Sew Much More

 Linda started sewing Home Decor because there wasn't anyone else in her community doing it. Shortly after starting to sew home decor, she took the New York Institute of Art and Design course and was then able to offer design, construction and installation services which she continues to offer today. In the last few years, she has added color specialist to her portfolio.  She also writes a home-decor related newspaper column, has written 3 decorating made simpler books, over 700 How-to shorts,  and is currently at work on the 'big  course;' Learn to Choose Window Coverings.'    Resources; Your Business Right From the Start by Michele Williams The Library Susan Woodcock's Roman Blind Method with Iron on Buckram     The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA    

Joining me today on the Podcast today are Renee Williamson, Executive Director of the Window Covering Association of America and Susie Tanner, Marketing and Membership Director. Whether you are a member of WCAA or not, I loved learning more about how our association is run.   Renee Williamson is a native of Augusta, Georgia and now lives in beautiful Wilmington, NC.  With over 20 years of leadership experience in the non-profit and for-profit sector, Renee brings a wealth of knowledge to the WCAA. Previously she was the Executive Director of a community organization in Murrells Inlet, SC, where she lead the organization in a new Strategic Plan that they continue to use today.   After becoming the Executive Director of the WCAA, Renee began working with the Board of Directors on a new Strategic Plan as well as rebranding the organization.    Susie Tanner brings more than 17 years experience working for non-profit organizations at the state, national and international levels to WCAA. Her past work in the areas

Christine McLean, Owner, The Red Pincushion- An interior Design workroom, Christine never imagined, in a million years, that she would own a workroom. A graduate of Michigan State University, with a degree in Biology, she spent 14 years between Pharmaceutical Sales and Medical Software, even starting her own electronic claims processing company. A native of Detroit, she has lived in Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas before being transferred to Birmingham, AL in 2002. She met her husband in 2003 when she opened a Franchise of the Dating Service, It’s Just Lunch, in the same building as his practice, when she feigned a foot injury to try and recruit him as a client. After their first child, she sold the business. As a full-time mom she took up sewing again, a skill she learned from her mom, making clothes and elaborate Halloween costumes for her kids. She decided to tackle her bedroom drapes after a meeting with a decorator. A year later she took a class from a local workroom on how to make a bench cushion. The

Will Lynch - President and Owner of Safe T Shade, and Jacquelyn Weber - Vice President of Sales and Marketing visit us on this OPPORTUNITY THINKING Series to talk about the products that Safe T Shade provide for our industry. We talk about the steps necessary to get a product to market, what do they do with prototypes and how long does all of this take??   Meet Jacquelyn and Will at The Custom Workroom Conference in September.     Resources; Sandra Van Sickle's Live With Sandra V Facebook Page Patent Trademark Office

  Camile Moore's first love was fine art and oil painting. She looks at a client's home through the eye of an artist, as a work of art .. and window treatments are an artistic element. Camile attended Harris School Of Art and Watkins Art Institute as a young adult. In 1989, she took Advanced Custom Curtain, Drapery & Roman Shade Fabrication classes at Watkins Art Institute in Nashville TN, and business started blossoming soon after she completed the courses. Since then, Camile has taken hundreds of hours of custom and couture window treatment, drapery, curtain, pillow, bedding & slipcover workshops. She enjoys meeting designers and clients, creating custom designs, fabricating beautiful window treatments and bedding, and helping to install the finished work. Camile believes that God has truly blessed her with wonderful clients and a strong, talented, happy team. 2019 marks her 30th year in business! Camile Moore Window Treatments and Custom Bedding   Resources; Minutes Matter

    Patti is the owner of Pillows & Pleats, LLC, a drapery design and fabrication business located in Loudoun County, Virginia. Patti’s journey began when she studied Interior Design in college some 33 years ago graduating at the top of her class. Two weeks after receiving her bachelor’s degree, she married her high school sweetheart and supported his career path which involved several moves across the country. As a stay at home mom, she raised four children, spent years volunteering in the school systems and sewed countless costumes for community theater. It wasn’t until her youngest child reached middle school that Patti decided to marry her love of sewing with her degree in Interior Design and launched Pillows & Pleats, LLC in 2016. Patti specializes in fine custom window treatments and soft furnishings with a focus on quality and outstanding customer service. She has grown Pillows & Pleats organically with referrals from satisfied clients and serves Northern Virginia, DC and Suburban Maryland.

        Diana Hershey, the owner of DBH Designs, provides custom furnishings for the home, office, or business. The services offered to clients include draperies, valances, cornice boards, bedding, pillows, roman shades, blinds, slipcovers, and re-upholstery, just to name a few! Diana takes the time to thoroughly guide her clients through the process of uncovering their style and selecting the optimal fine decorator fabrics and hardware for the space to pull their room together and showcase their exceptional style to all those who enter the room! Diana is on Facebook and Instagram. Resources; Kim's Upholstery Scarlet Thread Consulting   The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by; The WCAA The Workroom Channel Scarlet Thread Consulting  

Having a sewing business had been Doshie Witcher's dream since her mother taught her to hold a needle and thread. While in elementary school, she was sewing clothing for herself and others. In 1990 she opened Doshie's Custom Sewing and began specializing in alterations, custom work, and bridal designs. After making her first window valance, she decided that making window treatments were her passion and she spent the next 15 years working with interior designers to create custom window treatments. This led her to want to create her own line of valances so she designed Hidden Pocket Rod valances, which allow intricate curtain designs to be hung using a basic continental curtain rod. With these designs, Doshie expanded into Etsy in 2012, and now sells her Hidden Pocket Rod valances on her Etsy shop nationwide and internationally under the business name Black Belt Home Decor. Doshie is a second-degree black belt in Shorin Ryu Karate and spends her spare time training others in karate, singing in her local church

Nicole Nomer is the owner of Fabrication Studio, a drapery workroom that has been servicing the interior design industry since 1985. She is a self-taught fabricator starting her sewing journey at the age of 7. She graduated from Dean College with a degree in Art Therapy. Although she never entered that field she feels that her degree has aided her in helping her clients navigate the sometimes difficult decision-making process. Attention to detail, a positive attitude and a willingness to think "outside of the box" has helped her develop long-lasting and fulfilling relationships with the designers and clients she works with. Nicole is on Instagram

Cleo Marthel owns and is the sole operator of Complimentary Designs, a custom soft furnishings workroom located in Murfreesboro, TN. She has been in business for 15 years working with both wholesale and retail clients. Cleo is a member of a local trade group, Professional Drapery Workrooms of Middle TN. She is also a national member of WCAA. For a period of time, she lived in Birmingham, AL and served 1 term as Vice President and 1 term as President of the Alabama chapter of WCAA.   Cleo believes that walking into a beautifully decorated home or workspace renders a warm and inviting feeling and it’s the customized finishing details which make the spaces even more special. Those customized details are what she strives to produce for her clients. Cleo is on Facebook and Instagram Resources;  WCAA Dave Ramsey Sam Sloane Custom Workroom Conference The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA

Marge Jones is the owner of Marge's Custom Slipcovers.  Her mom taught her to sew at 5 and by high school, she was making tailored suits.  Marge taught herself to reupholster in the 70's and two years later to make slipcovers.  She has been in business for 44 years and at 74 doesn't seem to be slowing down much!! Marge is on Facebook and Pinterest Resources; Kim's Upholstery   The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA

Freddie Graves is the owner of The Recovery Room in Vermont.  She started the business in 1989 in her basement and has moved into a barn on her rural property.  I love Freddie's sense of humor and her outlook.   Resources; Wild Chairy  The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA

Continuing our series of products brought to the market in our industry, Ann k. Johnson and Susan Woodcock share the stories of how they wrote and published their books.   Ann K. Johnson owns Sew Easy Windows LLC, a wholesale workroom in Ohio, established in 1992. She is the author of The Professional Workroom Handbook of Swags I & II, and publisher for Kitty Stein's Price Your Work With Confidence! Ann offers private workroom training, seminars, and hands-on classes in workroom fabrication, pattern drafting, efficiency, and pricing. Her topics are always fully packed with time-saving tips and techniques, delivered in a relaxed and light-hearted style. Ann has been a popular industry instructor since 2004. She teaches at Window Fashions IWCE and Custom Workroom Conference. She is a webinar instructor for WCAA & D&D Pro, and a representative for DreamDraper. She is a member of the Greater Cleveland Drapery Professionals and WCAA.   website: https://seweasywindows.com/ Facebook: https://m.facebook.c

      Louise Cornick is the owner of Upholstery Education which formally started in 2018 but was in the making for 2years prior to that . Louise started her upholstery journey when she first arrived in the US from her homeland of England 7 years ago. She took an Upholstery course through adult education as a way of making new friends and getting out of the house. Little did she know what a major impact that choice of class would have of her life.   From offering upholstery services to customers from her home in Southern California to suddenly running a National business was not something she would have envisaged when she started that leisure class 7 years ago.     Links; www.upholsteryeducation.com www.facebook.com/upholsteryeducation/ www.instagram.com/upholsteryeducation/   The British School of Upholstered Furniture   The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA

Mary Jo Huyard is the proud owner of Savannah House, a boutique window treatment shop and showroom in downtown Lancaster PA. Mary Jo works directly with clients in residential and commercial settings as well as working with designers, architect, and builders in a collaborative approach. She worked primarily out of her home until fall of 2017 when she rebranded and founded Savannah House and opened the boutique showroom and workroom that she operates out of today.    You can find Mary Jo on; Facebook Instagram

  Beautiful Spaces opened it’s doors in 2006. Owned and operated by Cynthia LeBlanc. Beautiful Spaces is a full-service Interior Decorating Studio located in Vermilion Ohio. Which is often referred to as “ Little New England” due to its lovely waterfront communities. At Beautiful Spaces our goal is to inspire, educate, problem solve, and finally to design spaces for our client that they will love, and create memories in for years to come. We bring a unique, often overlooked perspective to the design process, through our 13 years of experience and expertise, specifying, designing, and fabricating custom luxury window treatments. Rooted in a lifelong love and study of art, design, textiles, and human nature. Cindy holds the belief that your home should be a sanctuary. Your artwork should strike an emotional cord, and that beautiful window treatments and textiles are so much more than just decoration. This unique combination elevates the design experience for our clients, and, brings functional clarity, visual b

Amanda Smith and Rose Mary LeBlanc are the owners and developers of Seamless Workroom, a system that helps you keep track of job specifications with fillable measuring forms, resource documents and fabrication workbooks that will calculate yardage as well as quote labor, hardware, and fabrics. Amanda is the owner of      Resources; Amanda mentioned Meetedgar and Canva   The OPPORTUNITY THINKING Series of the Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by; The Curtains and Soft Furnishings Resource Library

Laura Hawley is a co-owner of AD Window Treatments, a Custom Window Treatment and Hunter Douglas Showroom in Blue Bell, PA. Ambiance is on Facebook, Pinterest and Houzz.   Resources; Dave Ramsey's Every Dollar App Disto Measuring Device Profit First   The Podcast is sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA

Jill Stanbro Plummer Hughes was born, raised and has spent her entire life in Canton, Oh. She has imported two husbands from out of state. At separate times, of course! Married for 7 ½ years to Michael Hughes with three grown children, Eric, Julie and Sean, 7 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, who are all the loves of her life, along with her son-in-law and two daughters-in-law.   Since 1979 Jill has worked strictly in the window coverings business.    After working for another company, Jill started her own business,  in January 1984. In the 35 years that Stanbro’s Draperies has existed, Jill's business has come full circle from working by herself in her basement workroom, to moving the business three times and employing as many as 10 people, to being back in a basement workroom in her home working mainly on her own, with some much needed assistance from her family.   Jill had the privilege of working for both Cheryl Strickland and Margie Nance. Jill loved teaching and it enabled her to travel all ove

Regina Allen is retired from the military and a native Arkansan. She has had a life-long passion for interior design, window coverings, and fabric. Regina is the owner of Beau Embellishments. While moving from place to place for over 20 years she designed her own draperies and soft furnishings. Ever the perfectionist, Regina, wanted to fabricate with professional techniques and quality craftsmanship. She invested in professional equipment and is a graduate of the Custom Home Furnishings Academy and the Custom Workroom Technical Center. She has established relationships around the country, with other workrooms, designer's and suppliers so she can provide exceptional value and service. Regina is passionate about pursuing education and training opportunities in the window coverings industry to bring you the best in window fashions. Regina is on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.   Resources; Regina mentioned the CHF Academy and while the academy is no longer in existence, the courses they offered on video are a