Dear JOANN’s,
I remember the first time I walked into a JOANN’s. I was no older than five. My mom had been shopping there for years before me—making clothes for herself and my Halloween costumes as Batgirl and Supergirl. That place was already her haven, and soon, it became mine too.
The next costume I remember shopping for was Hit Girl from ‘Kick-Ass’, and my twin sister’s was Hello Kitty. The stores didn’t carry these costumes, at least not the way we imagined them. So once again, my mom made it happen. She crafted my specific purple plaid skirt from scratch and designed a full Hello Kitty outfit for my sister—complete with the oversized head and a handmade matching dress. That was the beauty of it: when something didn’t exist, we made it ourselves. And JOANN’s was where that magic always began.
That wouldn’t be the last time I walked through those automatic doors and took a deep breath of fabric, felt, and inspiration. Over the years, I’ve created everything from dresses to jackets, pencil skirts to scarves. And not just garments—experiments. JOANN’s became a place where I could explore different parts of myself through every thread and pattern. It was where my imagination lived and my hands learned to keep up.
As I got older, I dabbled in all kinds of crafts: sewing, knitting, crocheting, even Cricut projects that covered my walls, my gifts, and sometimes, my heart. I learned the quiet joy of looping yarn into tiny animals, of watching fabric come alive under a needle, and of pulling ideas out of thin air and turning them into something tangible.
Through every success and every tangled mess, JOANN’s has been there—patient, stocked, and inspiring. You weren’t just a store. You were a creative sanctuary. A second home. A place I could wander for hours, touching soft bolts of fabric and imagining what they could become. A place where I could feel close to my mom, to my sister, to the younger version of myself who thought superheroes were stitched, not bought.
So thank you, JOANN’s—for the memories, the possibilities, the aisles of color and comfort, and for being the starting point of so many stories I got to tell through my hands.
With love and endless appreciation,
Lilianna Angel
Crafter