“We were at a baseball game, and a mom was saying she needed to get a headband made, and she didn’t know who she would have put beads on it,” Pruente said. “She showed it to me, and I said, ‘I can make that for you.’”
For the next two years, Pruente fulfilled a variety of sewing requests from those in her social circle.
In 2001, Pruente launched Made by Sue on Keller Parkway, which is walking distance from her home.
She uses an acronym to describe her services.
“We go to the SEA: sewing, embroidery and alterations,” she said.
She said she sews quilts, tote bags, stuffed bunnies, nap mats, pillows, towel wraps and more. Her top seller in this category is memory quilts made from shirts. Those sell for $300-$600.
When customers choose products Pruente has made, such as the stuffed bunnies and nap mats, the pricing includes embroidery. She also will embroider items that customers bring in, she said.
Pruente also does a wide variety of alterations, including fitting wedding gowns and shortening baseball pants to knickers. She also has a long-standing annual order from a medical company to modify 5,000 kids’ backpacks to accommodate feeding tubes.
“My granddaughter had a feeding tube, so when they called me, I knew exactly what they needed done,” Pruente said. “It was definitely a God thing.”
She said customers bring with them a mix of emotions, from those buying birthday gifts to those needing alterations on pants for a funeral.
“It’s trying to have kindness and compassion for where people are at that point,” Pruente said.
For many of her customers, their first visit was to have a prom dress altered. Then they needed college dorm items, and that was followed by wedding dress alterations. And after that, Pruente said, they need items for their baby nurseries.
“It is their life journey,” Pruente said. “And [I’m] helping with all these fun events as they go.”
Making memories
Made by Sue owner Sue Pruente lists the steps used at her shop to make memory quilts.
•A customer brings in 16 shirts of any material.
•A customer chooses the sashing—material that connects the shirts—backing and binding.
•Sue cuts the shirts down to 14-inch-by-14-inch pieces.
•Sue color balances the layout.
•Sue sews the quilt together on a machine and does binding by hand.•
Made by Sue.1103 Keller Parkway, Ste. 101, Keller. 817-431-8182. www.facebook.com/MadeBySueTX. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., closed Sat.-Sun.
