Help Domesticity Open #SewHouseRowHouse!

Christina Brunyate is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hello! I'm Christina, owner and founder of Domesticity, Baltimore's one and only modern fabric shop and sewing studio. I'm here to ask for your assistance in helping finish our new location, lovingly called #SewHouseRowHouse. While we of course adore fabric, we are so much more than a fabric shop - we are honored to be a safe haven for a beautiful community of makers and fabric enthusiasts and are so excited to be this sanctuary for years to come. But we need your help. While I've strived to keep a donation drive off the table, we've exhausted all other avenues at this point. Anything, big or small, will work towards the end goal and be deeply appreciated. Here's a bit more about us and this wonderful community that we're proud to facilitate!

How We Began

As all fabric lovers know, being around beautiful textiles is truly therapy, a feeling that can not be reproduced in the online world. Having recently moved back home to Baltimore from Austin, I sorely missed my fabric shop visits and figured that other sewists in the area might too, so when a small bedroom in a nearby rowhouse became available, I took the plunge and opened Domesticity.

Since our opening in May 2017, I have been blown away by the love and support this community has shown us. We started with a few bolts in a corner of this 250 sqft. room and have now expanded to nearly bursting. As people found their way to our speak-easy fabric shop (we had no sign for 6 months!) what started as a part-time hobby for this stay-at-home mom of 3 (now 4!) quickly became a full-time business and community. It became clear that we were onto something that was loved and needed and were SO happy to be the link, and it also became clear that we needed more space.

Building this Community - Locally!

Passionate about my local community, I didn't want to relocate to more "trendy" spots. I love northeast Baltimore, was born, raised, and bought a home just 1 mile from the shop, and wanted to help the area grow. We found a years-empty, gutted building just four doors from our current spot and in April 2018 purchased our #SewHouseRowHouse as the new home for Domesticity.

While we hoped to open it last holiday season, life has spread the timeline longer and that is a-okay. Construction finally began in April 2019 and is about to wrap up!! *cue the fireworks and confetti*

The new space is significantly larger - we'll have first floor retail with window displays, a dedicated workshop space, a children's area downstairs, and a gorgeous community event space upstairs that we plan to use for community classes and rentals as well as weekend workshops for the shop. WE. CAN'T. WAIT.

Unexpected Costs

But as is life, road bumps have hit us along the way. Being a new business, finding funding to begin with was HARD. While we were able to secure a loan for the renovation that even had a cushion in it, we have gone over budget because of two large expenses:

1. Wheelchair Lift ($23,000) <-- We're so excited to have the ability to get people into this old building!
2. Sprinkler System ($15,000)

We still have physical demands on the space (lighting, shelves, tables, chairs, etc.) to help get it up and running as well.

How You Can Be the Bee's Knees

While we've had people recommending a GoFund me from the beginning, we really wanted to save this as our very last resort. We have gotten a loan, are attempting to get another small business one, have used personal savings and also saving what we can, and worked diligently (with your amazing help!!) to make it to the Final 5 in a local contest to win $10k which we sadly didn't win. At this point, we need to ask for your help. Any donation is a gift that gets us that much closer to the goal - EVERYTHING is greatly appreciated. <3

While I don't currently have the brainpower to fully plan this out, I definitely plan on doing something to commemorate the donors in the new space - I'm thinking of a beautiful community quilt with your names stitched in or a hand calligraphied display.

I have found that the most beautiful thing about Domesticity isn't the fabrics at all but the people that surround them. This community has been more supportive than I could have ever imagined and I envision the new shop as a sanctuary for makers - full of inspiration, expression, support, assistance, quiet, laughter, and even some yoga to help your sewing shoulders. A place that everyone can feel safe in and let their true selves shine.