An army of home-based seamstresses and tailors turned 2020 into a very good year for sewing suppliers. Blaine Enterprises Inc., which operates the Blaine Sewing Machine Center in Cranston, for a period of time couldn’t keep enough solid fabric or elastic on hand to meet demand.
The center carries five major brands of sewing machines, all of which have been selling out and many of which are on back order. Repairs, which typically take its three full-time service employees up to four weeks, are now taking twice as long.
Yes, that many people have started sewing in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Karen Roy, who owns the center with her husband, Bob, didn’t think any of this was going to happen in March. She closed the shop in mid-March, ahead of government-ordered shutdowns of retail stores, because she had many older employees and was worried about keeping everyone safe.
On June 1, she reopened a newly cleaned store and work room as an essential business. And it’s been full-on ever since, driven at first by people pulling out their mother’s or grandmother’s sewing machines to make homemade cloth masks.
“Everyone was pulling their sewing machine out,” Karen Roy said. “Sewing became a survival skill.”
Initially, it was people making masks, then as the pandemic stretched on, sewing became an escape. The center, which sells machines from five major brands at prices from $99 to $20,000, initially sold more machines at the low-end of the scale. Lately, more buyers are seeking out dream machines.
“The people that enjoy sewing, what we’re finding now, are going for the upper-end machines,” Roy said. “They just like to sew. They thought, you know what? I’m going to get the machine I want. I think the pandemic has made people refocus on what their priorities are.”
Roy, who purchased the business with her husband 15 years ago, has made a career of sewing machines, fabric and supplies. She worked at the former Outlet Department Store in Providence when the original Blaine company leased the sewing department space.
In 1982, when the Outlet Department Store closed, the Blaine family reopened elsewhere in Providence.
In 2005, Karen and Bob bought the business from the grandniece of the original owner and kept the Blaine name.
They have nine employees, including three full-time sewing-machine repair technicians. Bob Roy, an experienced service manager, is one of them.
The pandemic, which sent people in search of old machines, brought them many old models of 30 years or more. “People were pulling out their grandma’s machines, the old, straight-stitch machines,” Karen Roy said.
Like bicycles and kayaks, sewing machines, no matter the manufacturer, are in short supply this year.
And fabric has had its moments of toilet-paper scarcity. Solid-color cottons are harder to order now, as they are favored by seamstresses and tailors who work for state prisons, and who are making masks for inmates and employees.
Because of pandemic restrictions on indoor space, Blaine had to cancel its sewing classes. But because of the increased demand, Roy estimates her overall sales are up by 20% this year.
She was able to gradually rehire her employees without taking out a federal forgivable loan.
“We were able to bring them all back,” she said.
OWNERS: Karen and Bob Roy
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Retail sales and service of sewing machines, fabric
ADDRESS: 1280 Oaklawn Ave., Cranston
EMPLOYEES: Nine
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2005
ANNUAL SALES: WND
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
