While the Louisville Tool Library in Shelby Park is typically a spot for hammers, drills and screwdrivers, on some Tuesdays it's for crochet hooks and sewing needles.
Amid the mechanical walls and shelves packed tight with tools, a group of local crafters huddled around long white tables earlier this month. Each one was covered with stray yarn, sewing kits and someone’s latest art project.
The group split snacks and shared stories during their weekly “Stitch n Bitch.” Each attendee brought a craft to work on.
Grace Kaelin said she hopes to get her project done by December.
“I’m cross stitching a Christmas market, like a European style,” she said. “The designer is from the Netherlands, and I'm currently on the Christmas decorations booth…I'm going to put some backing fabric on it, and stuff it and make it into a pillow for Christmastime.”
This group has gathered every Tuesday at different locations in Louisville since 2022.
Founder Chelsea Mae Gagnon said the group honors a longstanding tradition.
“Women have gotten together for a long time, since World War II, to talk about things,” Gagnon said. “Then it was probably mainly a lot of women, but our Stitch n Bitch is very open. It's not at all gendered. It was just kind of an ode to that, to coming together and knowing that it's a safe space to talk about how things kind of suck for you.”
The room buzzed with conversation. At the last meeting, crafters had a lot of questions about one of their favorite stores to shop for materials: Joann.
‘A very difficult time’
If you call any Joann’s location, an automated voice reads the following message: “This is a very difficult time given the impact it will have on our beloved team members, customers and communities.”
Last month, Joann announced it will close all of its nearly 800 stores, though it hasn’t said yet when the lights will go out for good. The fabric giant is selling the company after declaring bankruptcy. The 82-year-old craft chain had been struggling financially for several years and lost market share to its competitors, like Hobby Lobby and Michaels.
There are 20 stores throughout Indiana, including one in Clarksville. Kentucky has seven locations, including one in Louisville and another in Elizabethtown.
Joann stores nationwide are selling off inventory ahead of closing for good.
For crafter Lorie Allen-Kelly, Joann is an affordable store where her whole family can buy all their materials. She said her husband sells his sewing and embroidery work.
“My husband was recently commissioned for some pieces for someone, and he was just thinking, if he didn't get [fabric] from Joann's, how much more would he have to charge,” she said.
Some Louisville crafters say they’ll be losing some favorites, like the Joann-made Big Twist brand, which offers items like acrylic yarn.
“I have a whole stash in my house that is just colorful acrylic yarns, and it all comes from Joann's,” said group member Stephanie Massie.
Massie has been crocheting for 15 years, and she said Big Twist is some of the best quality yarn you can get for an affordable price.
“They just have a wide selection of colors, and they have like, four or five aisles dedicated to just yarn,” she said. “And it always gives you a good, happy feeling to walk through all the colors, and then you can just see them, and you can compare them.”
Massie’s latest project is a wrap for a utility pole to be displayed outside a gift shop on Barrett Avenue. She’s been working on it for a month and it’s already at least four feet long. Every few rows is a new crochet design with a different set of colors. The piece cascades from white and black stripes to bright pink to baby blue and brown.
Massie said the whole project is made with Big Twist.
“We don't know what's going to happen to Big Twist,” Massie said. “It's probably going to go away.”
Gagnon — another Big Twist fan— said they had to search elsewhere to match the colors and quality of Joann’s yarn. They said they had to buy a different brand directly from a different supplier’s website.
“Even on my project tonight, it's already having an effect,” Gagnon said.
Massie said she prefers to shop for yarns in person.
“It's not as nice to go into the store [to] look at the colors, compare colors, touch the yarn,” Massie said, “You just don't know what the feeling of them are. You don't know what it's going to feel like against your skin if you don't touch it.”
While the craft store landscape changes for local crafters, Gagnon said they won’t buy what they need from Joann competitors, like Hobby Lobby and Michaels.
“A lot of us are avid anti-Hobby Lobby people,” Gagnon said, alluding to the company’s social stances and other actions.
In the last decade, Hobby Lobby was involved in several scandals, including illegally buying ancient Sumarian artifacts in 2018, LGBTQ+ discrimination in 2021, and violations of the American with Disabilities Act in 2023.
That’s enough for Gagnon, Massie and others from Stitch n Bitch to rule out Hobby Lobby, Gagnon said. She also said Michaels “can’t keep up.”
“I would love to shop at Michaels,” she said. “They just don't have the things that I want usually in stock.”
Shopping local
With Joann’s end looming over the crafting community, some in the Louisville area are shopping more at local stores, like Austin’s Sewing Center in Fern Creek.
“It's getting harder and harder for folks to find fabric that they're looking for, and it's further for somebody to travel,” said owner Teresa Packer.
She has sold sewing machines and other materials at her store since 2008.
“Our store is a little unique from Joann’s,” Packer said. “We're actually the largest store of our kind in the area, because we sell different brands and machines, but we sell a lot of fabric.”
She said buying from a locally-owned store offers a personalized customer experience.
“When you buy a machine, Amazon doesn't care if you know how to use it. Walmart doesn't care if you don't know — but we do, and we can help with that,” Packer said.
She said she’s noticed more customers are coming from Southern Indiana.
Patricia Stone, who owns the year-and-a-half-old store Louisville Fiber Supply in Phoenix Hill, said she’s noticed more traffic to her website, and many customers told her they’re searching for a Joann alternative.
“I just think it's unfortunate that you have all these people who use crafting for different reasons, but a big one is relaxing and destressing, and now it's harder to get supplies to do that,” Stone said.
Packer said although crafters are going to lose Joann, Louisville and Southern Indiana’s small businesses are ready to serve them.
There are many local alternative fabric and crafts stores in Jefferson County and Southern Indiana.
Jefferson County:
- Stitch Needlepoint Shop (215 Chenoweth Ln, Louisville, KY)
- Austin’s Sewing Center (5640 Bardstown Rd, Louisville)
- Artist & Craftsman Supply (1002 Barret Ave, Louisville)
- Louisville Fiber Supply (622 Baxter Ave, Louisville)
- Quilted Joy (12316 Shelbyville Rd, Louisville)
- Sewing and Vacuum Authority (10494 Westport Rd, Louisville)
- Rogue Stitching of Louisville (1841 Plantside Dr, Jeffersontown)
- Stitchen Time (10308 Shelbyville Rd, Louisville)
Southern Indiana:
- Yarn Works (414 E Court Ave., Jeffersonville)
- Sewing and Vacuum Authority (914 Eastern Blvd., Suite 200, Clarksville)
- Studio 1883 (2705 E 10th St., Jeffersonville)
