Stitch House Dallas

Plano Shop Makes Sewing Cool Again

Jessica Bermudez has been a part of the sewing world since the day she was born, and the shop that she co-owns in Plano with her fiancé, Bryan Peel, is a testament to that. “My mom, Veronica, has a sewing store similar to mine in California. My grandfather has sewing stores in St. Petersburg and Tampa, Fla., where I am from. My great grandfather sold Singer sewing machines door-to-door in the early 1940s,” she said.

In 2017, Jessica opened her own sewing shop here on Independence Parkway and named it Stitch House Dallas. In January last year, she relocated to the current location at 605 18th Street near Downtown Plano after she realized they needed a larger space to host events.

“My goal was to move to a cool place, open a store and change the image of sewing. I think having an outlet or a creative hobby is ‘sew’ important, and I know sewing can provide that for so many people,” Jessica said.

Jessica and Bryan’s 16,000-square-foot space is colorfully decorated and feels cozy while maintaining plenty of openness. The shop’s size makes it easy to practice social distancing. Local artist Alli Koch created wall murals, and Jessica and her team renovated and designed the space themselves.

Though it looks a bit different since March, Stitch House Dallas remains focused on education. “Most of our business is helping customers get the most out of their hobby with education and teaching. I like to think of the store as YouTube in real life, where we can answer questions that may not be found online. We also spend time coming up with creative classes to excite a variety of people and teach them about sewing, quilting and embroidery,” Jessica said.

Before the pandemic, Stitch House Dallas was regularly hosting large events and flying in guest speakers from around the world to teach and inspire customers in a hands-on setting. Though it still offers private lessons and classes with social distancing measures in place, most of its instruction has moved to its YouTube channel.

In addition to the online presence, customers can still go into the store to shop for fabric and notions, ask questions about sewing machine issues or get machines repaired.

Speaking of sewing machines, Jessica says that Stitch House Dallas is the only sewing store in the country with multiple classrooms that provide sewing machines for use. All machines are top-of-the-line with the latest technology that most people would never get to use in a home machine.

Stitch House Dallas has seen a new variety of shoppers during the pandemic. Previous non-sewers have decided to pick up a new hobby with newfound free time, adding young adults and men to the repertoire of seamstresses and tailors.

“Our typical customer has changed because we’re seeing a lot of younger sewers, and that’s really exciting,” Jessica said. “Tik Tok has helped, plus Etsy and Instagram.

“My favorite thing about sewing is how therapeutic it is,” Jessica said. “I like to think of it as a creative process where you can just focus on what you’re making.”