Piper’s Story
I met Piper in an elevator when she was moving into her studio at our downtown apartment complex. She had graduated from University of Missouri and was moving to the city to get closer to her workplace. When I first put out the call for help making face masks, she wasn’t the first person I thought would volunteer, since I mistakenly assumed young urban professionals wouldn’t have the interest or the requisite crafting skills. But when she heard about our efforts she sought me out, as she wanted to help fight the mask shortage for medical professionals. When I dropped off the first materials, she had already converted her kitchen island to a workbench, setting up her sewing machine, thread, and tools on the kitchen counter. She was ready to go.
She would make around 20-30 per week, working around her work schedule, and drop them off outside my apartment door. Once, when the weather was nice, she dropped them off at our studio after purchasing four dozen spools of thread for us. I nearly cried, since thread felt impossible for us to find when the whole world was making face masks at the same time. But it was no big deal to her; just another way for her to help out.
Once we launched Madison Stitch, I asked her to design any product of her choice. She chose to make a gathering apron from our hand-dyed linen, and she was the only one of all our stitchers to provide detailed instructions along with a digital pattern that our in-studio team could use to duplicate her design. I later learned she was a cyber-security expert at a big accounting firm, responsible for protecting the firm’s data from hackers. I asked her, then, to help us get started with social media, and she set up our accounts, grew our follower list, and created our early style standards.
She loves yoga, practicing it every day, and she suggested we design a washable yoga mat bag using our Shibouri dye patterns. She helped define the features and functionality, which helped our in-studio team design the bag that is now a mainstay among our product collections.
Sometimes, the people you least expect to contribute turn out to be the most consistent helpers. In Piper’s case, I’m thankful my first impression was mistaken and I remained open to her help, as Madison Stitch is better with her around.
