For nearly two decades, Jean Acoba has greeted almost everyone who has walked through the doors of Kapaia Stitchery. And up until about six years ago, Acoba worked alongside Julie Yukimura, who opened the small fabric store at the bottom
For nearly two decades, Jean Acoba has greeted almost everyone who has walked through the doors of Kapaia Stitchery.
And up until about six years ago, Acoba worked alongside Julie Yukimura, who opened the small fabric store at the bottom of Kapaia Valley in 1973.
Together, they and other employees over the years helped weave the store into the fabric of the community — stitched together delicately with threads of warmth through their customer service and passion for a craft that they love.
“She never married and never had any kids so this was her baby,” Acoba said.
Yukimura’s decision to open the store, Acoba said, came shortly after she returned home to Kauai after earning her master’s degree in elementary education. With no permanent teaching jobs available at that time, Yukimura, at her family’s behest, bought this business, not knowing what it would become today,” Acoba said.
“The front part was the only section that she had as a store,” Acoba recalled. “She was more of a yarn shop before, so she would sew her own clothing. Her and her grandmother used to crochet blankets, bikinis and all that kine stuff. Then, through the years, quilting became bigger and she brought in fabric and filled the store in no time.”
But what almost everyone who visited the store took away with them, regardless of what they bought, was Yukimura’s love for her work and her caring attitude toward others.
It’s an attribute that, Acoba said, convinced her to give up her accounting job at Dairy Queen at 29 years old and become one of Yukimura’s full-time employees.
“She was a very, very special and unique person,” Acoba said. “She’s so hard to describe in words. She’s a gift from heaven that was sent to me to come and work at this shop. That’s how special she was — she was almost my second mom.”
It’s a decision she has never regretted.
“I gave up my accounting job to work here and do something that was less stressful, but I got to meet a lot of locals and wonderful people who are visiting,” Acoba said. “It’s almost like family now every time the repeat customers come back here now.”
And that’s the way things were up until Yukimura died unexpectedly on Nov. 6, 2007. She was 59.
The day that she died, Acoba said, was one of the only days the store ever closed.
It was also a day when Acoba, store manager at the time, was faced with a tough decision: to close the store or keep it open.
She chose the latter.
“I talked to the girls and I said, ‘Julie wouldn’t want us keeping this store closed while all our visitors are here visiting us and they can’t come to shop,’” Acoba said. “I told them I was going to open the next day and I said, ‘I’m going to come in tomorrow whether or not you guys come in with me and we’re going to keep the store open.’”
Everyone, she recalled, showed up for work the next day.
For the next five years, Acoba continued to manage the store for Yukimura’s family and expand the store’s inventory to include handmade items from local crafters and sewing kits.
When Yukimura’s family decided to sell the store just over a year ago, Acoba said, she was ready to continue what Julie started with her employees by her side.
“They wanted to continue on her legacy and so to have someone run it as Kapaia Stitchery with the same ambiance and everything,” Acoba said. “The family knew that this was the love of her life … so they asked me and I took it upon myself to take over were Julie left off.”
On Dec. 12, 2012, her daughter’s birthday, Acoba became the owner of Kapaia Stitchery.
Many traditions are still the same, such as the store’s annual anniversary sale on April Fool’s Day and the friendly service the store’s customers still remember.
But there is room for change.
The store carries more than 5,000 bolts of fabric. More than half of it, or about 2,000 bolts, are comprised of hand-dyed batiks from Bali, Acoba said.
“We still have a lot of space — we still make things work where we have a lot of room just to walk around and not be overcrowded and yet people can still come and look at the things.”
But keeping track of them all, she said, isn’t too difficult except for those times when she needs to count her inventory.
“It (the fabric) kind of comes and goes,” Acoba said. “When it’s inventory time, you kind of have to count all of that.”
The Garden Island caught up with Acoba last week to share her memories of the store and future of it with readers.
TGI: What made you decide to take that big leap and own the store?
Acoba: A lot of it was that Julie instilled a lot in me while working at this store. I felt I had to work another 20 more years before I could even think of retirement, and the five years proved to me whether I could actually run the store without Julie — and I did. We didn’t close the store, we still made money for the family, so by that time, I felt, ‘OK, if the opportunity comes around, I was going to take the job.’ I couldn’t see this store closing up and not being Kapaia Stitchery anymore, because I felt for Julie, our employees and our customers. Our return customers would always come back and they were asking, from the time Julie passed till the time I took over, ‘Is the store going to close? Is it still going to be open?’ When they heard that I bought it, they were so happy — now they can continue coming over and over again. It wasn’t just jumping in because I wanted to make the money — you can always make money — but it was about carrying on Julie’s legacy.
TGI: As someone who has been with Kapaia Stitchery for many years, what does the business signify for you?
Acoba: It’s very special to me, but even when I was just working here for Julie, I always gave more than 100 percent because I actually enjoy doing this kind of stuff. I came from a family where my mom and my aunty both were seamstresses and sewed things, so I knew about this kind of stuff even though I’m an accountant by trade. Julie had a lot to do with instilling a love of this store within me — she was a very special person.
TGI: What are some classic offerings that have made Kapaia Stitchery stand out over the years?
Acoba: We still custom-make aloha shirts as well as women’s blouses. Customers get to choose their own fabric and we can make the adjustments, or they can make their own as well. And what we basically do is individually cut out the fabric and match up the individual parts of the shirts, including the pockets, button front and sleeves — they’re not the kind that are cut in bulks and nothing matches. That has been the quality of workmanship from day one, so it’s not like we’ve changed the quality recently to make everything match. That has always been something unique to Kapaia Stitchery from day one — when Julie first opened up, she was the one sewing aloha shirts. Customers could still choose their own fabrics and she’d sew it all up, but at that time, she would sew it on her own. Today, we have a seamstress who does the good work, too, but still continuing on that part of our store. We have a hard time stocking our shelves, because we’re trying to keep up with our special orders, so what I do is bring in a lot of aloha shirts from other local companies that make the shirts in Hawaii.
Another thing that has us stand out is our number one customer service that we give. We have the experience and a lot of our employees do have the knowledge of quilting, so anybody can come in here who does not know how to do it and we’ll teach them how it’s done — and some of them walk out learning how do do Hawaiian quilting. Some people may feel like they’re not good enough and may get intimidated, but here, we always feel like whether they’re brand new or they’re a very smart quilter, we’re always willing to teach them — we keep and open mind and try to help them in whatever way we can.
TGI: Have you brought any changes to the store or has everything, for the most part, remained the same over the years?
Acoba: It’s the same but a little bit more. Now, we do orders through email and eventually will have a website. We’re on Facebook already. I’ve been bringing in a lot of locally made craft items for our local customers, because they like to have things that are made on Kauai. The only other new thing that we brought in was my daughter’s “Hunt Kauai” clothing line that she just started. Eventually, we will have a classroom one day — we had a classroom but it turned into a production room because we’re trying to do more kits and stuff like that. We’re still trying to bring in a lot of local people but a majority of our clientele, I think, are visitors — the returnees who keep coming back.
TGI: What do you believe gravitates people to Kapaia Stitchery?
Acoba: I think quilters are a different group of people, because no matter where they go, they’re always looking for a quilt shop and they’re always happy, too.
I hardly ever get anybody who’s grumpy — they’re always happy like kids in a candy store when they come here. I can see that. I used to sew a lot but finding the time now is hard but it’s nice to go out and buy all of the fabrics and see how people who come in enjoy the fabrics as much as I do.
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
