Mildred’s Exit from Paper Dolls in Ambler

As of June 10, 2024 I will no longer be affiliated with Paper Dolls of Ambler. If you follow my personal feed on Social Media (@hellomynameismildred on IG), you will have seen a LIVE video that I put up earlier this week. I have yet to discus this with my followers on my business feed, @thatssewmildred on IG.

The details and entirety of why and how I left there are something I feel I must share with the public on any and all platforms for the sake of my just-born baby-new business, as well as for the sake of just humans in general.

Here are the most important parts of the rest of the story…

I came to Ambler, as well as several other towns in the area, in the beginning October, 2023 to solicit my Sewing, Design & Alterations Services business that I was thinking about ramping up with hopes to make a full time gig.
I knew I would be moving to Horsham in November, and I wanted to visit as many shops and local boutiques as possible to get my name out there. I was also hoping to find a shop owner who was savvy enough to understand that having me “in the house” would be a real win for them and their clientele.

Between my thirty+ years as a business owner and manager, and my skillset as a seamstress and designer, I have a lot to offer. Those of you who shopped Paper Dolls with me saw this and commented often about what a great asset I was to Missy’s business. During my first couple of months there, PDA associate extraordinaire, Ms. Linda, said over and over again things like, “It’s like working in a new place. Missy is so different - so calm/relaxed, and you have brought a peace to this place…”. Long time friend and store manager Mish had departed, and we all felt like and were told that this new vibe was all because Mish was gone (the stories and blame that were put on Mish never ended. There was something everyday. People stopped shopping there because Mish did this, and because Mish did that. Mish’s mental illness… Mish’s boyfriends… Mish’s problems.

More about the negative talk and sharing of things that were none of anyone’s business about practically everyone that walked in and out that door - usually after they spent between $200 and “600+ in her store and sometimes only after they ran into the door on their way out because “it locks itself and we have to change the F’ing door handle”, which was her “cousin’s (the owner of the building) f’ing fault!”… I digress.

Long and short of it is this: My position there as an associate for Missy and her business came with a written and signed agreement that contained many very important and mutually agreed upon terms which included 1) my having a space where I could sew and do alterations when there was nothing going on or in need of being done for the shop - which I held up perfectly because I kept the place, made her a new website and taught her a new hosting platform (NEVER even said thank you), brought in outside sales from ladies who were from my own HMNIM clientele base, and happily helped, shopped with and for Paper Dolls clientele, yet very quickly gave way to my having to clear so much… stuff off of “my sewing table” every time I came in for shift, INCLUDING FOOD, for the first 15-30 minutes that I was there. Literally ever single time I came in there was more, what did I call it before? Oh. “Stuff”… more stuff on my table. Piled six feet high. And more stuff on the shelves. And more stuff on the floor. jAnd more stuff in the back. And more stuff in the bathroom. Oh, the bathroom…

Woooooooo!! Read it again! No, I am not kidding OR exxagerating. The stories are endless.

Seriously, it became almost laughable, and this takes me into another thread about how absolutely filthy and cluttered the entire store was when I arrived and how it became even more so the longer I was there.

I digress. Back to a few of the points in the agreement…

Stipulation 2) that I was accepting a very low hourly wage that would eventually be offset by my sewing & alterations business growing, and that WE WOULD SIT DOWN AND RE-EVALUATE MY POSITION AND DUTIES AT 30, 60 and 90 days. Again, I did not come in there looking for a job, but I did need some more income and a place to see clients, and she was in desperate need of an associate to replace Mish. Again, I worked the store above and beyond what was expected of me, only to be denied - I’ll even at this point say that she outright refused a conversation with me about anything that had to do with my position there and the aforementioned re-evaluation of such. I have a ridiculous number of text messages that were either preceded with or followed by in-person conversations where I practically begged her to make time for me. Some of them went completely unrecognized with no reply at all and the rest got a thumbs up reaction. Instead, I heard about and watched her spending countless hours looking at pictures of her brothers dog, pretty dresses she wanted to buy for herself from Anthropologie and other websites (three entire hours one day, by her own admission), and more things that were a waste of time than I could even believe.

The peace and calm slowly began to give way to loud and often offensive “conversation” (Missy incessantly talking about everything and everyone she can’t stand, and why; sometimes when they were standing ten feet away, no I am not kidding.