Sew Much More

The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by; The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA   Melissa Hammann is the owner of Riviera Décor a high-end retail and wholesale custom workroom that also specializes in outdoor décor. She resides in Corpus Christi, Texas a resort coastal town located off the gulf coast of south Texas where she lives with her husband and four children Melissa is the recent recipient of the 2018 IWCA/Visions Award for first place in Curtains and Draperies Workroom competition. Her work has been published numerous times in local media and trade magazines. She holds a Master of Science degree and Bachelor of Business Degree, from Texas A&M along with design training at the New York Institute of Art and Design and twelve certificates from the Custom Home Furnishings Academy located in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a member of the Window Coverings Association of America- Virtual Chapter, wherein she serves on the executive board as Vice President of the Window Coverings

The Podcast is sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA   Today's podcast is a solo podcast, and I share some of the lessons I have learned while learning to podcast.   I hope you will reach out to me on my Facebook page and tell me something that you have learned from listening to the Podcast.     I mentioned Carol Dweck's book The Growth Mindset

  Episode 3 of the Opportunity Thinking Series is an interview with Kitty Stein, author of Price Your Work With Confidence.  Ann K. Johnson is now the publisher of the book and she joins us in an entertaining conversation with Kitty.  It is a little bit difficult for me to comprehend not thinking about window treatments or our industry on a daily basis, but that is what retirement looks like for Kitty now! Encompassing a career of 30 years in the Window Covering Industry, Kitty became a highly respected personality who wore many hats as an entrepreneur: Soft covering designer and fabricator, some of which appeared in national magazines and local designer show houses; sole proprietor workroom to the trade; partnership owning a retail decorating business and wholesale workroom; employer of decorators and workroom fabricators; monthly columnist for two prominent magazines to the trade, wrote well over 200 articles spanning 13 years; seminar presenter; teacher and development assistant to the original window co

The Podcast is Sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA   Sharon Gizzi is the owner of Styles by Sharon, a custom drapery workroom located in Richmond, Virginia.  She has been creating exquisitely crafted window treatments and bedding, with a conscious attention to detail and outstanding customer service, since 1999.  She learned to sew from her mom, who was a custom dressmaker, at age 5.  Sharon graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor's degree in Fashion Merchandising and a Master's degree in Clothing and Textiles.  She pursued a career in retail sales, management, and buying, from Blacksburg, Virginia, to Richmond, to Washington, DC.     Sharon started attending industry conferences in 1999, her first one being Cheryl Strickland's Sew What Conference and has attended many since then.  She has been published in the Sew What newsletter and Richmond House Trends magazine.  She joined WCAA in 2001 and has served as president, vice president, and treasurer of the local R

The Podcast is sponsored by; The Workroom Channel Scarlet Thread Consulting The WCAA   A Chick & A Chair started when Lindsay Orwig kept bringing home wonderful vintage furniture that needed new fabric. Always creative and hands-on, she decided that upholstery was something she wanted to try on her own. She grabbed every book she could put her hands on and scoured the internet for videos and blogs telling her how to upholster. Throughout this time, Lindsay was working on the pieces at home, and posting pictures of them to her personal page on Facebook. Eventually, friends began to notice her work, and one friend decided to take a chance on this do-it-yourselfer, and actually paid Lindsay to reupholster some chairs for her! But they weren't just any chairs - they had belonged to her friend's grandmother, and they were special. They had a story. Lindsay was hooked. From then on, she realized she had found her calling, and A Chick & A Chair was born in 2016. Lindsay now enjoys specializing in chairs w

    The Workroom Channel,  Scarlet Thread Consulting,  The WCAA      Kristen and John Vince are the owners of Custom Elegance a to the trade drapery and upholstery Workroom located in central Florida. Their work has been seen in the Wall Street Journal, Design Bureau, and MCBC builders. They are current members of WCAA. After marrying and moving to Florida Kristen started her home-based business decorating and fabricating window treatments for vacation homes. Later she bought an upholstery shop with a small showroom and moved her business to a commercial location. Five years later, after more than 22 years with a Fortune 500 company, John was laid off as a result of the recession and joined Kristen full time. They have now transitioned their business to strictly fabrication and installation. They provide services to both residential and commercial decorators and have clients throughout the state of Florida and the U.S.   You can find Custom Elegance on Facebook, Instagram. 

The Opportunity Thinking Podcasts are sponsored by;       On Today’s podcast, Vita Vygovska, Jeanelle Dech, and Sue Fresconi talk about business growth. we talk about the decision to grow or not and how many factors and decisions are involved.  There is a lot to take in today Vita shares her growth risk analysis where she lists and ranks the pros and cons of the adding employees as a path for expanding her business. If you haven’t listened to Vita’s first podcast with me, number 63 be sure to listen to that as well.  We refer to a spreadsheet that Vita put together and if you go to http://www.curtainsandsoftfurnishingspro.org/ you can get a copy of the spreadsheet for free.    Jeanelle Dech is President and Co-Founder of Adaptive Textiles, an innovative textile printing company in West Chester, PA. She is a friendly and engaging speaker, known for her Fit-Like-a-Glove slipcovers, SPEED sewing method, and workroom profitability training. She is the creative inspiration behind The Workroom Channel's METHOD SHA

 Ruth Zahler started Connecting Threads Inc in November 1998, serving interior designers in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. In 2008 the business went through substantial growth and thus creating the need for her husband Dan to join her in the business. This growth came about when they decided to venture into bringing commercial fabrication to the business. Ruth and Dan have been serving design firms that design interiors for senior living facilities. Creating custom window treatments and more for senior facilities all over the country. Servicing projects that were in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee and their home-based state of Minnesota. Connecting Threads has been featured in Vision Magazine WFV-Sep/Oct 2011 for an article on Color Blocking using programs like Minutes Matter and Dream Draper. And, featured in Vision Magazine as fabricator for Draped in Luxury in October of 2008. Ruth is active in the industry as being a current member of WCAA Virtual C

The Sew Much More Podcast is brought to you by; The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA   Jennifer Assetto is the owner of In The Fringe, LLC, a to the trade atelier in Havertown, PA.  At In the Fringe, they believe that to live well one must have both awareness and an appreciation for the details surrounding them. For example, a dress or a swag cut on the bias will drape more beautifully than one cut on the straight grain. Fresh cut flowers can bring the outdoors in, adding fragrance and color to an interior décor. Food arranged artfully on a plate can elevate a meal to a fine dining experience. Or, the “attention to detail” that the staff pays at a hotel can improve the overall comfort of a guest’s stay.   You can find Jen on; Facebook  Instagram Houzz  Pinterest   Links; The Feminine Mistake The Happier Podcast The app we mentioned was Measures Light.

The Sew Much More Podcast is brought to you by; The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA   Jennifer Assetto is the owner of In The Fringe, LLC, a to the trade atelier in Havertown, PA.  At In the Fringe, they believe that to live well one must have both awareness and an appreciation for the details surrounding them. For example, a dress or a swag cut on the bias will drape more beautifully than one cut on the straight grain. Fresh cut flowers can bring the outdoors in, adding fragrance and color to an interior décor. Food arranged artfully on a plate can elevate a meal to a fine dining experience. Or, the “attention to detail” that the staff pays at a hotel can improve the overall comfort of a guest’s stay.   You can find Jen on; Facebook  Instagram Houzz  Pinterest   Links; The Feminine Mistake The Happier Podcast The app we mentioned was Measures Light.  

The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;   The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA       Working as an interior designer, drapery workroom, and upholsterer for over 20 years Jill Ragan Scully, owner of Impressive Windows & Interiors, LLC,  has a strong passion for the soft furnishing industry. This diverse skill set is apparent in each space in which she designs for the clients in which she has the pleasure of working.  Jill has been a fixture within the WFCP program for eight years teaching design and workroom of classes at both IWCE as well as online. She recognized the need for access to a broader range of products and services for her peers, so Jill founded My Designer Concierge, a buying group for the soft furnishing industry. She recently expanded these efforts by providing valuable business services such as digital newsletters and affordable websites exclusively for her peers. Jill also works as the content manager for Drapery & Design Digital Digest, seeking articles and

  This episode of the Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by;    The Curtains & Soft Furnishings Resource Library   OPPORTUNITY THINKING- Episode #1 Jeanelle Dech talks about the launch of the Curtains & Soft Resource Library and introduces RISK as uncertainty, with both a negative and positive potential outcome. Jeanelle Dech is President and Co-Founder of Adaptive Textiles, an innovative textile printing company in West Chester, PA. She is a friendly and engaging speaker, known for her Fit-Like-a-Glove slipcovers, SPEED sewing method, and workroom profitability training. She is the creative inspiration behind The Workroom Channel's METHOD SHARE and REAL WORKROOM series and the new Curtains & Soft Furnishings Resource Library which hosts the industry's largest collection of educational resources for Home Decor Professionals. Here is a link to "The Growth Mindset" by Carol Dweck. Here is a link to a Youtube regarding Risk.  In this PM Channel interview, David Hillson (The Risk Doctor) discusses wit

The Podcast is sponsored by; The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA   Zona began her business in 1981 after her family moved to the Des Moines metro area from her hometown. Before moving to Des Moines she worked in a furniture store workroom for 9 months, where she learned how to make custom pleated drapes, which was the trend back then. Patterns for swags and Kingstons weren’t available to her back then, so she self-taught herself to draft patterns for top treatments. Zona later added upholstery and slipcovers to her repertoire. Her business has evolved over the years, starting out to the trade only, then retail, now back to mainly to the trade again. She has had up to 3 employees working with her and also her husband as an installer, but now it’s just her, which she prefers. Zona’s Drapery House is an award-winning workroom. Zona has taught at many of the conferences available for workrooms. She was an instructor at the Custom Home Academy. She is a member of WCAA and served on the boar

The Podcast is sponsored by; The Workroom Channel   Scarlet Thread Consulting   The WCAA   Callie is the owner of Draped and Tailored, a new fabrication studio in Little Rock, AR. Working specifically with the Trade, she creates everything from draperies and pillows, to bedding and Roman shades. By the age of 30, she had several upscale projects in her portfolio, including the Arkansas Governor's Mansion and country music star, Justin Moore. She is also the curator of @fdworkrooms, an Instagram account where she showcases the work of fellow drapery and upholstery workrooms across the world.    She is a member of the WCAA where she serves on the Education Committee. With a focus on the Young Professionals Initiative, she has a desire to bring a new generation into this industry.    Callie has an Interior Design degree from the University of Central Arkansas.   Follow Callie on Facebook and Instagram.  

Pamela Ptak is a couture fashion designer, owner of Ptak Couture and co-founder of the Arts and Fashion Institute in Riegelsville PA & a designer on Lifetime TV’s Project Runway season 7. During Pamela’s casting, Tim Gunn called her work “...among the most beautifully constructed clothes I’ve ever seen” and said, “I think you are on the cusp of something big.” Pamela can be found on Facebook and Instagram. The podcast is sponsored by; Scarlet Thread Consulting The Workroom Channel The WCAA  

The Sew Much More Podcast is sponsored by; The Workroom Channel Scarlet Thread Consulting The WCAA Pamela Ptak is the owner/designer of the Ready-To-Wear fashion line “Pamela Ptak.”, which creates ladies dresses & separates and casual menswear with intriguing and unusual lines, textures & motifs. She also designs custom couture gowns under the label “Ptak Couture™”.    Pamela can be found on Facebook and Instagram.  You can also find information about the Arts and Fashion Institute. 

Maureen Singer's childhood days were spent in Minnesota. The oldest of three girls, she was in a leadership role right out of the crib. Her mother loved to dress all three of them alike. One particular Sunday she said, “I just cannot go to church looking like the rest of you.” That comment took her and her mother to the fabric store where her passion for sewing was ignited. Uniqueness and perfecting the task at hand were always the underlying thread to all her mother taught her—along with basic sewing skills.   Maureen is the mother of 7 beautiful children; five daughters and two sons. They are the reason a “home-based” business was a perfect fit for her. She was able to stay home with her children and still attend the field trips and school functions.  In 1993, she launched “Singer Sewing Room”.She attended some of Cheryl Strickland’s classes and was eager for education. She has taught sewing classes to young girls and has also taught Home Dec classes at a local fabric store in St. Louis. She enjoys teaching

Tammy Granger is the owner of BG Custom Windows located in Cary, NC. She began her career in window coverings in 1989 after graduating from NC State University. Tammy is passionate about choosing the perfect fabric and meticulously creating one of a kind window coverings. She was voted Best of Houzz 2017 in the customer service category. After joining the Triangle chapter of the WCAA she served as Vice President and is currently serving as Past President.    You can find Tammy on Facebook and Instagram. 

Laurel McGee began sewing at her grandmother’s knee.  However, her time spent working on a sewing machine was inconsistent until 12 years ago when she began making window treatments for her home.    Her professional career began when an interior design student asked for her help in a home they were working on.  After attending the Custom Workroom Weekend, she knew she had found her people.    Laurel is a wife and the mother of two grade school children.  She is a runner and has been very active in her Connecticut community.  Laurel continues to build her part-time business by word of mouth.   Laurel is not active on Social Media, but she's working on it!  You can find her on Facebook.   You can reach Laurel by email at; lmc4yourhome@gmail.com

  Annie Davis is the owner of ALDesigns, originally founded in 2000 as a custom drapery workroom. She provides window treatments, bedding and other soft goods for interior designers. She is also an instructor, focusing on cornices, through venues such as Workroom Tech and The Workroom Channel. She has published articles in Drapery & Design Magazine, has recently done a webinar on pre-lining cornices and has a presence on a number of network forums. Annie's Method Share for routed cornices is on the Workroom Channel and you can see it here. Click here to find out more about Annie's class at Workroom Tech.