Last year, on Super Bowl Sunday, “tailgating” took on new meaning for Threaded Together co-founders Lindsey Watson and Tina La Chance. With the help of (now Education Director) Tasha Miller Griffith, La Chance and Watson painted their new suite in the Kachina Square Shopping Center. The shop, situated between Sugar Mama’s and The Dog Wash, would become their brand new non-profit’s first home. Between rolling paint and patching the concrete floor, our team took a break on the tailgate of La Chance’s green truck. That’s as close to a Super Bowl Party as any of the ladies came in 2020.
In no time at all, Super Bowl parties and large gatherings, in general, would feel light-years away. As the COVID-19 pandemic descended, our founders were forced to cancel their “Spring Equinox” grand opening party (set for March of 2020).
Despite that cancelation, the charming turquoise floors Lindsey and Tasha and Tina painted were destined for good use. The suite at 2614 N. Steves Blvd. would become a home away from home for hired sewists and several volunteers as they churned out thousands of hospital gowns and other forms of reusable life-saving PPE.
Threaded Together’s story began in that shop- where the delightful smells of sweets from Sugar Mama’s seemed to steep through the walls. The team started their journey serving the community listening to the rustle of Gortex gowns, the humming of Juki sewing machines, and the muffled barking of protesting pups getting baths next door.
By the end of summer, it seemed Threaded Together was already outgrowing its first space. The team had filled every hospital gown order. Now they looked hopefully to the future. A future in which Threaded Together sharpened its focus on education.
When La Chance and Watson first saw our new location, they fell in love. The suite offered natural separation between a classroom space and a workroom space. It was equipped with an entire wall of pegboard (a sewist’s daydream), perfect for hanging rulers and scissors and thread.
With light flooding in through the south-facing windows, the team decided to pick up and wheel our sewing machines across the parking lot to 2710 N. Steves Blvd., Suite 2.
Before we got those machines rolling (quite literally, we pushed them over using our giant wheeled cutting tables as dollies), we had to prepare our new shop. In almost storybook fashion, our team came full circle.
On Super Bowl Sunday in 2021 volunteers (headed up by La Chance) painted the new location. When the suite smelled like fresh white paint, we had the sign moved to the “Circle K” side of the shopping center. Our window stickers went down and back up again, and we entered our new home ready to fill it with sergers, plants, sewing patterns, and all of our hopes for the future.
By the end of the last week in February, Threaded Together was set up in the new location.
In April, with the majority of our staff members vaccinated, we’ll be offering in-person classes.
Our workroom is shifting gears to focus more directly on production and custom work, moving away from alterations for the time being to better serve incoming participants in the STEP Program.
In this new location, we’re looking forward to ushering in the next chapter for our little sewing non-profit. More big things are coming soon!
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