Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
There’s a new queen in town and she’s all about sewing. It’s QueenBee1755 to be more precise, and it’s located in the former Rayetta’s Lunchbox in Marlinton.
Owned and operated by Melondy Phillips, QueenBeen1755 is the culmination of a lot of hard work and a dream fulfillment.
The sewing shop has been a dream Phillips has had for a while now, but she was never sure it would happen – until it did.
“I never thought it was obtainable, but things that have happened in the last year have been pushing me toward that,” she said. “I was scared because it was something new, but everybody I talked to – I had a hundred percent positive feedback. It just got me more excited.”
Phillips was running her sewing business out of her home for the past four years and, although it worked, it was a cramped space that limited her abilities.
Now she has a wide-open space for all her machines and fabric, and she’s ready to serve her customers – both her regulars and new ones.
“I’ve had a lot of new faces come in along with my long-time customers,” she said. “It’s been great.”
Phillips is a self-taught seamstress who honed her skills when she started participating in 1700s living history events in Virginia. She needed an authentic outfit and couldn’t afford to pay someone to make one, so she did it herself.
“I made my own outfit and just got started from there,” she said. “That all had to be hand stitched and proper. It just kind of snowballed after that.”
While she was doing the living history events, she was recruited to work as a seamstress for a film production. That led to a 20-year career altering and creating items for both television and film.
“I’ve had the opportunity to sew things that are very odd and problem solve things, like ‘we need this’ was the only instruction I got,” she said. “I would have to sit down and twist things in my mind and get things to work, and figure it out, usually in a very short time period.”
Case in point, Phillips recalls one instance where she had an hour to increase the size of a custom 1800s silk ballgown, in a truck.
“It was a five-thousand-dollar silk dress and when it got to us, it was too small for the actress,” she said. “I was in a trailer on set. I was overseeing the truck, so I wasn’t even in the sewing room. I had a space just big enough for my sewing machine and the dress arrived the morning that it needed to be filmed because it was held up in customs.
“The costume designer at the time liked how I did the sewing so instead of taking it to the sewing room, she brought it to me on the truck,” she continued. “I had to rip the whole bodice and everything, keeping it off the floor while I was standing, sewing on it. I got it done in fifty-three minutes, or something like that.”
Now, Phillips is happy to do alterations and leatherwork for the people of Pocahontas County. She does clothing and upholstery and won’t try to upsell people on spending more than they need to on something.
“I’m very frugal when it comes to certain things,” she said. “I kind of treat all of my customers as if they’re frugal so when they come to me and ask me to upholster their couch, I say I can, however, ask yourself, would it be cheaper to buy a new one.”
If an item has sentimental value and good structure, Phillips will gladly upholster it and make it like new, but reminds customers, it will cost more.
She does the same with clothing. She has the ability to design and sew a new dress or suit, but it may be cheaper to buy something and then have her alter it to your liking.
At this time, QueenBeen1755 is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but since Phillips is still in the process of moving things into the space and getting it situated, her hours are flexible.
She said the best way to keep up-to-date on when she is at the shop is to check the QueenBee1755 Facebook page. She also posts her weekly schedule on the door of the shop.
Phillips said she is grateful to her loyal customers and her new ones who have visited the shop. Without them, the shop wouldn’t be possible, and she would still be in a very cramped sewing room in her house.
“I’m very, very thankful that I have a lot of customers who are coming in and giving me the work,” she said.
