One Stitch at a Time

Nestled against the southwestern point of the Mission Mountains at the end of a dirt road sits a small, dark blue, blocky building that looks just like a shed on any other farm. Two young dogs roam around the deep green grass, greeting any stranger as an old friend; a light wind whistles through the stands of pine on the far south end of the property.

Peggy Orr stands on the porch of the small, blocky shed that is actually a fully functioning workshop. Smiling and waving, Orr shouts, “You’ve found it!”

Immediately inside the small workshop are two work tables. The first, directly inside the door and to the left, serves as the sewing work station outfitted with two, small industrial sewing machines sitting at a 90 degree angle from each other and a large space behind each. The second work table is a standing bench with large rolls of nylon textiles and various measuring and cutting utensils that are scattered about. There is an extension off the backside of the building that has an extra workbench, excess material and finished products. Around the outside of the shop are various buckles, rings, rolls of fabric and the occasional toy car.

“I have two little grandkids that I’m watching after,” Orr said, picking up a small, brown and white toy horse and smiling. “Can you tell?”

Orr runs Thorn Creek Sewing, an industrial sewing company based out of the south end of the Mission Valley. Her clients tend to be companies that operate out of western Montana, and she works on various types of projects from small cases that hold holistic medicines to large rescue bags designed to transport the seriously injured.

Whether it be industrial purposes or clothing, sewing has always been a part of her life. Anything she needed, she could keep it together or make it with her talent.

“Since I was 10 years old I’ve been sewing my own clothes,” Orr said. “Sewing is what I love to do! It’s what I’ve done.”

Now, at age 58, she runs a fully-functioning industrial sewing shop and can not only sew her own clothes, but has the capability to handle order after order of bags, wraps, cases, or any piece of textile that needs to be held together with thread.

But, it wasn’t always like this.

Almost 20 years ago, Orr was working as a bookkeeper. She didn’t like the office life, finding the work to be too monotonous, too boring for her creative mind. So she decided to make a change.

Orr began her career as an industrial seamstress working with another Montana industrial sewing company, Montana Keepers, in 1999. But, six years after joining the company, the owner decided to move to Deer Lodge, leaving Orr without a job.

She didn’t want to go back to working as a bookkeeper, so she decided to start her own company.

Around 2005, shortly after separating from Montana Keepers, Orr landed a big contract sewing an order of over 1,000 rescue bags, a good portion of an order that the Department of Defense had requested through the Polson-based company, Doctor Down. The bags were to replace Vietnam-era rescue bags that were still being used around the country. That contract is what helped boost her forward.

“The fact that Doctor Down was going so full force at the time gave me the confidence to step out and do it,” Orr said.

Even with a significant contract under her belt, she didn’t have to flow of customers to make the sewing business viable by itself. So in 2009, Orr picked up a second job making earrings.

“When a sewing order would come in, I’d come in and do it,” Orr said. “Then I’d go back and make my earrings!”

This lasted a couple years until she had the flow of customers coming in regularly to keep products flowing under her needles.

But Doctor Down has since used her company as their number one contractor, keeping a steady flow of bag orders sliding through her sewing machines to the tune of 100 to 150 bags per year. “She still does 80 percent of everything we are currently doing,” Rob Ricketts said, VP of sales at Doctor Down. “She is a powerhouse.”

To the average Joe this may not seem like a lot, but Doctor Down is still one of the largest companies that Orr works with. Each bag takes five hours to produce and with Orr and her two employees, Hope Ranel and Larissa Hubbard, they are able to put out about 10 of them per week. Each order received from Doctor Down takes around 500 or more man hours to finish, meaning Doctor Down is important to keep her machines moving.

And they move.

Walking into her shop, the small machines tap at a steady pace, with Ranel taking short breaks for readjusting her work. Ranel sews together Cordura, a heavy duty nylon textile, and elastic to make a carrying case for homeopathic remedies. The order is a small one, and Orr can count on the business from this client at least twice a year. She operates her shop at least 40 hours per week and is even able to keep both her employees on for 32 of those 40 hours.

Orr even feels that she could do more with the shop but is content with where she is right now.

“There’s businesses out there,” Orr said. “I just have chosen not to do more. I’ve got my established clients and I’m going to just stay there for a while.”

Outside the shop, Orr’s dogs Cooper and Sadie snooze in the shade on the porch. Her garden is covered over with plastic and the Mission Mountains bake in the mid-afternoon sun. She mentions her garden and how it’s been calling to her lately, talking about how planting and working in the dirt are just as much of a passion as sewing.

She loves having the shop in her backyard and it makes it easy to get to work. She has access to many of the things she enjoys doing outside of her business like camping, hiking, kayaking and gardening.

She doesn’t have any plans on stopping anytime soon. Retirement does not seem to be on her mind.

“That depends on my body!” said Orr. “What can I keep doing? I don’t have views of retirement yet at this point. I love what I’m doing.”