I Quit My Job in Law to Be a Self-Taught Seamstress. The Most Shocking Part of My New Gig Isn’t What You Think (Exclusive)

• Candice Alviz left her job as a lawyer to pursue a career as a full-time content creator who specializes in pattern design.
• The self-taught Canadian seamstress uses her social media to teach her half a million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube the basics of sewing while introducing them to various techniques.

Leaving her job in law was a risk, but Alviz learned several surprising benefits and advantages since she made her career change.

Candice Alviz’s trajectory to becoming a seamstress may seem tangled but each thread was pivotal to her success today.

After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in music, the classical pianist enrolled in law school, took a gap year, worked on a cruise ship to see the world, got her law degree in Australia, articled in Toronto and worked in Vancouver before becoming a mom.

In 2019, her career began to take another turn as she gained a newfound interest in sewing. Though she took one private lesson when she was she was 15 years old, she hasn’t been near a sewing machine in the nearly two decades that followed.

“I think that every decision that I made kind of brought me to where I am,” Alviz tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about her unexpected life as a lawyer-turned-seamstress who now boasts half a million-plus followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

After four years of undergrad at the University of Toronto and three years of law school combined with her bar studies and article, a “significant portion” of her life was dedicated to being a legal professional. This is what made leaving it behind a huge challenge.

“You work really hard to get to that place,” Alviz admits when reflecting on her accomplishments in law. “It was an adjustment realizing that I didn’t want to do it anymore and to give it up basically. It was a hard decision for sure.”

Additionally, making the transition from a career societally deemed traditional to an unprecedented job as a social media content creator full-time felt like a major risk for Alviz, who was raised by immigrant parents in an Asian family.

“It was very important to them that I do grad school or find a very secure job,” she says of her initial pursuit, explaining why she entertained law in the first place.

However, the pursuit of happiness trumped all. “I wasn’t totally happy being a lawyer,” Alviz tells PEOPLE of what prompted her fashion-forward career change (well that, plus a minor “mid-life crisis,” she jokes).

“You trade so much of your time to work,” continues the mom of two. “If it was possible for me to do something that I really loved and make money and be with my family more, it was something that I didn’t want to not try.”

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In August 2023, Alvis quit her full-time job in law to pursue her dreams of being a pattern designer and content creator with no background in sewing. Now, the self-taught seamstress has built a platform around teaching others to sew.

“I sometimes feel like I’m not qualified to teach people because I didn’t go to fashion school. I’m self-taught,” she admits. “I learned most of what I know from Google and YouTube.”

While she’s only recently enrolled in courses like pattern drafting to learn the technical side of the craft, she notes that her love of sewing proves “there’s no right or wrong way to do something.”

As much as her half a million-plus followers seek out her welcoming, educational content — which includes how to hem jeans, how to bind a neckline and how to cut a dress slit without a seam — Alvis looks to her “niche” audience for inspiration, too.

“I think that we can all learn from each other,” she says. “There’s all these amazing little tips and tricks that you can learn from people. I don’t think that you have to be a 20-year expert or have gone to fashion school to be good at sewing.”

“I really like making that kind of content,” she continues. “And I think that it resonates with a lot of people. I think that it’s really cool that a lot more people seem to be sewing now.”

Despite her initial hesitations to quit her job as a lawyer, in part caused by the uncertainty of financial stability in comparison to a “steady salary” with “amazing benefits,” Alvis was shocked by the pay her videos were monetizing at the start of her content creation career.

“I gained a bit of traction on social media, was starting to make a bit more money and it seemed like something that I could actually do as a job,” she tells PEOPLE. “Most of my money, or salary, has been from content creation actually, so making videos about sewing.”

Alvis adds, “I think that’s such an interesting thing because it’s not something I ever imagined could be a job.” In fact, the designer reveals her pay as a content creator isn’t so off from her job as a lawyer.

“I made about the same and I only just started this last year,” she says. “I actually made a lot more than I thought that I would, but I also work a lot less hours… So far I’m not making more than I was, but I’m making about the same, which is kind of crazy to me.”

Although she no longer has the benefits nor allotted vacation time she had working in law, her self-started career as a content creator brought on new advantages. “Now I can just take time off whenever… It’s really nice having that flexibility,” she says.

Above all, Alvis is now content mentally. “I just wasn’t happy doing what I was doing. I wasn’t that interested in it. It was quite boring to me,” she says of working in law. “I’ve always been a very creative person. I like making things.”

When reflecting on her ample years of schooling and studying intertwined with her whirlwind travels and career trajectory that followed, Alvis says she “doesn’t regret” a thing.

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