Patricia Harfov worked part-time at her fabric store Bowanville Fabrics while simultaneously holding down a full-time job as an x-ray technologist. “I was an x-ray technologist for 44 years before I chose to go full-time in the fabric business,” says Patricia. “When I did x-rays, people would look at me kind of funny and say ‘are you related to the lady who has the fabric store. Why do they let you do this’?” Patricia explained countless times that it wasn’t a matter of the fabric lady coming in and taking x-rays, but that she was an x-ray technologist who also owned the fabric store. What she didn’t tell them was that fabrics and sewing were her passion and this passion is what eventually led her to transition into running her store full time. “It was a case of being torn in half,” she says. “But I chose the fabric business for the possibility that I could make a living doing what I love.”
Nowadays, in any given week, Patricia will be working on something special like an outfit for the mother of the groom, a selection of dance costumes, teaching sewing classes or putting a zipper in a cushion cover. “I don’t catch up,” she laughs. “I always have a pile of things sitting to be done. But fabric and sewing are my passions and I cannot imagine life without them.”
