About Susan

I was born and grew up in northern Illinois. I learned embroidery and hand stitching from my mother. My grandmother probably inspired me the most as she would sew clothes for my Barbie dolls and even knitted a mohair coat for them. I was so impressed with her imagination and skill.

I started to sew by machine as a teenager and I found out how much I loved being able to put together a pattern with fabric and create anything that I could envision. I was very involved in Home Economics in high school and fondly remember sewing and organizing a fashion show and luncheon at my school.  

After graduation I moved to Colorado to go to college. During the summer months I worked at various sewing manufacturing firms as a production seamstress and pattern/fabric layout coordinator. I graduated from Colorado State University with a BA in Textiles and Clothing Design.

After graduation I was hired for a summer internship with Denver western wear company and began working for them full time as a pattern maker and designer. I enjoyed learning the design side of the apparel industry and the process of getting a design concept through to the final stage for retail sale.

I decided that I wanted to be able to have my own sewing and design business so I established that and took a position at a local fabric store as the manager. I did mostly custom clothing and weddings. I also had a contract with the university athletic department as the official seamstress. I hemmed pants for the golf team but most of my time was dedicated to the football team. The football jerseys need the player’s names sewn on the back and typically each player has several jerseys. I did all of those kind of things for several years and was very successful.

Some things happened in my personal life so I decided to take a new career path. I still wanted to be in the design field but I wanted to learn how to combine that with computers. So I went back to school and got a drafting certificate. In my last semester I learned how to draft in CAD (computer aided drafting). The software was in architectural drafting and I was very excited about that because I love architecture and interior design. One of my favorite classes in college was art history.

After I finished and received my drafting certificate I was hired by an architectural firm and worked there for many years. I found myself longing to play a bigger role in the design process and missed the creativity and interaction with clients. I also wanted to establish something that I could call my own and to be able to work out of my home. So in 2010 I established Style Line Stitching.