BISMARCK, N.D. (KXNET)— Just like different shades of thread, we all have different gifts and talents. Though it’s considered a handy life skill, for Sherry Schatz sewing goes yards beyond that. No. Literally, yards. “I wanna say probably 50,000 [yards]” Sherry Schatz said as she looked around her basement work area.

The former bookkeeper grew up on a farm near Mott, North Dakota. Like a lot of girls, she learned how to sew from mom. “My mother and I made a lot of our clothes. It was exciting to have new things,” Schatz said.

Schatz has never stopped sewing, creating different types of bags, and blankets, as well as taking on alterations. But when she moved to Bismarck after retiring around 2008, Schatz said she kept getting phone calls from people who knew of her sewing talent. “The first arts and crafts event I went to, I did really well. I was just basically sewing up things I had on hand. Then, I kept getting asked for more and more things, you know different items,” Schatz explained.

The increase in requests has led to a needed workspace. It’s what Schatz describes as the perfect sanctuary inside her home named Start to Finish Sewing Company. It’s filled with books, lots of fabric, sewing machines, and more often than not other passionate sewers.

“I do sewing classes. In fact, next week, I’m going to have a boot camp. I have five students in the morning and four students in the afternoon and they’ll come every day for the whole week, just like any other camp and a lot of those participants are 8, 9, 10 years old,” Schatz explained.

Where this wife, mother and grandmother has found success, she knows others haven’t done as well. However, Schatz said learning how to sew takes practice and patience. “Anybody can learn how to sew, it’s just a matter of if they want to take the time to understand the tool that they can get the result that they want,” Schatz said.

Her business is one of the nearly 480 businesses certified with Pride of North Dakota.