Jean Nelson has come full-circle in life.

She learned how to sew from her mother on a Viking sewing machine.

She went off to make a career of her own.

She broadened her horizons and earned a master's degree.

Now, she's back home again with her mother and the same old Viking machine.

"Tailoring and sewing

must be in my blood," Nelson said. "I became fascinated watching my Grandma Davis sew on her old two-treadle machine," she said.

Sewing runs deep in this family history, which produced many country school teachers and 4-H leaders.

Her grandmother, Sarah Davis sewed and so did her two aunts, Muriel Sayles and Madelon Collette, as well as her mother, Sylvia Davis. All are role models.

Growing up in Blooming Prairie and then Austin, she first started sewing in the second and third grades. Her parents, Don, a construction company owner, and his wife, Sylvia, raised a family of three sons and two daughters.

Soon she was sewing clothes to wear to school and for special occasions, prom dresses, wedding gowns.

After graduating from Austin High School, she first earned an associate's degree and then a bachelor's degree, before going to work as an accountant.

She and her husband, Rick, an employee of Austin Packaging Company, raised twin sons, Derek and Nathan, plus two other sons, Jay and Peter.

Nelson worked first from her home. Jeff Tollefson and St. Paul Clothiers made the seamstress their exclusive person for alterations.

Then, she went to work for Jack Keenan and Terry Judson at the Town Tailor beneath Keenan Clothiers at the corner of Fourth Avenue NE and North Main Street. With Janet Pernault and Susan Skogeboe, the Town Tailor became a favorite for sewing alterations and repairs.

Then, she acquired the business and became her own boss. "I was happy to be able to bring my children to work with me. I worked long hours, often bringing work home to complete in the wee hours of the morning."

Nelson was slowed by the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome. It required two surgeries and earned her a physician's advice to consider a career change. Instead, she worked harder.

About a year ago, the business moved above ground.

Nelson and her mother became familiar fixtures in the business.

However, Nelson was also earning a reputation as a costume designer and maker for local theater groups.

So keen was her interest, she attended classes at the University of Evansville in Indiana, commuting between Austin to the Hoosier state for five months.

This spring she received her master's degree in design.

Her experience and education impressed none other than the prestigious Guthrie Theatre, which commissioned Nelson to do costume design work for its actors.

Through the years, she has been a tailor to such people as I.J. Holton and Richard L. Knowlton, retired Hormel Foods Corporation presidents and chairmans of the board.

She has also altered the pants of others, taking in the waist or letting it out, lengthening the pant leg or shortening it, cuffing pant legs or uncuffing them, depending upon the style.

Female fashion trends come and go with relative frequency. Nelson has kept up with them to the satisfaction of granddaughters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers.

When she completed her college classes in Indiana and returned to Austin, the name on the door of the Town Tailor business had been changed as well as the telephone number.

The writing was on the door, not the wall, in this case. She had to make a decision.

When her father, Don, offered his home's basement at 2000 4th Ave. SE to his daughter, Nelson was convinced the Town Tailor could succeed as a home-based business.

Her mother's declining health is another mitigating factor in her decision to stay closer to home.

But so is family pride.

"I can give back to my parents and continue to run the Town Tailor at the same time," she said.

So, the Town Tailor is back in business and one person, Sylvia Davis, is pleased.

"Sewing is her life. I'm very proud of her and what she can do," the tailor's mother said.

For information on the Town Tailor, call 433-4516.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at

lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com