LeAnn Titus enjoying life on Fairfield’s square

FAIRFIELD – LeAnn Titus is the owner of LeAnn’s Sewing Shoppe on the north side of the Fairfield square.

Titus moved her business there two years ago, after having run it from the alley north of Central Park. She purchased the business in 2015 when it was known as Dottie’s Sewing Nook, where she had been an employee since 2002.

Titus said she’s glad she moved, and thanked her landlord Paul Glossup for easing the transition into the new space.

“Everybody comes in and they say, ‘Wow, I love this place,’” Titus said.

Titus mentioned that not only does this new space give her greater visibility than her former location in the alley, but the new place doesn’t have any steps to enter. The former location only had two, but for some customers that was two too many.

Titus likes the fact that each day is different, with a different project to work on. One day it could be altering a suit coat, or like she was doing on this day in late September, working on dresses for the Homecoming Dance. She said that she was also making a bean bag that a customer needed for their back.

Titus’s love of sewing began when she was young, mending her brothers’ jeans. She did some sewing in home economics class, and years later when she had children of her own, she took further classes in sewing. She saw that making her children’s clothes by hand was a great way to save money.

“I could get two T-shirts out of one yard of fabric, and the fabric was $1 per yard,” she said. “It took about 30-45 minutes [to make a shirt]. If you have the right pattern and know what you’re doing, it’s easy.”

Titus said she doesn’t make clothes for herself but she does still make clothes to give as gifts.

LeAnn and her husband Chuck have lived in Fairfield since 2001, and before that they lived in Oklahoma. While there, a friend encouraged her to continue her education at East Central University in the town of Ada.

“She looked at me and said, ‘Come on LeAnn, we’re going to college,’” she recalled. “I didn’t know what I was going to take, but I ended up getting a fashion merchandising degree, and I concentrated on sewing.”

Titus said that when she and her husband moved to Fairfield, she wasn’t sure how she was going to use her new degree and her years of sewing, but luckily she was able to put both to use at Dottie’s Sewing Nook. In the 22 years since she started, Fairfield residents have come to see that Titus is a high-quality seamstress. Customers also appreciate the dedicated hard work of her employees, Jared Osbourne and Melissa Sheets.

“I get a lot of comfort from knowing that our customers trust us to make sure their clothes are made, mended or altered right,” she said.

Titus said she does “everything from A to Z except Q.” Why except Q? Because Q stands for quilting, and that’s a whole other kettle of fish.

LeAnn said her biggest supporters are her family, who help whenever they can and encourage her at every step. She and Chuck have five children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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