It took me like a good 10, 12 years to grow out of that and to like figure out how to be

financial responsible again.

From Seamwork Magazine, I'm Sari Mitnick and this is Seamwork Radio, where we tell stories from people

who make clothing.

Let me just start by saying, talking about money is hard. It's a little bit of a taboo subject

in our culture. It's something most people feel awkward discussing with anyone outside of

close friends and family. At the same time, we've all struggled with it.

It's either not having enough or spending it too freely, having it sour relationship, or

force us to take a terrible job. Late last year, I took a trip to Montreal and had the chance

to sit down with my friend Heather Luenza and talk about money and about work. Heather, if you don't know,

she's a designer behind closet case files, another independent pattern company. We talked about

the road to being a business owner and how money, spending, and work have changed the course of her

life. I grew up in Windsor, Ontario, which is a very blue-collar town. It's basically like the Detroit of Canada.

So, yeah, it's just like a very blue-collar working class town. You know, like the joke is that it's kind of like a Bruce Springsteen song. And, you know, everybody that I knew for the most part, you know, worked in factories. My mother worked, she was at, owned a jewelry store and my father had more of a white collar job too, but pretty much everybody that we knew was like either working in the automotive industry or were working in jobs that kind of supported the industry. So it was just kind of like a gritty rock and roll kind of place. And I grew up in the, you know, the latter half of my teen years I was in the

country, but it's the same kind of vibe, just like more rural, but still that kind of like working

class community. Heather's parents split up when she was very young. And then my mom got remarried when I was

well, she met her second husband when I was five and they were together off and on for seven years.

And it turned out that he was a monster and was quite abusive.

So we had a pretty kind of crazy like seven years, like moving around a lot.

Watching her mother being victimized by her stepfather changed the way Heather saw things and informed her feminist ideology as she got older.

He was like really brutal alcoholic and kind of battled with his alcoholism for years.

So, you know, he would have like periods of sobriety where things would be okay, but then he would

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