Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Mathis.
Hi Danielle, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Well, I have always had a love of all things vintage. From watching old black-and-white movies and episodes of “I Love Lucy” with my mom growing up, I grew especially entranced with the fashion of bygone eras. When I was around 14, after watching me fill notebook after notebook of sketches of clothing designs, my mom asked me if I wanted to learn how to sew. It was strange the thought had never even occurred to me! That was back in the early 2000’s, so well before the days where you could find a YouTube tutorial for anything under the sun. Atlanta also didn’t have a huge sewing scene. My mom found me a few classes, but I have always been a fast learner. I was soon ready for more than beginner classes could offer. So I bought my first sewing patterns, some vintage apron patterns, and checked out tons of books from the public library and went to work teaching myself how to sew. I only thought I would start with the aprons because they were good practice for dresses and knew my mom would wear all the aprons I could make her. After about a year, my little aprons started to look pretty good. My mom would share photos of aprons I made her online and soon her friends were placing orders with me. Then their friends, neighbors, and co-workers were ordering from me, too! By Christmastime the year I turned 16, I had made a couple of thousand dollars from making vintage-style aprons! So, I decided to design my own patterns, blending elements of vintage style aprons that I liked with modern functionality. I got the idea to reach out to a store my mom ordered from online that catered to the homesteader community. I took “good pictures”–which looking back now were not good at all–and emailed the company and told them I had a small sewing business producing these vintage-inspired aprons for modern women and I thought they would be a great fit for the clientele that shopped with them. And to my utter surprise, the buyer agreed! The store ordered 300 aprons from me! Of course they had no idea I was a 17 year-old kid sewing these at my mother’s dining room table. But, that was when I first realized I could make an actual business from these aprons. And aprons have kind of been my life ever since!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Dear Lord! I have had more trials and misadventures than I can even remember. For years I worked full-time in the restaurant industry while also building my business. I can remember nights of getting off work at 11pm, chasing coffee with RedBull all night long while sewing an order by myself, and then sleeping in my car for two hours before getting the order shipped the next morning, going home to shower and heading back into work a 12-hour shift. Once, I had the brilliant idea to drive the entire way to Las Vegas for a trade show in a rented U-Haul van which broke down on the most desolate stretch of highway imaginable in Oklahoma. One time I had a booth at a fall craft fair where it was insanely cold and rained the entire weekend. My tent was located in a field that got flooded and I spent the entire Saturday literally standing in mud that was up around my ankles. Then, to top it all off, my tent blew away in a sudden gust of wind and all my stuff was absolutely drenched. Another rainy time, a box full of product flew off the back of my pickup when driving down the expressway, so I literally had to pull over and run back and forth from the emergency lane to the middle of the highway grabbing small handfuls of products and moving them to safety while dodging the cars. I’m sure it looked like some sort of sketch comedy to the drivers, but it was not very funny to me at the time, lol!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Textile & Twine is a line of impeccably sewn products for the kitchen and home. I started with 5 styles of vintage-inspired aprons, and that has been what the business is most known for. But, that has evolved over the years more into a line of designer aprons with matching accessories like oven mitts, tea towels, tote bags, lunch totes, etc. Textile & Twine also caters to the service and hospitality industries now and produces the aprons that are worn as the uniforms for many servers, cooks, baristas, and shopkeepers at restaurants and storefronts across the U.S. What sets us apart from other brands that simply provide aprons is the fact that everything is handmade in America… We source fabrics and trims from U.S. suppliers, use local seamstresses to sew the products. I am a very big supporter of small business because of the emphasis on community that is at the heart of small business. I have a lot of pride in being a contributor to the small business scene in Atlanta and being able to provide skilled labor jobs, even in the very small amount I am able.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I think the most surprising thing for a woman who spends her days sewing, designing, wearing, creating aprons is….I don’t cook! LOL!
Pricing:
- Women’s Aprons $45
- Children’s Aprons $32
- Designer Oven Mitts $18
- Handmade Cloth Napkins $18
Contact Info:
- Email: info@textileandtwine.com
- Website: www.textileandtwine.com
- Instagram: @textileandtwine
Image Credits:
Calvin Lockwood (only for the product images)
