Stitched together

In their cozy little corner of Woodlawn, Lillis Taylor and Annie Bryant spend their Tuesdays surrounded by spools of thread, sewing machines, quilts and people.

Here is where the heart of Bib and Tucker Sew-Op beats. 

Its mission is to help people of all ages learn skills with the vision of creating a cottage industry of textile manufacturing designed to create income opportunities for single-parent households, Taylor said.

Both Bryant and Taylor said they love the creation they have stitched together, but they said they have different reasons for how they got there and why they learned to sew in the first place.

“I studied industrial design, and I wanted to have the ability to put my dad’s designs on textiles and make dresses out of them,” said Taylor, a 36-year-old artist.

And her colleague?

“I wanted to learn to make things and keep my hands busy. If I don’t keep my hands busy, I’ll eat. You can’t eat and sew at the same time,” Bryant, a grandmother, said with a laugh.

It was those two thoughts that made their paths cross in 2010 at the Birmingham Quilters Guild, where both of them had gone to pick up some beginner sewing skills.

“Most everyone there was more experienced than me,” Bryant said. “But Lillis was a novice too, and she was very friendly. We became friends.”

The two exchanged numbers, and even though Bryant didn’t keep going to the guild, Taylor would take what she learned at each meeting and then meet up with Bryant to pass on the knowledge. It was a casual meeting of friends, except that soon it wasn’t just Bryant. Six or seven people were gathering each time at the Tarrant library to learn from Taylor.

“It wasn’t long before we started getting on their nerves there at the library,” Bryant said, noting that they were cutting patterns and cutting up — not exactly library behavior.

So they moved into a new space, and then another as they grew, and then another. They got the vision to make their little sewing group into a dynamo business that could provide some skills and income to local women. 

But when they started applying for grants, it was a bit of a roller coaster. 

“When we didn’t get the first grant I applied for, I was so depressed,” Taylor said. “But things with the group continued to coalesce, and I started a Kickstarter campaign. Things really got going after that.”

And after much hard labor, Bib and Tucker Sew-Op was born, named and incorporated.

“‘Bib and tucker’ is slang for a woman’s finest clothes in England,” Taylor said. 

The funds, from the large to the small, have come just when they’ve needed them. A $13,000 grant from the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s public health awards helped them to further expand, and The Sewing Machine Project, a nonprofit group in Wisconsin, sent them four refurbished Bernina sewing machines to train students.

“It’s the top brand in sewing machines,” Taylor said.

A used Bernina was where she got her start, too, she said.

She bought one at age 27 after visiting Gee’s Bend, a tiny, remote south Alabama community world-renowned for its quilts.

Taylor said she had tried to sew when she was younger.

“My maternal grandmother was an avid sewer, and when she passed away, my mom tried and tried to teach me and keep my grandmother’s legacy going,” she said.

But the machine “just eluded me,” Taylor said.

“I had strong feelings of immediate gratification with art at that point in my life, and sewing didn’t provide that quite like I wanted,” she said.

But after visiting Gee’s Bend, she said, she was ready to give it another go.

“I wanted to try my hand at quilting, and so I started hand sewing squares and making appliques,” Taylor said. “They weren’t really all that good, but I got hooked.”

So she bought a used Bernina and reached out to start learning more. That’s when she met Bryant.

The Sew-Op moved into its new studio in Woodlawn, at 4915B Fifth Ave. S., in July 2015. 

“We’ll outgrow this soon, too,” Bryant said from her seat nestled among the sewing machines. “We’re already congested in here.”

Because Taylor and Bryant are co-founders, they’re also the leaders, custodians and bathroom cleaners. But they both say they love it.

The group of about 20 meets every Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and anyone can come. 

Bib and Tucker Sew-Op thrives on community projects such as making quilts for shelters. It also has projects such as their March Quilts, which artistically honor different topics of equality.

“We want to be the hub of all things sewing, philanthropic and income-generating,” Taylor said. “I think we could incubate people who want to start their own business.”

Taylor said she dreams of one day being able to hire a shop tech and build the business even more.

Her own day job — working with University Hospital’s arts and medicine program and sewing with patients and family members — provides a major artistic outlet for her. And she said she’s working this year to breathe new life into Tré Lilli, the dressmaking company she started with her father several years ago.

But the time she’s got invested at Bib and Tucker Sew-Op is dear to her heart.

“We’ve gotten so much of a positive response,” Taylor said. “And we’ve got so much more we want to do.”

For more information, go to bibandtuckersewop.org.