Li Qing, a 53 year old seamstress, has transformed her apartment in eastern Beijing into a  garment factory. She also heads a boutique, in which she specializes in making qipaos, traditional Chinese dresses. 

                                                                     "I finally realized the dream I had when I was a little girl." Located in eastern Beijing, Li Qing's apartment is full of silk and fabrics. The Chinese 53-year-old native of the central province of Henan is not simply a seamstress. For 10 years, Li Qing stitched mostly qipao, traditional Chinese dresses, in her pretty three-room apartment she converted into a workshop.

This old engineer knows what she's talking about, she speaks of the profession with a passion that illuminates the roundness of her face. She first started off as a worker for the Chinese Railways and then devoted 30 years of her life to it. She regrets it: "I had to earn a living to take care of my family," she says. "At the time, sewing was not considered a real job," she adds. Yet Li Qing had always seen her mother with a needle and thread in hand since early childhood.

The Finesse of Embroidery

Upset, Li Qing started learning sewing and embroidery on her own when she was 16 years old. But it was only after her two daughters were brought up that she embraced her new career. This came especially after the success of her early works worn by the youngest of her daughters. She smiles and explains. "At that time, she wanted to open a furniture shop. So I made her some clothes so she would look pretty for the inauguration. The customers ended up being more interested in the clothes than the furniture!".

Although she had little interest in business, Li Qing opened a shop near the Lama Temple to live out her passion. She doesn't worry about the current fashion trends, but she wants to ensure consistent quality. That is why she procures her materials in Hangzhou, Suzhou and Beijing, the three Chinese cities most famous for their silk. A piece of advice from the master: "You can recognizes quality silk by its brightness. And, if you burn a few threads, their smell should recall that of burned hair."

In addition to the fabric, what really distinguishes Li Qing's qipao and other traditional Chinese clothes are the finesse of their embroidery. "The embroidery is completely done by hand," she says while showing us a pattern representing a red dragon embroidered in gold thread. Li Qing first draws a pattern on white piece of paper, which is then traced and pricked with a multitude of needle holes. The last step is to blacken the back of the tracing paper in pencil on the fabric itself.

For Li Qing, the most delicate part of the dress remains the cracks on both sides. "They must remain perfectly straight and avoid jolting when sewing the hems," she explains. Li Qing has virtually no need to take measurements of her clients. With her years of experience, she just needs to feel their bones to guess the constitution of the person and make the arrangements accordingly. This professionalism has forged her reputation. In some way, that is the price of success: "Before, a dress could be finished in two or three days. Now that my clientele has grown, it takes about ten days. "

Practical Information:
Li Qing's shop (Su Yi Fang:素衣坊): Open daily from 9:30 AM to 7 PM. 26 Yonghegong dajie, Dongcheng District. Tel: 010-6400-2859

Li Qing's Workshop: Only on Appointments. Shui Duizi Donglu, Bldg 6, Door 3, Apt 103, Chaoyang District.朝阳区水碓子东路6号楼3单元103室. Tel: 010-8598-6205 or 010-8659-7732

Count between RMB500 to 600 RMB for a simple qipao. Approximately 1200RMB for a dress with embroidery, and up over 3000RMB for complex models.

Text: Aurélie Palancher
Photos: Wang Zhuo
March 2008