Franklins has been serving Colchester customers for 65 years

We spoke to Franklins, in St Botolph's Street, as part of our new campaign to support the dozens of fantastic independent and family-owned businesses in Colchester.

Franklins is a well-loved sewing shop which has been providing the needlecraft fanatics of Colchester with the supplies they need for 65 years. 

Colourful - Nathan Franklin in front of some of the fabrics for sale (Image: Newsquest)

Nathan Franklin, 39, has been involved in the Franklins business for 23 years. 

Nathan said: "Originally I came into the shop doing bits and bobs to help out with my mum and dad when I was 16.

"I then started doing repairs on machines and now I'm doing demonstrations and lessons."

Franklins originally started in a smaller residence in Butt Road before moving to their current location in the 1980s. 

Stock - the downstairs section of Franklins (Image: Newsquest)

Nathan continued: "We moved to either better locations or larger premises so we could give customers a larger range of fabrics, knitting yarns and a better choice of machines.

"We now sell quilting and upholstery fabrics and upstairs we have knitting, crochet and cross-stitch wares."

Franklins has a wide range of different sewing and embroidery machines as well as thousands of rolls of unique fabrics, threads and yarn, alongside plenty of other crafting items.

Front - the Franklins sign (Image: Newsquest)Nathan said: "Every day is different, you can come in thinking it will be a bad weather day but it actually turns out to be the busiest day of the week.

"One day you can be doing the machines in the shop and the next day you can be selling things further afield in London or the midlands or up north because they don't have a shop like this.

"Many customers rely on speaking to people face to face, whether that being from the video or phone calls we provide or by the customers coming into the shop.

"They have someone they can get expert advice from whether that be on machines or sewing."