Eastsider Meredith Rowan said her husband likes to joke that she’s a fabric collector. At home, she keeps an assortment of fabric, including some that has never been used.
Good fabric can be expensive, Rowan said. She doesn’t want to waste it.
“I could spend $23 for a yard of it,” Rowan said. “And every time I think I’m going to use it in a project, I’m like, what if I find a better project? Or what if I mess this up?”
After the craft store chain Joann filed for bankruptcy and closed all their stores across the country last year, Rowan said it’s been hard to find fabric at all. So she decided to open up her own shop, with the goal to offer quality fabric at an affordable price and be a space for local sewists to gather.
Sycamore Sewing Co. opened in September in Irvington. Rowan said she is intentional about the fabric she chooses for the store. The majority of it is 100% cotton and sold for about $6 a yard, but some higher end brands could be about $14 per yard.
“Our goal is to continue to offer that nice quality fabric, but where other companies may mark it up two times, we just kind of mark it enough to be able to kind of keep our shop going,” she said.
Instead of shelves lining the shop, old bed frames and entertainment centers have been repurposed to display knicknacks and colorful fabric. There are displays with Halloween fabric and a section for Christmas patterns. And the exposed brick walls and quaint space makes Sycamore Sewing Co. feel cozy.
“I don’t want to be some big, high-end shop,” Rowan said. “I want to be where anybody can walk in here and they feel at home.”
Rowan and her husband, Jeff, still have full-time jobs; her adult children help run the store. So, to the family, the shop has already become a second home.
On a Thursday afternoon, Rowan’s daughter Peytan Mills was checking out customers with her 6-month-old son Hendrixx strapped to her back in a baby carrier.
Mills said it has been great to see how excited the community is for the shop, even though the store has only been open for a few weeks. She said many people have already reached out to ask about classes and community events.
“I know a lot of people want to see intro to sewing, how to work their sewing machine and just how to make different things like placemats,” she said. “I think it’s a really good place for community in the sewing world. I honestly didn’t know how many people were so interested in sewing.”
Rowan hopes to start offering classes and community events at the beginning of 2027.
But Jeff Rowan said the shop is already a great way to connect with other eastsiders.
“We’ve actually had people bring in projects and throw them up on the table and say, ‘OK, this is what I need to do. Can you help me?’ And we’ll start working together on figuring out their project, it’s kind of cool,” he said.
Although Meredith Rowan loves sewing, she admits she doesn’t do a lot of big projects like quilts or clothes. Instead, she creates a lot of smaller items like table runners. Lately, she’s been making clothes and accessories for her desk goose — a miniature version of the decorative bird some people have on their front porch.
She wants Sycamore Sewing Co. to be a place for both seasoned sewers and beginners to experiment and be creative.
“Even if you’re not a sewer, come in and just have a look,” she said. “It may inspire you to do something. You don’t have to have a sewing machine to work with fabric.”
If you go
Sycamore Sewing Co. is located at 412 S. Ritter Ave. The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
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Mirror Indy reporter Darian Benson covers east Indianapolis. Contact her at 317-397-7262 or darian.benson@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @HelloImDarian or on Bluesky @darianbenson.bsky.social.
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