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Carrie Mecherle works on a costume in her Henderson home. Photo by Steve Andrascik. An American Indian design is embroidered on toilet paper. Photo by Steve Andrascik. A gift for those who have everything: embroidered toilet paper. Photo by Steve Andrascik. Seamstress Carrie Mecherle models a coat she made with plastic bags. Photo by Steve Andrascik.

Tuesday, January 16, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Seamstress leaves customers in stitches

Embroidered toilet paper is just one of the unusual materials she uses

Henderson resident Carrie Mecherle once pondered a common question -- what gift to give a mother who has everything -- but came up with a most uncommon answer: embroidered toilet paper.

As a joke, Mecherle, who is a professional seamstress, embroidered several rolls, each with a different seasonal symbol such as a snowman, a pumpkin and an Easter bunny.

Mecherle's mom, Carol Brady, first laughed when she opened the gift on a Christmas morning about six years ago. But then, to Mecherle's amazement, asked for more rolls. "I want the rest of the holidays," she says Brady said.

The response was similar when Mecherle contributed some of the specialty toilet paper to a small gift exchange at her church.

"Can you do a dog? Can you do initials?" were questions from people who were intrigued by the concept of embroidered tissue.

Mecherle's practical joke has turned into a cottage industry. Today she sells her toilet paper weekly at the Henderson farmers market. One roll is $6, or $15 for three rolls.

Anticipating the most frequently asked questions, she posts several signs at her booth.

"Yes, it's sewn directly on the paper," reads one.

"No, (the embroidery's) not on every sheet. The average cost would be $6,000 per roll," reads another.

A design is embroidered only one time per roll, on the second of the typical 1,000 sheets. Mecherle works exclusively in Charmin. "I've tried others, but (the layers) tend to come apart," she explains.

"Do not use. Decorative only," reads the warning label on every packaged roll.

Mecherle already has come up with 195 different embroidery designs. Aside from holiday motifs and personal monograms, she says sports team mascots are big with her toilet-paper customers.

The meaning of the product can be read two ways. A roll with a team mascot is perfect for a fan who follows that team with a passion, whose home decor includes "everything to do with the sports team," Mecherle notes. Conversely, the same roll of toilet wipes is a suitable gift for a fan who abhors that team.

She also takes special requests. Mecherle learned through the grapevine that a roll with elephants on it was given to Gov. Kenny Guinn, who is a Republican. Another customer gave a roll with an Egyptian mummy on it to neurologist Lonnie Hammargren, who includes Egyptology among his many interests.

Her favorite story is the one from a customer who wanted a scale of justice embroidered on a roll, along with the name of the law firm where she worked. The buyer hoped to win a trip to Colorado by giving the most unique gift in her law office's Christmas gift exchange.

While this product line may seem wacky, Mecherle says she gets many other offbeat ideas, which is why she named her sewing business 3AM Inspirations. "My brain doesn't live on this plane, I don't think," she jokes. Many of Mecherle's brainstorms come to her in the middle of the night.

She has sewn bubble wrap into rain hats, and conventional plastic shopping bags into a raincoat that she still wears. Whenever the jacket rips, she simply stitches a patch from a new bag over it. Wearing the jacket causes a faint but constant rustle, which usually sparks conversation when she's out in public.

Asked why she tackles such sewing projects, Mecherle says, "Because I can," paraphrasing the famous mountain climber's "because it's there" refrain.

The more complete truth is that Mecherle had a job that encouraged her to sew unusual things. While living in Texas, she worked at a shop where she taught sewing techniques to people who had just bought new sewing machines, in particular, advanced computerized machines that can easily cost $4,000-$6,000.

"If you're just spouting information, you're going to bore them," Mecherle says. To demonstrate the utter limits of the machines' capabilities, she would devise entertaining projects. The session on sewing bubble wrap, for example, showed that participants could store fragile Christmas ornaments snugly in custom-sized bags made of the wrap.

"I see her as a person with the most knowledge," says Suzanne McAnelly, a friend who met Mecherle during a sewing class in Texas. Not only does Mecherle repair sewing machines, she also does cars. After one class, Mecherle handily fixed a fuse problem in McAnelly's car.

Mecherle's zany sense of humor is readily apparent, according to McAnelly. "She can't hide it."

"There's no such thing as garbage in my sewing room," says Mecherle, who is 39 and moved to Southern Nevada six years ago. She prides herself on using unusual tools and materials.

She fuses thread remnants to make flower appliquŽs. She uses thin cloth strips to wrap and stitch clothesline into a type of basketry that resembles hooked rugwork. She uses bits of broken jewelry as decorative elements in her sewing.

Sometimes she uses a barber's electric hair clippers to sculpt faux fur just so, to become hair when she's constructing a Muppet-style puppet. She has discovered that a heavy-duty sewing machine needle can easily punch holes in super-lightweight sheets of copper -- though she has not yet discovered a practical application.

Not everything Mecherle does is off the deep end. When the Miss Universe pageant was held in Las Vegas in 1996, Mecherle did alterations for some of the contestants. While she describes alterations as the least creative aspect of sewing, the pageant posed some interesting challenges.

Miss Romania, for example, accidentally ripped out the finely gathered bodice of her gown the night before the evening-gown competition. Mecherle came to her rescue.

Mecherle also took in every seam of a dress for Miss Ecuador. The contestant had been handed the garment at the last minute, at plane boarding time, by her seamstress back home. When she got to Las Vegas, the young woman found the dress was three sizes too big.

Mecherle also does costuming. Her customers range from Dave Dedera, a 10-foot stilt clown who works at Circus Circus, to Hollie Vest, a Las Vegas-based performer who travels, doing impersonations of Tina Turner, Mae West, Carmen Miranda, Ethel Merman and Peggy Lee.

As a pre-kindergartner, Mecherle was already sewing. She remembers stealing fabric scraps from her mom and then stitching them onto her own teddy bear. Next, she graduated to making clothes for Barbie dolls.

Today, Mecherle says her mom jokes that all the costume work means her daughter is "still dressing Barbie dolls, but they just got bigger."