When Kenlyn Wallace and her family moved to Silver Bay two years ago from Wisconsin, they were looking for a quieter pace and a place to put down roots. They bought their first home that fall and settled into a community she described simply as “gorgeous.”
She grew up watching her mother sew. There were patterned scraps on the table and the steady hum of a machine she admired but did not yet learn. Her own first experience with sewing came in high school, when she began making bags for her equine friends.
“I sewed and sold horse tail bags,” she recalled. “I used to show horses growing up.”
Life moved quickly after high school. There were children. There were difficult years battling addiction and alcohol. And then, three years ago, she began the long work of rebuilding.
“My faith is what pulled me out of the pits of my destructive lifestyle,” Wallace said. “Without the love and mercy of my God, I would not be alive.”
As she regained her footing, she remembered sewing. She bought a machine last year and discovered a talent she had never fully explored.
“I realized I’m good at it,” she said.
That rediscovered craft has become CWL Sewing, which stands for Clothe with Love. It’s a small business offering alterations, repurposed clothing, and the memory quilts she enjoys most. She hems jeans for people who can never find the right length. She reshapes flannels, replaces zippers, and turns denim into skirts. She has taken old quilts and transformed them into jackets, sweaters, and purses.
But the projects that matter most to her are the ones stitched from someone’s story.
“I like to take clothing from people and make quilts,” she said. “I like to repurpose and make something new from something old.”
She has sewn a king-size blanket from a friend’s t-shirts. She is currently piecing together a throw made from Mackinac Island sweaters, each one tied to a memory. She calls these projects fun, but the care she puts into them runs deeper than that.
Her business is intentionally personal. She prefers to meet people where they are, and she is willing to travel for even the smallest job.
“I would much rather come to you,” she said. “Even if it is a ten-dollar service, I will pick it up and bring it back.”
She serves Silver Bay, Two Harbors, and Grand Marais, keeping her work local while she builds an online presence. For now, she can be reached through Facebook at CWL Sewing or by email at cwlsewing@gmail.com. She also welcomes calls and texts at 715-558-5480. She returns every message, whether it is a question about a zipper or a request for a quilt made from a lifetime of clothing.
Her business is founded on the verses she carries with her from Colossians:
“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,” and “Clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
She hopes to donate a portion of future profits to missions, stating, “I would love to give back with something I have been gifted with.”
CWL Sewing is still new and still growing. In a small bedroom in her Silver Bay home, surrounded by fabric and the quiet rhythm of a machine, Wallace has created a place where memory, creativity, and faith come together in careful, steady stitches.
