DIYStyle Moves to Winghaven

After nearly two years in Frenchtown, DIYStyle has packed up its needle and thread and moved west to O’Fallon, MO.

The business, a growing outlet for lessons in fashion sewing, relocated to the Winghaven area last month after signing a lease on its new site in December, said owner Cindy Cummins.

“We moved in the middle of all this mess,” she said, noting the recent spate of winter weather.

A number of factors made the move to 7322 Village Center Dr. desirable. For one thing, the relocation was necessary to cater to the enterprise’s core 18-to-35-year-old demographic.

“We’re hoping to have access to a younger clientele,” she said. “Our typical customer is definitely a bit younger than what is normally thought of in the sewing world.”

The 1,200-square-foot site is also 50 percent larger than the establishment’s old spot.

“Because we’ll have more space in the workshop, we’ll be able to start selling more supplies, fabric and other things we hadn’t before,” she said.

Cummins also believes extra foot traffic and the close proximity to residential development will boost business, especially for her summer sewing camp, an important DIY initiative.

“We think being in the Winghaven area with lots of families at home, we’ll have more visible access for people to see that we’re here,” she said.

Cummins said DIY’s Second Street site worked well, with stylish brick walls providing an urban feel. Early on, she didn’t know that she’d need a location at all. The company started out as a how-to website on fashion sewing. Classes, lessons and the rest of the business model developed over time and created the need for a physical address.

Second Street was the answer. She said the area’s reasonable rents made the spot an attractive one.

“We loved it,” she said. “We came at a time when things were very slow in Frenchtown. It was a quiet time. It was a good time for us to get our bearings on what we were going to do because I did not set out to have a design workshop.”

She said she thinks Winghaven’s site in the Interstate 64 corridor will help bring in traffic from other areas. She said that she had hoped for a return to better traffic at her old location after construction on the Second Street roundabout was completed, but unfortunately, it didn’t materialize.

“It may not have been as accessible to some people as we probably are now,” she said. “But I’ll certainly miss the area and the possibilities.”

She also regrets having to leave behind some of her neighbors.

“The down the street I’m going to miss because we used to use them for lunches and when we did workshops,” she said. “We were glad they came to town.”

The business’s new site will also bring Cummins closer to her own home in O’Fallon--as well as closer to her daughter, who plans to open a design studio next door.

Cummins said that so far, her St. Charles clientele, as well as other customers, have responded well, something she hopes will carry over into the summer. They haven’t lost a single student, she said.

“We have customers from all over St. Louis,” she said. “We even draw from the East Side. I have a girl every Sunday from Edwardsville for private lessons for two years now.”

The new shop is still being decorated. Though it’s open for business, Cummins said an official grand opening will likely wait until her daughter’s establishment is up and running, possibly by next month. In the meantime, she’s enjoying settling in.

Still, the memories of her time in St. Charles linger.

“We’re going to miss the ambiance of the whole area,” she said.