April 14, 2023

A Sioux Falls woman’s handmade business is moving out of the house and into its first location.

Holly Anderson Hintz started Shake Rattle Sew in 2004 with her mother, Carol Anderson, who along with her aunt taught her how to sew when she was growing up.

“It was our baby,” Hintz said. “We started doing craft shows, and we have just grown from there now into a store.”

Her mother died in May 2022, “so this is what I do to keep her spirit alive and keep connected to her,” Hintz said.

Her husband, Chris, is a fellow entrepreneur who even pitches in sewing as needed. The founder and president of Pinnacle Productions, he also helped drive his wife’s first location — in part, because his own production studio moved out of it. The business has a new location in Tea, and Shake Rattle Sew now is converting the former one at 2228 W. Fifth St. into its own space.

“It took over my three-stall garage and my entire basement,” she said of the business’ growth. “We never parked inside.”

The physical location also will allow the business to open up online sales.

“Before, it was too hard to have online because everything was kept in a trailer and too hard to get to,” Hintz said. “Now, we’ll have space to grow our online presence and do lives (live shows), and we’re so excited to do more.”

The business specializes in “minky” blankets, “the soft, luxurious fur blankets everyone is in love with,” Hintz said. “And the good thing about the new shop is we’re planning to do build-a-blanket, where we’ll have all the fabric out and you can come in and plan exactly what you want.”

Blankets will be made on-site, including for parties.

Product lines also will expand to include personalization and pet blankets.

The storefront includes room for Hintz’s custom basket business, which offers gifts for Easter, Mother’s Day and other occasions.

“We’ve started advertising more now that we have room,” she said. “The hard part was there was no place to pick them up.”

She also plans to return to her passion project, decorating hospital rooms for patients going through chemotherapy, which she used to do for her mother and others.

For now, Shake Rattle Sew is staffed with family — her dad helps too — and good friends, “but we’re going to start hiring,” Hintz said. “We’re working on contracts with different companies to have our blankets in stores.”

The plan is to open the storefront about a block east of Kiwanis Avenue sometime in May.