This day sneaks up on me every year. Partly because its a day that does not really feel like mine to celebrate, because it is a story of my mom, Carolyn, coming into her own, and I get to be along for the ride. #grateful

When Carolyn was in high school, she was failing chemistry, but could be found in the Home Economics room sewing away at a 5 piece suit. While everyone else sewed a simple skirt, she managed to do a jacket, vest, skirt and pants while sewing a shirt to go with it at home.

When a car accident ended Carolyn's nursing career, she found herself sewing once again. She worked at our local sewing machine store doing alterations until they decided to lean into sales and classes for new sewists while no longer doing clothing alterations.  

The sewing machine store's decision to eliminate her position was the push she needed to jump into business. 

Nowadays, you can decide on a random Tuesday to open a business, fill out all the forms on your state's website and it's almost anticlimactic. When Carolyn started her business, you had to apply to the state, wait for approval and wait for the document to arrive that said you were officially in business and able to collect sales tax. On this day, 33 years ago, Carolyn received those papers in the mail and started our family down this path that we are still on, today. 

Never, in a million years, would I have considered that I'd be on this journey, or that this would be a business birthday that I'd be celebrating also. I did my best to "run away from home" after high school. You know what they say about moving away, though... you take yourself with you and are still the same person, just somewhere else. I ended up back in my hometown and working in the sewing industry because I wanted to know how to make my own personal clothing fit properly.... and I never left this work. 

Our future is starting to take shape - and it has become super obvious that we HAVE to teach what we know alongside doing alterations for clients. There are so many skills in the alterations trade that you don't get in a college or design school situation, so the next logical step is Alterations Apprenticeships.  We have one (fabulous) apprentice working alongside us in the shop right now, and if you hadn't noticed, our website/blog is hosted on a course platform. We're making baby steps in that direction and we are incredibly grateful for all our customers who have brought us their clothes over the years and trusted us to alter/repair and "Make it Work" (as Tim Gunn would say). 

We're not going anywhere, anytime soon!  We've had to upgrade our systems a bit, but the positives have been worth it. You can now reserve alterations for big events here on our website. Pop on up to the menu and hit 👗👔Formals, there's lots of information up there (or click here  I Need Alterations on Formalwear: What should I know?), or grab an appointment for regular clothing, under the menu heading ✂️Our Shop (or click here 👚👖Regular Clothing & Projects). 

If you call us, we still answer the phone, however, there's a phone menu that will give you some of the relevant information you might need and will definitely send you to our website so you can do some of the research yourself. This gives us a way to get you started, while also being attentive to the person directly in front of us in our shop.  Not only that, but it gives us the ability to turn off our phone at the end of the day and have some business boundaries and that's a huge win. 

Our reservation calendar opens one year in advance and is nearly full as soon as it opens. We still do take regular projects, but on a limited basis and when our formalwear takes over, we have some times that we have to set regular clothes aside for a bit. If you have an event coming up I urge you to get on our reservations list even if you don't have the garment picked out yet. 

We are 'Sew Grateful.' Thank you for 33 amazing years!

Topic in this post: #DayInTheLife

Kristen sews because clothes don't come shaped like humans and people often think their bodies are the problem, which is a problem.

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