Hands-On Work

As a teen, Wilmington native ROBIN MANNING’s passion was art. In her early twenties, her mother taught her to sew, and the passion evolved.

“That was the beginning point,” Manning says. Her first project was a diaper bag she made for her own babies. “I started a little business making fabric bags when we lived in Charlotte, North Carolina.”

Today, Manning owns Coastal Hillbilly in Wilmington, a storefront workshop where she hand-sews made-to-order and small-batch leather bags, wallets, belts, and accessories.

Manning’s family spent time in the mountains, where she watched local craftsmen make timeless leather goods. In 2009, a mission trip to Guatemala was the motivation behind Coastal Hillbilly. “In Pastores, we saw store after store of artisan leather makers. Shop in the front; workshop out back – simple, modest, not mass produced. I was intrigued and inspired. I knew I wanted people to watch me work in my own shop, kind of like Krispy Kreme Doughnuts,” she says laughing. Further enthused by a video of a man grinding and beveling a leather belt, Manning says, “I was all in. That’s what I wanted to do.”

Manning opened Coastal Hillbilly in 2015, named with a nod to the mountain craftsmen of her childhood trips. She started in her kitchen, quickly moving to her garage. After outgrowing the space that also housed her three now-grown sons’ mass of sports gear, she moved to her current location on Oleander Drive in May 2021.

Manning’s solo launch was building belts.

“I did more carving and staining at the start,” she says. “I stopped because it was tedious, and I really wanted to make leather bags.”

Now her team includes MANDI ROLLINS, who helps prep the leather and is responsible for customer service, and CAYLA STAMPER, who works behind the scenes updating Coastal Hillbilly’s social media. Husband CHRIS MANNING is CFO. Robin Manning does all of the hand sewing herself.

Her process of building bags and accessories starts with purchasing leather from American and Mexican tanneries. She buys a few times a year to keep the main colors in stock.

“The cow and bison leather is delivered in ‘sides,’ the actual side of the animal,” she explains. “We plan out the patterns we will cut from a side by looking at the skin of the cow, working around branding, moles, stretch marks, and weak spots. No two hides are the same, and sometimes we incorporate the cattle branding, making the piece even more unique,” she says.

The baselines that drive what Manning builds with a piece of leather are leather thickness, durability, and color. She describes her bags that have fun names like Giddy-Up and High Noon Snatch Bag as “craftsman classic, timeless, durable slow fashion.” Turn-around time on some items is two to four weeks, depending on demand and season. “We don’t do it quickly,” she says.

From a rough scissorcut, patterns are precision die cut, embossed, glued, prepped, and sewn inside out. Zippers are added, sewn again; piping is added and sewn again. The bag is flipped right-side out – the hardest part of the process on Manning’s hands – and hardware and straps are added, followed by an oil buff. Some bags have an added pop of color in the tassel, pocket, or gusset.

“Leather is not cheap. I learn from each piece I make, including mistakes,” she says of her self-taught trade. “Even if I make the same bag 100 times, I am learning every time. One mistake, and one project leads to another. It builds upon itself.”

Manning’s tools of the trade have evolved over time from her first Bernina home sewing machine to a fast industrial Consew. She owns a COBRA and a Seiko industrial sewing machine for specialized stitching. Both of these machines are specific to leather-making. “My machines are not computerized. I am hand-pushing the leather through,” she says.

Manning’s leather goods come in a range of colors from earth tones to bold pink.

“Green is coming any day,” she says. “It’s the next big color after the pink rage this year.”

She is grateful for her customers who are supportive of small business. “There are so many choices of bags, but when a customer chooses me, I am honored,” she says.

Manning has her dream job. “It never gets old. My hands and feet get tired, but building something every day that I love is the biggest blessing from God. Made in America. Made in North Carolina. Made right here in Wilmington. That’s how I want to be known.”

To view more of photographer Daria Amato’s work, go to dariaphoto.com

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