CROWD STITCH
Fabric stores across Hampton Roads see unprecedented traffic
The line starts forming around 8 a.m. at Fabric Hut on East Little Creek Road in Norfolk, owner Douglas Jarvis said. That’s two hours before the store’s opening.
Jarvis said he wasn’t sure what would become of his business when Gov. Ralph Northam issued stay-at-home orders because of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier on, official guidelines across the nation were all over the place about whether the public should wear a mask. But within a few days, Jarvis was seeing patronage like he’d rarely experienced in his 50 years of business.
Shoppers were patiently staking their spot to get into the textiles superstore, where they can choose from thousands of patterns and textures, sewing notions and machines to create masks of their whimsy.
Capacity guidelines are being enforced and customers must wear a mask to enter. Operating hours have remained the same at 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and closed Sundays.
“We want to help the community work together to get through this pandemic,” Jarvis said.
Same scenario at A Different Touch fabric store on South Military Highway in Chesapeake, near its border with the College Park section of Virginia Beach. On Friday morning, manager Patty Ramsey said there was a long line
of customers waiting for the shop to open.
Save for the occasional quilt expo and the out-of-town traffic that comes with it, Ramsey said it has been years since they’ve seen similar lines. Matter of fact, some fabric stores, like the Hancock’s chain in 2016, have been forced out of business nationwide. But at A Different Touch, customers of every age and level of sewing experience have been pouring into the store since the pandemic.
Some come through the doors carrying sewing machines that have been tucked in closets for decades, seeking technicians to restore them so they can get back to stitching. Newcomers to the skill ask staff for tips and watch YouTube videos to learn the basics on the fly.
Ramsey said they’ve sold out of many essentials needed to make masks, including elastic, shears, rotary cutters and even sewing machines.
“It’s absolute craziness,” Ramsey said. “Our deliveries are backed up and it’s difficult to replace some of this stuff right now.”
The shop’s hours are limited for the time being, she said. They’re open from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.
Despite the drastic increase in traffic, staff and customers are abiding by current social-distancing guidelines.
“We limit the number of people inside the store to five or six at a time and they don’t gather up once they’re in here,” she said.
While some items are scarce, the shop has plenty of fabric for folks to make masks for themselves and others, Ramsey said.
“It’s amazing, you know. This is one of those things that we pray doesn’t happen again,” she said. “But as long as we have fabric, we’ll be here.”
Chesapeake resident Dena
Townsend is among the mask makers who have ventured out to shop for supplies during the pandemic. Not that she, a textile jewelry designer and seamstress, didn’t already have a stash of fabric. But she wanted more options because of the deluge of orders coming from around the world, she said.
For Townsend, who operates as MotoxDesignz, creating masks started off more “as a sense of comfort,” she said. “But it may as well be fashionable. It’s going to be part of your everyday clothing.”
Townsend, 46, said she starting wearing a mask in February in her day job as an account representative for a medical supply company. Then she got laid off because of the coronavirus.
Husband William’s construction work also slowed, “so I taught him how to do masks, how to work with patterns and colors,” she said. Three layers are used: fabric on the front and back cover an inner filter-like lining.
The Townsends have since turned the two-car garage of their Deep Creek home into a fullfledged mask workshop, filling orders placed via Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, eBay and email. They churn out masks starting at 7 a.m, and sometimes work into the predawn hours, they said.
And that’s in addition to the scores given away.
“I donate them to workers at 7-Eleven, Dollar General, gas stations,” Dena Townsend said. “If I see any front-line workers who do not have a mask, I give them one. I tell them, ‘I want you covered.’”
The Townsends’ efforts mirror that of DIY crafters whose handiwork has been born of both necessity and generosity. Out-of-work costumers and designers have taken to social media to talk about their change in focus, right along with those who’ve had little experience sewing but who want to help others.
“Many of us designers are making masks as no one is buying dresses,” Sehar Peerzada of D.C.area based Urban Masala said on her Facebook page.
But as Ramsey of A Different Touch alluded, the run on some mask materials, like elastic, has caused shortages at some stores nationwide, according to news reports. In turn, it has forced creativity. Townsend uses a specific kind of ponytail holder on a wider mask design, she said. Other designers are using cloth tie strips.
Don’t fret: Elastic isn’t out of stock everywhere, said Jarvis of Fabric Hut. “I ordered 50 yards of it today,” he said Friday.