Start Here

After years working as a costume designer and crafting all by my lonesome, I started wondering if there was a way to do what I loved (sewing, crafting, fashioning stuff out of vintage finds, etc.) all the time and not do it alone. I read about San Francisco’s Stitch Lounge and while I never got to go there, I was really sad when they closed their doors. I was envious of all the people who had a place to go make something while getting to hang out with other people itching to make something, too.

Years later I noticed that stitch lounges were popping up all over the country. And in Canada. But there wasn’t one in my neck of the woods. I also noticed that I was buying all my fabric online instead of in person. Which was counterintuitive for someone who loves to feel the weight and drape of fabric. But I wasn’t finding fabric I really loved in town. It was time to take action.

So after a lot of hemming and hawing "gather here" was born. Well, the plan was hatched but the actual store was still a pipe dream. We saved and we wrote a business plan. We researched. And finally we found the perfect place to call “home.” But it wouldn’t become our home until 2011.

2011 isn’t that far away. And suddenly we’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything we have to do to open the doors and welcome someone/anyone in. This is just the beginning. So stay tuned for all the dirt about the birth of the shop, updates about opening day, and me – owner of "gather here" and maker of things.