Newtown Curtains LLC - One Stop Shopping for All Your Soft Treatment Needs The Newtown Bee NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT A Successful Home-Based Business That Brings Many Curtain Calls BY KAAREN VALENTA, August 2, 2002 Mary Villa carefully moved a finished ten-foot window valance from the 12-foot table in the workroom of her home-based business, Newtown Curtains. The area now clear, she placed a bolt of fabric on the table to begin another project. "There's never enough room," she commented. "Some of these window treatments take up a lot of space." Officially established just two years ago, Newtown Curtains has expanded from a small bedroom in her home on Greenbriar Lane to a 650-square-foot upper floor addition on the house. Beginning with window treatments and hardware, table linens, and "soft" accessories for bedrooms and living rooms, the business recently expanded operations to provide Hunter Douglas and Kirsch blinds. "I've always loved to sew," Ms Villa said. "I learned from my grandmother when I was growing up in Florida. I made doll clothes, Barbie clothes. I always made my own clothes and curtains. I'd go to a store, see something I liked, and run home and make it." Her professional sewing experience began 16 years ago when she started the New England Clothier, another home-based business that offered custom tailoring and garment alterations to bridal shops and dry cleaners. "I had been working at Eaton Corp-Consolidated Controls in Danbury and a co-worker told me he had a basement full of commercial sewing machines that had belonged to his [late] mother who had a dressmaking business. He gave me the machines," she said. "I used them in my alterations business. Unfortunately I sold some of them when I left that business for awhile when my daughters were born because I started a daycare business. But now that they are older -- Natalie is 11 and Danielle is 9 -- I have the time to sew again. One day I was making living room and dining room valances for this house, and a little voice said to me 'why don't you do this as business?'" Mary Villa moved to Newtown 11 years ago when she was pregnant with her first daughter. "It was one of those towns you always drive through and say 'Isn't this nice?'" she said. "We bought this house from an old couple who had lived here since it was built. It was very rundown with shrubs and bushes growing up over the roof. Two years ago we took the roof off and added the second story. The second story includes a spacious workroom lined with bolts of fabric and fabric sample books, an office, and a room that houses a commercial blind-stitch hemmer, a serger to do edges, a commercial Singer sewing machine, and boxes of patterns. "I'm a collector of patterns, half of which I've never used -- but you never know when one will come in handy," she said. Her most recent acquisition is a sewing machine that can be programmed to do any sequence of stitches. "It even cuts the thread," she said. Although she was an accomplished seamstress, Ms Villa felt she needed more training in making custom window treatments so she enrolled in several courses at the Custom Home Furnishing Trade School in North Carolina. "It was great because there were only six or seven students to a class," she explained. "I'm going back in August and have signed up for seven classes." With a background that included an associate's degree in business management, she had the fundamentals to make the business operate efficiently. She also found suppliers who agreed to work with her. "I started going to trade shows, set up accounts, and now carry several lines of fabric and rods and other hardware," she said. "But I don't object to using the customer's own fabric. One woman who lives in Newtown but is from England couldn't find what she wanted here, so she brought back 60 yards of fabric on the plane the last time she went there." Her latest expansion into Hunter Douglas and Kirsch blinds includes the Duette, Silhouette, and Mystique lines as well as wood blinds and shutters. She also makes custom vertical blinds from fabric to coordinate with customers' décor. The business has grown so quickly that Ms Villa  said she needs to hire at least one seamstress to help her. "I have to spend time meeting with customers and taking measurements, so that takes away from the time I have to sew," she explained. "I just bought a Suburban to haul the stuff around because my car was just too small. I took the van to the Sign Depot to have it lettered [with the company name]. I like to support local businesses." One aspect of the curtain business that has surprised her is the cooperation she has received from others in the business. "I expected it to be a lot more competitive," she said. "Instead, everyone is so helpful. If a business has too much work, they will refer some of it. It is a very sharing type of business. I belong to an association of workrooms in the area. I've been doing some work for the Fabric Tree and have just started to get referrals from Chintz -N-Prints." The home business allows her to spend time with her family while at the same time develop an exciting new career. "This is definitely better than sewing clothes," she said. For more information about Newtown Curtains call Mary Villa at 203-270-8643 or email newtowncurtains@att.net.