Making It : Holiday Sales Leap at Do-It-Yourself Stores

As the music of the season blared forth, Judy Walker navigated the unfamiliar aisles of a Santa Monica crafts store gathering miniature wreaths and other holiday doodads for a foray into the world of the do-it-yourselfer.

“I’m still thinking about whether I’m really going to do this,” Walker said, eyeing her basket of crafts items doubtfully. “But when you have nine grandchildren and you’re by yourself, you have to shop sensibly.”

With the economic recovery sputtering feebly along, many consumers are opting this year to make or bake their own Christmas presents and holiday decorations--turning 1991 into the year of the homemade holiday.

Shoppers certainly aren’t rushing to buy their holiday trimmings from department stores and other mainline retailers, at least so far: Retailers across the country have said the traditional Christmas shopping season is off to a disturbingly slow start.

But not at House of Fabrics, the largest home sewing retailer in the United States, which is posting sales for which some of its ready-made retail cousins might be willing to barbecue Rudolph. The story is the same at the Michaels craft chain and at many independent fabric and craft stores.

“We expect this to be a very good Christmas,” said Gary L. Larkins, president of House of Fabrics, the 671-store chain based in Sherman Oaks. “We’ve never thought that we boom ahead in a recession, but we aren’t hurt as much as other retailers.”

House of Fabrics is on its way to a record year, with sales for the three months ended Oct. 31 soaring 35% to $140.4 million and net income leaping 42% to $6.4 million. The chain’s Christmas products, which begin appearing in May and are nearly sold out by mid-December, “are moving well,” Larkins said.

House of Fabrics reported Tuesday that, although November sales increased 28.5%, sales at stores open more than a year rose only 3%, which the company blamed on the fact that Thanksgiving was a week later this year. Despite flat early December sales, 1991 will be the firm’s best earnings and sales year “by a large margin,” according to a company statement.

Michaels Stores, the nation’s leading retailer of arts and crafts supplies with 140 stores in 19 states, saw November sales jump 32% to $52 million. For the first 10 months of its fiscal year, sales increased 19% to $318.7 million, and sales at stores open more than a year were up 12%.

“We’re looking forward to a merry Christmas,” said Don Morris, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Irving, Tex.-based company. “We had a good year last year, so we weren’t afraid of this season. We bought merchandise to support the season, and we did a lot of advertising.”

At Crafts Magazine, “we find that our readers do make their gifts, as they have for years, but there is much more activity in times of economic stress such as we’re having right now,” said Judith Brossart, editor of the Peoria, Ill., publication aimed at the crafty set.

Two special Christmas issues available only on newsstands--Craft Country Christmas and Craft Victorian Christmas--”are selling extremely well this year,” she said.

Interest in crafts and sewing has been growing during the last few years, as technological advances have shrunk the time commitment needed to finish a project, said Caryl Svendsen-Deiches, spokeswoman for the Sewing Fashion Council, the promotional arm of the sewing industry.

Fabric paints and iron-on transfers for craft projects, pre-quilted fabrics, cloth with patterns printed directly on them and new 90-inch fabrics for home decorating have made it possible to do in one or two hours what once would have taken several, she said. They have helped push sales at sewing, fabric and needle-craft stores nationally to $4 billion from $2.6 billion in 1985.

“We’ve seen over the last year and a half how America has gotten away from the ‘80s mentality of showy gifts,” Svendsen-Deiches said. “They’re making gifts at home. We think of it as a gift from the heart.”

Lorena Henriquez, a saleswoman at the Michaels store in Santa Monica, said she finds herself helping more first-timers than ever before.

“In an average hour, I get probably at least five,” she said. “We had one lady in here for the first time Saturday, and she’s been back six times” in less than a week.

Manager Jim Salzetti said a big seller this year is “wearable art”--clothing that crafters decorate with iron-on transfers, paint, rhinestones or other items. The store’s supply of $9.95 miniature flashing lights, which are attached to such clothing via Velcro, is nearly gone, he said.

Yvette Morar of Santa Monica said she is making more gifts than ever this year--because of the slow economy and because she quit her job to stay home with a new baby.

“My husband is the only one who’s bringing home the money,” she said. “This year it’s better for me to make gifts and save, instead of spending double out there” at shopping malls.

“For the price of one gift, I can make two or even three gifts myself,” such as decorated picture frames or photo albums, she said. “I think people appreciate it more.”

The homemade spirit has been a boon not only to chain stores but also to specialized one-shop operators.

“The stores are doing very well,” said Joan Katz, spokeswoman for the American Home Sewing and Craft Assn., a New York trade group. “The chains are doing well, and the independents are doing well if they’ve found a niche of their own.”

The holidays and the economy have brought an increase in shoppers to Fabric Well in Oxnard, buyer Joanne Harris said.

“It’s doing well,” she said. “Crafts are going great guns . . . (and) they’re making clothes that are more practical rather than fancy for their grandchildren.”

Fairfax-area resident Oonagh Burke has turned into a one-woman gingerbread-house factory since she took her first class in the sugary architecture this year.

Burke has made 30 pounds of gingerbread, has given away six completed houses, invited neighborhood children in for a house-decorating spree and even cut the nails on her right hand to avoid piercing the parchment icing bags used in decorating her creations.

“It’s kind of addicting,” Burke admitted. “I’m just buying presents for my family. Everybody else is getting cookie dough in decorated Tupperware or something baked.”