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If you are reading this, you may be asking several questions:
What happened to Dutch Treat Needlecrafts?
Can I still buy tabletopper supplies in Livermore?
What does Dutch Treat sell now?
What does Dutch Treat studio look like?
What happened to Dutch Treat Needlecrafts?
After almost 15 years as a full line needlework store, I decided to downsize and to only sell my own needlework designs as Dutch Treat Designs. Keep reading if you want the entire story.
Dutch Treat: Past, Present and Future
For almost 15 years Dutch Treat Needlecrafts was a full line needlework and eventually yarn store. We started out in a 700 sq. ft. store front on "J" street here in Livermore. We signed the lease for "J" street on 8/19/1991. We opened our door officially on October 3, 1991. By July of 1992 people knew there was a needlework store in Livermore.
As with any growing business you must decide if you need to expand or if you should stay where you are. By 1994 we were full and needed more space. A location just a block from "J" street had been empty for quite a while. Negotiation began over the price of the rent. The 291 So. Livermore store was 1700 sq. ft. and cost double the amount of rent for "J" street. I remember walking through the empty building and thinking we could never fill this up. We moved to South Livermore in the Fall of 1994. Customers and friends helped paint and move the stock. I loved the human ant trail of book racks as they walked them one block over to the new store. We did fill that store up and were there until July of 2006.
In 1997 Dutch Treat Designs was born. I love doilies, and there was nothing worth my time to stitch available in counted thread. I wanted something easy to stitch, with designs that were appropriate to holidays and special occasions. The fabric and threads used for the projects needed to be practical enough to be used on a daily basis. The hunt began for what to stitch with. I chose Anne Cloth, a washable woven border fabric from Zweigart, and Caron Watercolours which are also washable. Add some size 5 and 12 pearl cotton from DMC and you have the basics for a tabletopper. It took several years for stitchers to consider doing a tabletopper. The concept was different, and adapting to change can take time. Since I believe these are worth someone's time to stitch, and make a unique practical handmade gift, I kept designing.
The advantage of being a designer who owns a shop is - now your shop has something different to sell. I exhibited at the Spirit of Cross Stitch and CATS - Stitching Festival shows in order to present my tabletoppers to other stitchers besides my store customers. My store customers had seen these from the beginning but the rest of the general public had not. I began to offer my tabletopper designs to other shops. The shops that did pick them up now had something different to offer their customers. During this same time period, several publications featured designs from Dutch Treat. I am very grateful to Nordic Needle, The Needleworker Magazine, and Stitchers World Magazine, for presenting Dutch Treat to their readers. Zweigart, the Anne Cloth fabric manufacturer, also bought and published a set of my designs and allowed me to choose new additional colors of Anne Cloth. By 2004 Dutch Treat Designs was well established and happily coexisting with Dutch Treat Needlecrafts.
As the lease came up for renewal in 2006, I had to decide what I wanted to do. Sales in the needlework industry are slower these days. Shops need sales to pay their bills and their employees. The larger a shop you run, the more you need to keep your door open. There is a lot of competition these days between shops. The competition is not just from the nearest local LNS store, but from the ease of internet shopping, which we all enjoy. The local shops in this area became friends and allies several years ago. We learned that working together made us all more successful and gave us more to offer. Shops these days need to have something different that causes customers to want to shop there. Why would someone buy something at your shop, rather than from someone else? That was the question I kept asking myself. What made Dutch Treat special? It was my tabletopper designs. So as the current lease came up for renewal I decided to make some drastic changes and to take a risk.
I wanted to downsize. That original 700 sq. ft. size really looked good to me. Early in 2006 I gave notice to my landladies that I would not be renewing my lease at So. Livermore. They did not want me to move. They were not going to raise my rent any higher than the lease allowed at renewal. I had been there for 12 years and the landladies deserved more rent than I was paying. So I began to look for a smaller space. I could not quite imagine leaving this little corner of downtown Livermore, since I had been in this area for so long. The Old Theater Mall at 2222 Second Street is right behind the "J" street location. It is a one block walk from So. Livermore. I went to look at a space that was open, and ended up trading with another tenant for the unit upstairs that I have always liked in the building. This is the new location for Dutch Treat Designs, which sells only supplies to stitch my designs. I am back to a comfortable 700 sq. ft., with funky angles and a loft. This space has always looked like an artist's studio and it works well for displaying the tabletoppers. Dutch Treat Designs studio opens in September 2006.
If you are already a tabletopper fan, we look forward to seeing you in our new location. If you aren't, maybe you should check us out and see what you missed.
Can I still buy tabletopper supplies in Livermore?
Yes! You can buy them, in person, at our new location beginning in September 2006. OR you can order on-line through our website. Here is the store address: http://www.dutchtreat.com/cgi/online2008.pl
Our official studio retail hours in September will be decided soon:
We are also open by appointment.
Call us to schedule a time and we'll meet you there.
In our Dutch Treat Designs studio, we sell parts and materials separately for all of our tabletoppers and complete kits for some limited edition designs.
Dutch Treat Designs
2222 Second Street, Suite 19 upstairs
Livermore, CA 94550
925-294-8621
Here are Pictures of our Studio!
What does Dutch Treat sell now?
All the supplies needed to stitch our tabletopper and perforated paper
designs including:
Charts and patterns published by Dutch Treat Designs
Fabrics
Anne Cloth from Zweigart
Over dyed Anne Cloth from Silkweaver
More selected fabrics from Zweigart will be added in 2007
Perforated paper from Yarn Tree in standard and larger size pieces
Threads
Pearl cottons in Size 5 and 12 from DMC
Caron Watercolours and Limited edition Caron Watercolours
Over dyed Size 5 pearl cotton from Weeks Dye Works
DMC Variations embroidery floss
DMC Flower Thread - this thread is no longer being made
however, we bought a distributor's inventory so we have
a great selection of colors in stock
Also available online!
Kreinik #8 braids in a variety of colors
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