When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it might be about men who WORK in a LQS. (LOL) My wife and I don’t have any employees, so I work in our little shop off and on. Instead of a LQS, our shop could probably fall under the heading of a Fabric and Sewing General Store.
The ladies get a kick out of seeing me at one of our machines mending or hemming jeans or putting a zipper in a coat when they come in. Most of them comment to my wife about putting me to work. My wife always tells them that she finally “found some help, not much help, but cheap help”.
When my wife has an appointment somewhere and needs to be gone, I work the shop in her place cutting fabric, cutting fat quarters, cutting lace, cutting ribbon or trim, cutting elastic, cutting batting and whatever else the customers want. Five years ago when I first started and had a request for something that I wasn’t real familiar with (and had THAT look on my face), most of the ladies took me under their wing and helped me find it and/or get it for them. Now I’ve graduated up to helping decide which 5 fabrics go best together, and some ladies even insist that I give them my opinion when I’m available.
We have men come in the shop all of the time. A few of them are quilters, and some are farmers. Did you know that a piece of leather treadle sewing machine belt can be used as a substitute for a grease seal in an antique hay rake wheel hub? Or that 1/8” foam sheeting makes a good air conditioner filter cover for a Ford tractor?
CD in Oklahoma