Mom's Business Had Flourished

STNG:

For 25 years, almost up to the day she died, Plainfield seamstress Beverly Pisut owned and operated Beverly’s Interiors, where she designed, sewed and sold her custom draperies and home accessories.

The business was successful, said Beverly’s husband Stephen Pisut, and not just because her clients received beautiful window treatments.

“She was loving and caring,” Stephen said. “She didn’t treat her customers like they were just customers. They were people and they were her friends. We had customers at the wake that also loved and respected her. It wasn’t just family and friends. I was a salesman, but I could never call my customers friends like Beverly had.”

Beverly was 65 when she died of colon cancer Aug. 16.

As a little girl, Beverly would watch, fascinated, as her mother selected pieces of fabric and sewed them into little outfits for Beverly’s dolls, something Beverly would later do for her own daughter, Michelle Owens of LaGrange. Soon, Beverly was experimenting with her own projects.

After Beverly married Stephen (“We had a 45-year love affair,” he said), they bought her first sewing machine.

She began to tinker with alterations and make occasional pieces of clothing: a blouse, a pair of pajamas or a Halloween costume for her son, Steve Pisut of Plainfield.

“She very much taught herself,” Stephen said.

By the late 1970s, Beverly was sewing Christmas tree skirts and table runners for craft shows. Later, she began sewing draperies for Window Designs in Joliet. From time to time, friends would ask Beverly to sew curtains. Beverly discovered she had a knack for the work and ventured forth on her own.

“She could take fabric sample and a piece of plain paper and pencil and give you a pencil drawing of what your window was going to look like,” Stephen said. “She was also her own installer; she was a kind of toolbelt diva. She had her own cordless drill and tool box and was good at drilling holes into walls and attaching things to window trim or putting drywall anchors in walls.”

Image from Stock.xchng.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *