Sew Moni Is Sew Brooklyn
Sewing-and-crafts company SEW Moni’s first outpost in Ridgewood was, for Monica Briones, “a chance at moving my bedroom business to an actual brick and mortar. It was also an opportunity to engage in B-to-B business in a sweet Latin and Polish neighborhood, which was very important to me, especially since I’m Latina.” Offering classes, fabric, tools, workshops, meet-and-greets, and a showroom (for sister jewelry-company Greene and Sunset), SEW Moni attracted so much business that Briones knew she needed more space—a second SEW Moni. “It was a good problem to have, but at the same time I wasn’t going to open [more] brick and mortar unless we were again situated in an ethnic neighborhood that had some sort of ethnic relevance to me,” she tells us. “South Williamsburg fit the bill ten times over.” But why was business booming? “Ever since our economy crashed, there has been a resurgence of anything DIY related,” Briones tells us. “Limited funds have pushed high-end consumers to look beyond their wallets and to their hands. People are hungry to re-learn, if not learn for the first time, how to be creative. And, in the process, many are discovering creative roots that have existed within their personal networks for decades.”
330 S. 3rd Street, Williamsburg