After 17 years in Utilísima teaching molding and sewing, when that TV channel closed its doors, Fabiana Marquesini he was left with “a great void”. And although she continued her own school, she always longed to return to teaching in front of the cameras, to reach more people. I wish that he began to fulfill, already with more than half a century of life, becoming a youtuber.
It all started when one of her 22 nephews told her that one of her Utilísima videos had a lot of views and prompted her to create her own YouTube channel. Something that she, despite her fear of technology, managed to achieve with the help of another niece who liked to film.
Today, this restless and determined 57-year-old from Mendoza has 404 thousand subscribers on that website —where she offers more than 500 free tutorials— and has 81.3 thousand followers on Instagram. Although not satisfied with that, she has now also launched on the Twitch platform.
News: How and when did you get involved with sewing?
Fabiana Marquesini: I started as a girl, because in my house there was a sewing machine, and I liked it from the start. I learned from my mother and something also from my grandmother. My mom didn’t know molds, but we took molds from magazines. What came in the magazines were drawings, not real models, with a certain size, so you had to adapt it with what you knew. Then, at the age of choosing a career, as in Mendoza there was no career in clothing design or anything related to textiles, I decided to study as a Physical Education teacher, which I also liked. That helped me a lot at the teaching level.
News: Did you start by making your own clothes?
Marquesini: First those of my dolls; and when I was older, to go out with my friends, because we were five siblings and our parents couldn’t always buy us what we wanted. Later, to be able to go on vacation, I started to earn some money with the smock stitch, an embroidery for babies and girls with many details, very elegant, princess-like, that lasts over time.
News: He said that the Physical Education teachers helped him discover his teaching vocation.
Marquesini: Yes, I figured it out right away. After taking the theoretical subjects, you have the practices, where what you qualify for is teaching; And of all of us who graduated, I won the medal for the one who gave the best practices. The teachers gave me all the pedagogical tools and taught me to passionately transmit my knowledge. There I realized that I was born to teach. Also, physical education is quite playful, so I try to make my YouTube videos fun too.
News: When did you start teaching sewing?
Marquesini: From the faculty to my first sewing class, six years passed. In between, I worked in physical education, I got married, I came to Buenos Aires and there came a call from Utilísima, which changed my life. I always liked television. In fact, when I got here, I performed on every game show there was. And in one I even won a car. It was because of the Mendoza tune, they told me.
News: Did your tune also help Utilísima?
Marquesini: There we present ourselves 300, all with titles. Except for me, who went with a big bag, with things I had done, with my first child, a year and a half old, and pregnant with my second. I thought I had everything against it, but the channel loved that she was pregnant. I was left alone, because the other girl selected at the end was not encouraged. I started making clothes for pregnant women and babies, in a program called “Puntos y Puntadas”, and I was on the channel for 17 years, until 2013, when it closed. In Utilísima I learned how to communicate better and from great molders.
News: And wasn’t there something similar to Utilísima for me to continue?
Marquesini: There I was left alone with my workshop, because my contract said that for two years I could not appear in any other program.
News: Tell me about your beginnings as a youtuber…
Marquesini: I started in 2018, with great fear, because I was unaware of everything technological. But with the initial help of my nephews, plus that of my two children, I was learning. Then I hired a person with whom I learned the rest, and an application to be able to edit well. It cost me a lot, but I keep learning, because technology does not stop advancing. Now I’m also on Twitch, which is just to live, which I love, because it’s a roundtrip at the moment via chat. I do that in a streaming studio run by some guys who contacted me and guide me a lot.
News: Who is your audience?
Marquesini: I started with family and friends, who I forced to subscribe (laughs). Then many women who knew me from Utilísima joined me and, to my surprise, people from other parts of the world and with other languages also appeared. The first was from Suriname and today people even write to me in Russian.
News: How is your audience made up?
Marquesini: 85% are women, the majority between 40 and 65 years old; and of the men, most are young, who at first challenged me, because I only spoke to women (laughs).
News: Did many people join during the pandemic?
Marquesini: A lot, almost three times more than what he had. During the lockdown, many people discovered that they liked to sew or started sewing again. I also noticed that there are a lot of lonely people, who are kept company by my videos.
News: How did you think about your first tutorials?
Marquesini: Wrongly, but people taught me a lot. One of the first was about slippers that I loved, although complicated to make. In another I made a square T-shirt, which I thought no one would like and it was a great goal, because it was simple. I now have a list of orders, as each one asks me for what they need. The channel is doing well because what I teach, I teach so that everyone can do it with their own measurements. Those who have a few extra kilos have a hard time finding clothes, and my channel is for everyone. For example, I tell them: “Take the measurement of the contour of the hip, divide it in four and start”, because You can do almost everything by yourself. Also, everything is so expensive!
News: Did you participate in the Size Law?
Marquesini: No but I always fought so that everyone can use what they want, whatever body they have. At the time of Utilísima, the size was that of a model, but on my channel the first thing I did was banish the idea of a single size. What I teach is a pattern that everyone can adapt to their own body. The Size Law did not change things much because the problem is economic. Now it is not that you go to a local brand and they have your XL; and if they have an XL by requirement, perhaps it doesn’t fit you because they can choose that their XL be like this or like that, because it’s their molding. In countries like the United States, they can make a size 40 with four different leg lengths, but here that is impossible. So I understand that law enforcement isn’t ideal, but I also understand that economically businesses can’t have it all either.
News: Going back to the tutorials, what do you ask for the most?
Marquesini: Women’s clothing, especially from the upper part: blouses, tank tops, dresses, jackets; and among the accessories, the covers for armchairs. Recycled products are also in high demand, especially in places where they have almost nothing, because they are far from everything or for economic reasons, such as Cuba and Venezuela. Examples of recycling? An embroidery for a garment that got stained, the addition of a strip for something that was too small for you, a rug with pieces of old jeans, an envelope-type bag with a carton of milk.
News: Is everything on your channel free?
Marquesini: The only thing paid is a sector called “Channel Members”, with several correlative videos. For me, the channel is profitable basically because of the advertising that YouTube gets me. The rest is all free: more than 500 tutorials, where I start and finish something in the same video. The thanks of the people are very emotional. Like those of those who managed to make this a work outlet. Knowing that someone is financially a little better off because of sewing is the best thing that can happen to me.
by Sergio Nunez
