Antónia only pursued her professional dream after raising her son.
Now, she speaks with pride about her sewing atelier, built side by side with her husband’s leather workshop in the home they crafted together in Nossa Senhora de Machede, the village where they were both born.
Her earliest memories are woven with fabric.
Her grandmother stitched sturdy, hard-wearing clothes for farm work, and as a child, Antónia was drawn to the wicker basket filled with fabric scraps, spools of thread, and tiny boxes of needles. She would secretly experiment with her mother’s sewing machine, creating dresses for her dolls.
At 15, her father bought her first sewing machine. “When you bought a Singer, they gave you a free dressmaking course,” she recalls. She later trained in embroidery and began sewing her own clothes.
She married Joaquim Pimenta young, and life carried on. While her husband worked in the automotive industry, Antónia put her ambitions on hold. But once their son had graduated and Joaquim had retired, they finally took the leap—opening a sewing atelier and leather workshop together.
Antónia is passionate about fabrics, thread, and needles.
She makes alterations, clothing, personalised embroidery, and some of her best-selling pieces at craft and agricultural fairs include:
Talegos de chita – traditional drawstring bags made from the same fabric once used for blouses in the Alentejo.
Miniature capotes – tiny versions of the classic Alentejo cloak, designed to fit wine bottles.
At her workshop and at fairs in Ourique and Santarém, she is always accompanied by Lili, her loyal little dog—and she only attends fairs that welcome animals.
Her dream for the future?
To design her very own women’s clothing collection.
