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 Welcome
to CottonBelle's website.
Nearly 20
years ago in rural Belle, Missouri, two women set up shop in an
old concrete block garage with a sewing machine, table and
telephone. Locals were suspicious and had heard "they're making
futons...whatever they are. And two women...what would they be
up to?"
Deanna
Ridenhour and Mary Lou Rath were up to plenty--forming a
partnership from an earlier business relationship where Deanna
was sewing futon covers by night and babysitting by day and Mary
Lou Rath running a retail futon business in St. Louis while also
in private therapy practice and teaching at Washington
University. Even then, they knew they had a unique formula for
customer relations, consumer education and quality work.
In the
early years Mary Lou scoured the universe for distinctive
fabrics and built a client base while Deanna tailored patterns
for futon covers and pillows, sewed, stuffed futons and fixed
everything. Not too much has changed since the early years
except today they are shipping products throughout the US to
hundreds of furniture retailers, designers and customers of all
ages.
Most
importantly, today CottonBelle has the greatest employees who
make it all possible. "It takes incredible talent, dedication,
decades of experience and first-rate cutters, seamstresses,
futon-, cushion-, pillow-makers, and shippers to meet and
often exceed customer's expectations year after year", Mary Lou
says. And to ensure quality, each employee monitors
quality every step of the way.
While most products today are made on assembly
lines...most often out of the country...CottonBelle continues to
tailor everything by hand in the hilly, Ozarks countryside of
Missouri. CottonBelle is proud that it is one of the largest
private employers in Belle, a small, remote town when jobs are
scarce but talent and pride in workmanship abundant.
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