Soft landing: Dresden woman turns pillow-making into second career

When Carol Tattan sees the snow fly outside her log cabin home in Dresden, she doesn’t have to worry about getting to work. She’s already there.

That’s one of her favorite things about having her own business – Pillow World – along with doing something she loves.

"I’m at a time of my life when I can do this, and I can enjoy it," Tattan said Sunday, in the sunlit loft she has turned into her sewing room. She and her husband of 33 years, George, have three grown children and a grandchild.

Tattan didn’t plan on being downsized out of her corporate career in her native Massachusetts. Working in materials management for 25 years had suited the self-described "stickler." But when Lucent Technologies offered her an early retirement in 2002, it turned out to be a good turn in her and her family’s life.

She went immediately back to school, attaining an associate’s degree in interior design. Even before she had her degree from Hesser College in Salem, N.H, she was getting work.

Around that time, she and George, a retired police officer, were looking to move north from Massachussetts, to one of the northern New England states where they used to take their children camping.

Dresden had what the couple was looking for – a place to build the log cabin home Tattan had always wanted, and the more relaxed pace of a small town.

Tattan found one drawback with the move: There was not as much of a demand for interior designers here.

Then, someone asked her to work on some pillows that were going to be sold outside Maine. That gave her the idea to make and sell her own.

"The first fair we went to was at the Railway Village in Boothbay," Tattan recalled. "And they sold like hotcakes. And then in Damariscotta, they went like crazy again. So we said, we might have something here."

Three years into the business, Tattan goes to about 30 fairs a year, and sells her products at two co-ops.

Pillows have been a good fit for Tattan’s sewing skills, and her penchant for perfection.

She recently pulled her new line of pillows with pockets, for children to deposit their lost teeth for the tooth fairy. The reason? She was able to tug at, and start to loosen, the heat-bonded lettering. She knew children would be doing the same thing.

Instead, her husband bought her a special birthday gift, an embroidering machine, to do the lettering. She’s back to work on those pillows, and now is planning to add personalized embroidery to her pillow-making next season.

Her husband cuts fabric, keeps track of inventory, and goes to the fairs with her. "It’s nice, because we do it together," she said. "And we’ve met a lot of other couples."

Couples sometimes stay at one another’s homes when going to a fair, to avoid the cost of staying at a bed and breakfast, she noted.

She has enjoyed traveling the state. "I am seeing every corner of Maine through the craft fairs, and I’m loving it," she said. "There’s one in Fort Kent, up by Canada, and I can’t wait to go."

Tattan taught herself to sew while growing up in Rowley, Mass. "It’s just like Dresden," she said. "If you blink you’re eyes, you’ve gone through the center of town."

Tattan made her own high school graduation dress.

She and her husband raised their two sons and a daughter in Haverhill, Mass. When she would make a dress for her daughter, Tiffany, she would also make matching ones for herself and Tiffany’s doll.

Demonstrating the process of making a pillow, Tattan noted that most people don’t take the extra time involved to put cording around the edges. Not only is there extra sewing, but extra calculating, in terms of how much fabric is needed for the strip the cording goes in.

She uses cording as part of her aim for a high-quality product. The cording doesn’t help the pillow last longer or serve any other practical purpose, but, "it gives it a more professional look," she explains.

She then sews the right sides of two sheets of fabric together, leaving an opening just big enough for her to reach in, and pull the right sides to the outside.

Next, she inserts the American- made pillow form. She advised that the tag on the forms should not be removed. Even though the form is designed to be hypo-allergenic, if anyone has a problem with allergies, the tag lists the material and where it was made.

Tattan has about 600 pillows in stock to take to the fairs. She also ships orders as far away as California, Florida, and Washington state. Many of the orders are from tourists who see her work at the fairs, and want something for a family member.

Pillows with pet and other animal themes are the most popular sellers. She also does ones with professional sports team themes, cartoon characters, military, nautical and countless others.

"That was my goal, to have something for everybody," she said. Some fabric themes are harder to find than others. "If I don’t find it for six months, and then I call them and tell them I found it, they say they still want it."

Despite the troubled economy, sales of Tattan’s pillows are on the increase. Based on customers’ comments, the Tattans attribute that rise to people’s increasing desire to buy Maine-made, and American-made, goods.

She buys her materials from area quilt shops and from online sites that sell U.S-made materials. That’s important to the couple, not only as a marketing tool, but also because they, like their customers, want to support Maine and U.S. companies.

Tattan is a member of the United Maine Craftsmen and the Society of Southern Maine Craftsmen.