This is the story of TrishTacSew Sewing School.
Tricia Schroeter was born and raised in a suburb of Detroit Michigan. Growing up in the days when home-economics was still offered in school, her first experience with a sewing machine was in ninth grade. She made a black velour, butterfly-winged shirt that was styling in the 80s.
She didn’t sit in front of a sewing machine again for years before borrowing her mom’s dusty old Singer to make a Halloween costume for her baby, Jacob. It was a shiny red stop sign that was as big as Jacob himself.
That was the start of an annual tradition of hand-made Halloween costumes for Tricia and her family. She started making costumes for her friends, other family members, and local theater productions. She also started making quilts for friends and family and joined he “Blanketeers”, a quilt making group at church that provided homeless families with quilts during their transitional times in the homeless shelter.
Trish and her husband, Ben, raised their kids, Jacob and Naomi, in San Mateo, California. When the kids were in elementary school, Tricia juggled her full-time job at Stanford University (and a couple stints with computer start-ups) in order to spend time volunteering in each of their classrooms. She helped with math and reading, but found she enjoyed teaching art the most. When each of her children were in the 5th grade learning about the 50 states, Trish brought in her sewing machine to their classrooms and made a 50 states quilt with the kids.
HOW IT STARTED AND WHY:
Inspired by her time volunteering with creative kids and passion for making fun stuff with a sewing machine, she decided to ditch the corporate world once and for all and TrishTacSew Sewing School for Kids officially opened in 2013. It’s been the best job she’s ever had!
T
he school started in her converted Eichler garage and consisted of only 4 sewing machines. TrishTacSew Sewing School eventually moved into a bigger commercial office space and was really popular with local kids. Trish mainly focused on teaching kids in San Mateo, but also offered monthly Sip and Sews for adults, which were popular.
After moving to the desert in late summer of 2019, Trish opened her small sewing school for kids in January 2020. Then, like so many other businesses, she had to shutter her doors in February 2020 due to the pandemic.
The last two years were scary and uncertain, but, with grants and lots of moral support from family and friends, she managed to re-open full time again in September 2020. The studio has been bustling with new sewists of all ages, not just kids, ever since.
GOALS
TrishTacSew recently moved into a bigger studio and is celebrating with a ribbon cutting and grand re-opening on March 11 from 3-5 PM.
The bigger studio is a bright, beautiful space for a cute fabric shop and Trish is super excited to now offer gorgeous quilt fabric by the yard along with jelly rolls, charm packs, fat quarters and other pre-cut options.
The shop also carries patterns for quilters, bag makers, and garment makers, along with sewing notions, and sewing-themed gifts made by local artisans.
The goal is to grow her selection of classes, quilt fabric, and sewing gifts to be Coachella Valley’s favorite stop for sewists of all ages and sewing levels!
List 4 unique things that most people don’t know about you.
- Parachuted out of an airplane 3 times
- Used to be a software engineer.
- Coordinated efforts during the beginning of the pandemic to teach other small businesses owners and community members how to sew face masks for essential workers when masks were in short supply. We delivered over 3000 masks in about a month.
- The whole family love’s pun’s ( We are really Punny ) Hee Hee 😊 Also, hence the Business name.
TrishTacSew Sewing School
73608 Highway 111, Suite 2
Palm Desert Ca, 92260
760-851-8101
http://www.trishtacsew.com
https://www.facebook.com/trishtacsew
https://www.instagram.com/trishtacsew/
