SIY Shop Spotlight: Pins & Needles
Pins and Needles New York
Meet Lisa Alfonzetti, owner of Pins and Needles fabric shop in Mount Kisco, New York! After 35 years of running her shop, she says it’s still a joy to come in to work every day. Read on to learn how she has stayed true to her vision of creating a DIY community through her retail space, classes, and charity sew-a-longs!
Tell us about your sewing story and how you got started.
My mom sewed our clothes, Halloween costumes, and Easter dresses growing up. She was a great influence in my desire to sew. When I was about 10 years old, I started sewing with her help on her Singer sewing machine. In college, one of my aunts gave me her old Singer and I made slipcovers for the used furniture that my roommates and I purchased. When I got close to graduation, I actually sewed my interview outfit!
How did you come to own a fabric shop?
I got a job in public relations in New York City when I graduated from college. I hated the corporate environment and the commute. One day, I just up and quit and began searching for options that were more entrepreneurial. I was trying to write freelance, I took my real estate licensing course, and I still sewed on the side as a hobby. I was really kind of floundering and I didn’t know what to do. My fiancé at the time came across an ad for a fabric store for sale. He said, “Hey, you should do this!”
So, at 23 years old I bought Pins and Needles. I had no idea what I was doing. At that time, it had a little bit of a different atmosphere. They carried a lot of high-end dress fabrics and hired a dressmaker to make custom pieces for women. I took the shop more in the direction of cotton fabrics, quilting classes, and the “do-it-yourself” thing—not people doing things for you, but teaching people how to sew.
Around 2007, when the economy wasn’t so great and people weren’t spending a lot of money, we downsized to a smaller location. Then all of a sudden, the business erupted again. Right before Covid in November 2019, we moved again to an office park location with more retail space and more parking. Our customers love it, and it’s a great location!
Also, my mom Deb helped me from the beginning. She’s 84 now and she still comes in to work 5 to 6 days a week. She teaches our children’s classes and she’s a lot of the spirit of the shop.
Tell us more about the classes you offer in-store. Who is your typical customer?
Our customer base is very diverse. Our regular sewing studio runs 6 to 7 open sew sessions a week with regular groups of customers who have been coming for years—it’s their therapy and their community. These are my 40-somethings who have time and disposable income.
We offer regular studio classes, children’s classes ages 7 to high school, plus standalone classes like the SIY—Sew it Yourself program. For instance, we did the Patchwork Pillow project as an independent series for over four months. We hosted these classes totally on Zoom and had a good response. In each session, the participants were able to show off what they did—it’s the community piece. Community is our niche—people just want to be together.
We offer beginner to intermediate regular classes like pajama pants, tote bags, Perfect Pouches (a pattern by Lazy Girl Designs), and a learn-to-quilt class. Classes where everyone is sewing the same project bring us the new sewist.
The 20- to 30-something sewists, who begin with online videos and online purchases, will get to a point where they get stuck and can’t get a notion or two fast enough from an online retailer. This is how they end up in my store. They are greeted respectfully and like family. It only takes a moment for them to realize that there are other people who sew in the community, close by, and can answer questions. Then they start asking about the class schedule and they show up in your classes.
Do you have any charity sewing projects you support?
We collect and donate baby quilts to organizations in our area. A lot of the quilts people are doing on their own. Before Covid, we always did a quilt-a-thon event at least once a year. That was a phenomenal event. We did it all day, we had machines and a longarm set up, and we would make kits ahead of time. Some people came in for an hour and others came in for the whole day. The store was full of people pressing, sewing, and quilting, and we shared food at lunchtime with more snacks in the afternoon. One year we made 30 quilts in one day! It brought a lot of people in who didn’t necessarily come in on a weekly basis. Even some of my long-time customers from 25 years ago will keep an eye out for the charity quilt-a-long so they can join in.
The last one we did before Covid, I involved neighboring quilt shops and made it a fun competition. Every shop had a theme and we gave silly awards for categories like “best snack.” A local blogger judged the shops and she visited each shop the day of the charity sew. We’re hoping to reinstitute that quilt-a-thon by this summer or fall!
What is the number one fun thing you do in your shop that people look forward to?
Classes. When people walk in the door for classes or open sews and they see a familiar face, they are so happy. You’ll even hear shrieks of joy! People need like-minded people to connect with. They are searching out their tribe.
What do you love most about owning a fabric shop?
I drive to work every day and I’m happy to be there. It’s been 35 years in June, and I’m always looking forward to going to work. That enthusiasm never goes away. I can’t wait to be in my shop. It’s my happy place. You can come in here and it’s like an escape from everything. It’s color. It’s creative. It’s not news headlines or everything that’s going on in the world.
For a lot of our customers, we provide more than just the sewing lesson. We’re that little bit of therapy that helps, which makes me feel great. You come across all kinds of stories while you’re sitting at the machine and people are talking. You hear all kinds of things that people are struggling with. We are making a difference, that’s the most important thing. It is really not about how to make a pillow; it is about the fact that I am able to touch their lives in a way that hopefully brightened it a little bit—to show that somebody truly cares. That’s what makes it all worth it.
Inspired to get involved? Find your local or online SIY Retailer: siysewityourself.com/retailers
Lisa is a great person to work with…she is always there to lend advice, even when her shop is closed she is just an email away. She truly cares about all her customers and ther satisfaction.
Lisa and her mom Deb really changed my life. I had decided that I needed a hobby as an outlet from my work as a child clinical psychologist. I had no idea how to sew!!! They gave me lessons in sewing and embroidery. I took some classes. Lisa is always available to answer questions. I am so happy that I found Pins and Needles!
Love the people I meet in Pins and Needles. gramma quincy
When I taught fashion in high school Lisa was a huge supporter of my program and students. She annually gave raffle prizes to my students’ fashion shows and contributed to our quiltathon for years. She was my life line to Bernina and was always there with helpful machine advise. She and her mom deserve all the recognition they can get for helping to keep the creative craft if sewing alive.