NORFOLK, Va. - Wearing masks, people lined up outside the Fabric Hut two hours before the door opened.
"It's crazy, our business has quadrupled," said Doug Jarvis, owner of the Fabric Hut in Norfolk.
The Fabric Hut, a treasure trove of textiles, is the busiest it's been since the doors first opened in 1967.
"I didn't plan for it, but we keep an enormous amount of inventory," Jarvis explained.
It's not just masks keeping stitchers swamped.
"People are bored at home, they want something to do," Jarvis said. "Maybe it's quilting, maybe they are making dresses, or they're sitting around thinking 'Maybe I'll change my curtains or couches.'"
Whether you are embroidering, quilting, threading, binding or fastening, fabric is flying off the shelves.
"This was actually good timing, because we lost out on prom season completely with that being canceled," Jarvis said. "It was like a roller coaster ride. I didn't know how I was going to maintain, then this happened."
Jarvis ships fabric all over the world on sites like Amazon, Sears, eBay and more.
"The internet has boomed. We got so busy at one point I had to shut it down and regroup, it was too overwhelming," Jarvis said. "We went from 400 packages shipped out a day to around 2,000."
Jarvis says he's been able to keep his entire staff employed, and has even hired on four more people.
Luckily for Fabric Hut, they are now tailoring to the needs of those who need them the most.
"I like to think we are doing what needs to be done to protect sailors on ships, nurses in hospitals," Jarvis said.
