Sew Special brings classic skill to Fayette County
Submitted
In 1993, Donna Eicher’s husband Rick lost his job due to downsizing and like most families with four young sons and a tough situation, Donna started looking for ways to help make ends meet.
For her, it was taking on sewing clients.
“I knew how to do it and I enjoyed it. I’d do alterations, and we bought a commercial embroidery machine,” Donna said. “In 1997, we purchased a building in downtown Uniontown, and the alteration shop (at 73 W. Main St.) is still there.”
By 2000, due to high demand, they became Husqvarna Viking and PFAFF sewing machine retailers, and Rick went to school to learn how to repair the machines.
Customers began asking for fabric when the local fabric and craft store closed, so the couple brought in fabric inventory. By 2018, they opened a new location in the Westland Plaza at 688 W. Main St.
“We needed more room and better parking, so we left the alteration shop at the original location and created the quilt shop and fabric store in the plaza,” Donna said.
Finding a seamstress can be difficult, Donna noted, so the skill is in demand.
“We’re swamped during prom season. We do military patches and the patches for our local correction officers. There’s so much hemming and tailoring to be done for prom dresses and wedding dresses, and when it’s time for new school clothes, everyone orders them online, and they’re not going to fit perfectly,” she said.
In a day and age where families are looking for cost effective solutions, such as planting a garden, canning for the winter and more, Donna is willing to support fellow seamstresses and crafters and teach others how to sew and hem their own clothing too.
She’s been active in 4-H sewing clubs, judging sewing entries at local county fairs and speaking at quilt guilds and sewing groups over the years.
Not only can customers take classes on sewing machine skills and quilting demos at the store, in 2010, the Eichers opened Seams Like Home Bed & Breakfast and Quilting Retreat in Vanderbilt.
“We can accommodate up to 10 people with five rooms, and we have a lot of quilting and scrapbooking groups come in,” Donna said. “We’re also three miles from the Connellsville trailhead on the Allegheny Passage. We offer a service for cyclists. We’ll pick them up, bring them to the B&B for an overnight, breakfast in the morning, and then drop them back off at the trailhead.”
It’s safe to say in 1993, the Eichers would have never dreamed of where they are now.
“It was all very organic. We didn’t start out with this in mind, but we didn’t want to leave the area. We had four young children at home and our families were here. We didn’t want to uproot everyone so we made do with what we could, and we feel very blessed today,” Eicher said.
For more information, visit www.sew-special.biz or https://seamslikehomeretreat.com/.