Coventry vicar helps other female priests make their own clothes

The minister said that when she was first ordained 25 years ago there had only been male shirts available, “slightly adapted for women”.

Other options that later came on the market included expensive made-to-measure tops that took a long time to arrive.

“They weren’t really the kind of things we wear in our normal lives – it’s like you’re wearing someone else’s clothes,” she explained.

Her eureka moment came after she signed up for a sewing course and discovered she loved it.

“I went mad for making things for myself,” she said. “The thing I really wanted to do was to make clerical tops.”

She enrolled in another course, where a teacher helped her create a pattern for a smart yet comfy stretchy top with a neat collar.

When she moved to St Clare’s, she decided to sell a few creations to bring in money for the church, her target market “the kind of woman who would buy a nice summer dress or a nice winter dress for work”.

But she was unprepared for the demand, a batch of 10 selling out within 20 minutes on the church’s Facebook page.

“The thing I realised was, I could help more women to have the opportunity to have the pretty pattern they fancy if I can make an off-the-shelf pattern just like you would buy from a haberdashery,” she said.

“That you could literally just cut around your size, and make it yourself.”