victoria Hammond Interiors.
As Mia took on more orders and acquired more equipment and supplies, she quickly outgrew her home working space.
In early 2023, she opened her first shop above Images hair salon in Broseley High Street and last November relocated to bigger premises, previously home to a hardware store, at 84 High Street.
Mia has a dedicated workroom at the back of the premises where she makes bespoke curtains, blinds, cushions and lampshades.
