Lizzi Lambert was a stay-at-home mom in Leelanau Township when the bottom fell out of her husband's aviation business.

RACKS OF clothes have been “made in Leelanau” through Lizzie Lambert’s “Haystacks” line of clothing.

“It was just after 9/11, aviation slowed and many airlines closed,” Lambert said. “So I decided to go back to work.”

She turned to something she knew: sewing.

Lambert’s mother had owned and operated a dress shop in Franklin, Mich., from the time she was a kindergartner. Sewing came naturally to Lambert. Her first pieces of clothing were for Barbie dolls.

Six years and four stores later, Lambert’s “Haystacks” line of clothing, designed, sewn and sold in Leelanau County, has become a success story.

“I’m a perfect example of someone who took $1,500 on their credit card to start a business,” she said.

Lambert’s business began at home, where using a very basic pattern and a soft, nylon/lycra blend fabric, she made dozens of pairs of pants. Lambert spoke with local businesses which agreed to purchase the pants wholesale for retail sales. Soon her cottage industry outgrew her home and Lambert began to look for space to lease.

Enter Richard Roberts, who had just purchased the Harbor House, a Leland landmark at River and Main Streets which was once the site of a second-story dance hall.

“He offered me the space (in the upper level) at a cheap rate and I moved my sewing machines up there,” Lambert said.

With the encouragement of other Leland business owners, Lambert rented a shanty in Fishtown and sold all the clothing she had made over the winter from “Alice’s Closet.” The move to retail appealed to Lambert, who had managed Mettler’s clothing store in Petoskey in the 1980s.

“I love the customer-interaction,” Lambert said.

Two years ago, Lambert’s retail space grew to include “Haystacks” on Main Street in Leland and The Pixie Room, located in adjacent space in the Leland Courtyard Shops. This spring, Lambert added a fourth retail outlet, “Haystacks by the Bay” in Suttons Bay. All stores and her website www.haystacks.net, offer her original clothing line, plus complementary clothing appealing to shoppers from all walks of life with different clothing budgets.

“We try to hit all price points — the high end, low end and something in between,” said Lambert, whose clothing outlets are surrounded by others which draw on the tourist economy. “The local customer has been really good to us … coming in here all winter long, supporting us all the way.”

Originally, the Pixie Room offered just shoes. However, it now features “fair trade” merchandise and Indian “kurtis” or smocks, designed by Lambert, but sewn by company in India, using colorful cotton fabrics.

“I met a lady at a show in Los Angeles who lives in India. She was very friendly and I now have her manufacturing a line for Haystacks in India,” said Lambert, who will travel to India in October, to monitor working conditions for those making her clothing. “I don’t want to see anyone sleeping at their sewing machines.”

The rest of the Haystacks lines are produced and sold here — in Leelanau County — by a work force which swells to 24 in the summer and drops to eight or nine in the winter. All are local residents happy to have year-round employment.

Comfort and customer service are the signature for Lambert’s Haystacks.

“What you’re wearing has to be comfortable,” she said. “When I was little, everything was itchy and too tight around my waist.”

Hard to fit? Like a print, but can’t find it in your size?

No problem. Haystack’s offers alterations at no charge and will custom make clothing as requested.

“We make it work,” she said. “(Return business) is huge.”

How important? “If 200 people walk through the door in one day, I’ll know 100. I’ll know nine if there are just 10.

“People want to find something that will fit them.”