Rory sewing up storm with comfy cushions

AN 11-year-old boy from Passage West is turning heads with his eye for home decor, creating cushions for sale locally and online after being gifted a sewing machine by his grandparents for his ninth birthday.

Rory’s mother Deirdre Hurley explained how her son had a fascination with sewing and kept saying he wanted to learn to sew.

“We would be over at my parents, and I would be crocheting, his sister Aoife would be weaving and his grandmother knitting, and he just got an interest in sewing.”

Rory was given a sewing machine by his grandparents and from the very start, he was taken with it.

“He picked some fabric, watched a YouTube tutorial and that was it,” Deirdre said.

Rory started to make cushions for his sister, his family and his cousins and then he started to sell them locally.

Deirdre said he got it into his head he wanted to have a stall at the Christmas market in Passage West, where he lives.

“I told him he needed to work out if it was viable and he figured out what he needed to make to pay for the stall and fabric, to make a profit and he did it!”

Rory covered his costs and then bought himself a computer monitor with what was leftover.

The young entrepreneur makes all his cushions at the weekend, as he is busy during the week with school and other activities including swimming, Taekwon-Do and Irish dancing.

Rory also attends UCC classes on Saturday morning as part of the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland (CTYI) programme.

The 11-year-old has started selling his cushions online on Shop in Ireland.

When the sewing machine manufacturer Brother heard about Rory, they got in touch to offer him a brand-new state of the art machine.

“He can’t wait to try it out, it has 50 different stitches and isn’t available in Ireland yet. I’ll be looking to do a degree in how to help him operate and maintain it,” Deirdre said.

Orders for Rory’s cushions can be made on his business page on Facebook ‘Rory’s reading cushions’.