For 28 years, Linda Laws has served as Old West Durham’s go-to seamstress, running Stitches Tailor Shop from a converted 1950 ranch home at 2500 Hillsborough Road.
Sandwiched between a Michelin Tire shop and the design-furniture store Heirlooms, the 576-square-foot shop can be hard to spot from the road in this modest commercial block.
But her longtime customers know where to find her. Especially in a pinch. “I don’t know how to say no,” the 72-year-old says, smiling, barely taking the time to look up from her industrial Consew sewing machine on a Thursday afternoon in late July.
“Even if I can’t do it, they’ll give me a story, and I’ll do it.”
It’s also her calling, “her ministry.” As the ceramic wall art reads: “A day hemmed in prayer seldom unravels.” It hangs by the door in her waiting room.
“These chairs have seen some talk,” she laughs. “People will come in. I don’t care if I’m busy; l just sit and talk. There are no strangers.”
And Laws is busier than ever. In the back corner, crammed between spools of yarn and discarded sewing machines, she’s working on another last-second alternation. As growth grips this once-neglected enclave, her business has tripled this year, she says. She’s even had to hire a friend to help with the workload.
The steady hum of the machines is constant. Two racks of clothes are waiting to be mended. “Sometimes I’m going home at 10 o’clock at night. And I’m still behind,” Laws says.
Now, she also faces an uncertain future.
Growing neighborhood, rising rents
In July, the building’s owners, CPGPI Mangum LLC, notified Laws that her rent is going up.
Since the late 1980s, Laws has paid a flat $400 per month, a steal by her own account. But the landlord — who bought the building and two adjoining properties for $475,000 in 2017, property records show — has asked for $2,000 a month, she said.
CPGPI did not respond to requests for comment.
That’s a 400% jump and more than Laws can afford, but she’s not surprised. “How can I holler? I started out on Ninth Street paying $700 a month. That was 30 years ago.”
Old West Durham is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. For decades, the turn-of-the-century mill village struggled after Erwin Cotton Mills shuttered in 1986. But in recent years, it’s experienced a renaissance, attracting a mix of shops and restaurants along Ninth and Broad streets, as well as property investors.
Across from Stitches Tailor Shop, where four mill houses once stood, the new 336-unit AvalonBay apartment complex is nearing completion. Two-bedroom apartments are now leasing from $1,995.
Laws knows this corner is changing quickly: “I don’t like it. But I know change has got to come.”
She’s looking for a new place to relocate. And on community listservs like Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, her customers are helping with the search.
“Everybody loves Ms. Laws,” said Bill Erwin, 77, who lives up the street and has been a customer since 1986. “As my waistline has gotten bigger and smaller, she’s always taken care of it.” Today, he’s waiting in line with a holey sweater in tow. “We’re all hoping that she finds another place,” he said.
Born-and-bred Durhamite
Laws comes from a long line of seamstresses, born and bred in Durham. Her grandmother, Willo Burnette, was also a seamstress. She owned a shop on Morehead Avenue in the 1960s, she said.
Even as a child, Laws was “always making doll clothes.” But she officially learned how to sew in classes at nearby Hillside High School on Fayetteville Street. “We had it three hours a day,” she said. At home, she also practiced using an “old-school” peddle machine.
Shortly after graduating in 1969, she entered N.C. Central to study textiles and clothing, but only stayed a semester.
Instead, she spent the next 10 years honing her trade for the now-defunct Scott Tailors in Raleigh’s Five Points before moving to The Hub, a men’s clothing store in Crabtree Valley Mall. Later, she ended up in Men’s Clothing Shop in the former Northgate Mall, off Interstate 85 and Gregson Street in Durham; but eventually, they closed, too.
Then in her early 40s, Laws said she decided to strike out on her own.
Using $2,000 of her husband’s retirement savings, she purchased machines and eventually found the space on Hillsborough Street. First, she operated from the property’s upper deck before relocating to her current home where she’s spent the greater part of 28 years.
“I had no money. No credit either. I had to borrow $20 to make change,” she recalled.
Today, she’s got plenty of business. But Laws admits she’s tired. Her bones ache, and she needs a hip replacement. She also takes care of her husband, who lives with diabetes.
A few months ago, she went to church, stood in the Sunday prayer line and broke down. “I give God all the glory. But I asked for peace,” she said. The next day, the landlord turned up on her doorstep about the rent. “I laughed,” she recalled. That’s when she knew she needed to slow it down.
Still, she’s not ready to retire just yet. “I don’t want to leave people cold turkey,” she said.
Where the tailor shop goes next
A few weeks later, Laws toured Suite B on the third floor of the Truist Northgate Branch at 1530 North Gregson St. in Durham. It’s about 1.7 miles southwest of her current location.
The rent is around $704 a month, more than she’s paying now, for a much smaller space, about 264 square feet. But that’s a plus, she said. At least she’ll be downsizing.
She plans to move into her new space in September.
“It’s a prayer answered,” she told The N&O. “Once I move out this junk, I’ll be even happier.”
She has no website and doesn’t plan to do any marketing. Word of mouth is her advertisem*nt.
To reach Linda Laws by appointment, call 919-236-8765.
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