Thread the Needle

Stitch Morgantown is not your grandma’s sewing shop.

➼ If you’re a DIY enthusiast with an unfulfilled interest in stitchery—or if you’re experienced but want to get newly inspired or refresh your skills—this is good news for you: Stitch Morgantown in Westover is offering sewing goods, machine rental, and project workshops.

Accomplished seamstress Angie Miller opened the shop in February with a younger, hipper sewing demographic in mind. “People see all these cool projects on Pinterest and Instagram, and they want to make handmade gifts,” Miller says, “I’ve gotten lots of beginners, and they like that it’s more contemporary, modern fabrics here that are fun.”

Stitch is great for beginners, because people who don’t own sewing machines can rent time on one of the six machines in the shop. But Miller is just as much a resource to people who own machines but need a little coaching. “I encourage them to bring their machine in. I’ll tear it apart with them and show them what everything is and how to thread it, beca–use that’s a place where people can get tripped up.”

Miller is a registered nurse by training, but she found that nursing was changing—there was more office politics and paperwork and less of the patient care she’d gotten into it for. “Leaving that to do this was probably the most terrifying and exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she says. “But crafting and sewing is a lifelong passion that I’ve wanted to pursue.”

Beyond its selection of contemporary fabrics, Stitch offers a variety of sewing notions, kits for embroidery, and patterns as well as handicrafts made by Miller herself—aprons, stand mixer covers, and embroidered kitchen towels.

The shop’s sewing machines are EverSewn Sparrows: two each of the computer-controlled models 20, 25, and 30. Miller is also an EverSewn dealer.

And her classes are evolving. Over the winter, she offered single classes that participants would leave with finished craft pieces: gardening aprons, pillow covers, reversible grocery totes. Now she’s also offering multiple-class series for customers who are ready for more of a challenge. “Things like basic quilting—we’re starting on a quilted table runner this week—or a jelly roll rug,” she says. “We’re also doing a quilted Christmas tree skirt. And people suggest things they’d like to do. I’m open to ideas.”

In July, Miller started offering a subscription box. “It’s $25 a month and they get a yard of fabric, a little project kitted up, and a couple fun little surprise things, with a retail value more than what they’re paying.”

She’s also participating in Row by Row Experience, which she describes as “an international summertime shop hop.” “I designed a pattern for a quilt block and, during the summer months, people will be able to come into the shop and pick up the pattern for free. From the beginning of September to the end of October, whoever brings in a finished quilt with eight blocks wins a prize.” This year’s Row by Row theme is Sew Musical.

22 Commerce Drive, Westover, 304.943.7137 @stitchmorgantown on Facebook

photographed by Carla Witt Ford