'I had to teach them how to read and tell the time': Dressmaker Thelma had to start from scratch with her Gypsy apprentices

From the Daily Mirror

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings dressmaker Thelma Madine thought she would be delighted when filming began on her new show.

But as soon as the cameras stopped rolling at the end of the first day, tears streamed down the designer’s face.

Thelma had just started to teach 10 Traveller girls how to make the huge, outlandish wedding dresses that have made her famous.

But she’d had a shock that was even bigger than some of her gigantic frocks.

She says: “After the first day I cried my eyes out and thought ‘what have I done?’.

“My vision was to see them all sat in lines sewing and me saying ‘this is how you do it’.

“What I didn’t realise is they don’t act like 16 or 17-year-olds.

"They were more like 10 or 11-year-olds because they finished school at 11.

“They had no social skills at all or any idea how to behave in the workplace. It was chaos and a bit of a nightmare.

“I found out most of them couldn’t read or write. Some couldn’t tell the time so we had them asking what the time was – and even what day it was.

“You would tell them we were doing something on Monday and they would ask ‘when is Monday?’.

“It knocked me back. We are in the 21st century – I was really shocked.”

The forthcoming Channel 4 series, Thelma’s Gypsy Girls, will follow the teenagers working in her new shop and competing to be the best dressmaker.

Along with the sequins and stitching there will be squeals and fighting, which should help the Apprentice-style programme rake in most of the seven million viewers who watch Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

“When Gypsy girls come in to see me they don’t seem to have anything else in their head other than getting married,” explains Thelma, who says she’s in her 50s but won’t be more specific.

“I know it does me favours but they don’t know any other way because they leave school so young. It’s all about that big day.

“The Travellers have put me where I am today and I thought it would be nice to try to give something back to them.

“I thought I could teach some of them a trade where they could get a job and let them see what it’s like to earn money. So I came up with this idea.

“When we did an open day we had loads of girls turn up. I picked 10 and the rest is history.”

The show is expected to cause controversy by lifting the veil on the lack of education among some girls in travelling families.

Once they are married they are often expected to stay at home and raise children.

Scouser Thelma, who is not a Gypsy, says: “The girls were all so excited and screaming and shouting at each other, but nobody knew what rules were.

“We had to put clock faces up on the wall to show them when they had to be here, when they could have a cup of tea and when to go for lunch.

“Then I realised it wasn’t just teaching these kids to sew – we had to get a tutor to teach them how to read and write.

“It was full-on and turned my life upside down. It was three months before things settled down. Now they can all read. They are at different reading levels but they have all improved.

“We were trying to teach them to do things with tape measures. But how can you do that if they struggle with numbers?

"They didn’t even know how to use a calculator. It was shocking and surreal.

“The Romanies will say their kids go to school and learn, but these girls didn’t.

"They’re also very needy and will cling on to you and ask ‘Am I your favourite?’ They need you all the time.”

Among Thelma’s apprentices are Irish Traveller Margaret Toohey, 16, from a trailer site near the shop in Liverpool.

Margaret, whose boyfriend disapproves of her working, says her dressmaking experience has changed her. She adds: “I was always sitting at home doing nothing. Thelma is like another mother.

“She has helped me to change my temper, talked to me and calmed me down a lot. She is very helpful and has been leading me down the right path.”

Shannon McGuire, 15, who has been in trouble with the police for fighting, is another of the girls.

She left school aged 11 and is responsible for looking after her seven siblings.

Shannon, who lives in Wrexham, was suspended in the first week of filming for fighting, and says: “The first few days were hard but I’ve changed. I am more polite – Thelma makes you listen.”

As Thelma takes me around the workshop, the girls show off their designs for a dress they will wear at the end of the series when a winner will be picked.

The show should be another boost for Thelma, who bounced back from being jailed in 2001 for benefit fraud to become the dressmaker Gypsies go to if they need flash frocks.

But despite raking in a fortune thanks to Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, she says she’s hugely in debt.

As we walk around the girls sewing away, Thelma says: “We estimated doing this new shop would cost £40,000. It hasn’t, it has cost £82,000.

“I keep telling the girls they have to start earning me some money.”

While she’s been concentrating on her apprentices, Thelma has turned potential business away. She says: “I had to cut down by 50% while doing this.”

But she now hopes to take on one or two of the girls to help meet the growing demand for her astonishing creations.

She says: “People in America and Puerto Rico ask us for dresses. Now we have done this show I feel we should keep it going and train more people.”

* Thelma’s Gypsy Girls starts on Channel 4 on Sunday at 9pm.