How a TikTok trend inspired two Rams to buy and launch craft shops—and teach a timeless, creative outlet to a room full of young alumni in NYC
On a Thursday evening in early autumn, about 50 young Fordham alumni crowded into the back room of Dorrian’s Red Hand, a Manhattan bar, to try their hand at needlepoint.
Some were seasoned stitchers; others had never threaded a needle. Each got a four-inch canvas bearing Fordham’s Gothic F—and, according to two of the night’s volunteer instructors, hardly anyone put it down for the next two hours.
“What I loved about it was that everyone stitched until the very end,” said Margaret Malagiero Schiffer ’94, ’98 MSE, who co-owns two needlepoint shops with her niece Kristina Malagiero ’21 MSE.
Making (Local) Connections
Stitch Night was among the first events of the Young Alumni Committee’s Local Connections Initiative. Launched this year, the initiative supports small, alumni-led gatherings built around shared hobbies—so far, a run club, a book club, and now needlepoint.
“We’ve heard from a lot of alumni, especially in the last year, that they’re looking for smaller, more casual opportunities to connect,” said committee co-chair Caroline Rossi McCluskey ’18, an avid stitcher who dreamed up the event. To gauge interest, she posted in a needlepoint Facebook group with about 35,000 members. Malagiero Schiffer and Malagiero answered, then offered to donate scissors and teach beginners. Volunteering to teach came naturally: Malagiero Schiffer is a former teacher, Malagiero is a school counselor, and both earned their master’s degrees in education at Fordham.
From Scroll to Storefront
The aunt-niece pair are relatively new to the craft themselves. About two years ago, Malagiero Schiffer discovered needlepoint on TikTok and urged her niece to try it. Malagiero protested that she didn’t need another hobby. But within a week, she too was hooked.
A few months later, they bought Stitch Miami, a needlepoint shop that had been open for more than 20 years in Florida. Just two months after that, they opened a second outpost, closer to home in New York: Stitch Katonah, located across from the Westchester County town’s Metro-North station.
Modernizing an Old-School Craft
Their full-service shops stock hand-painted canvases in dozens of categories—from florals and coastal scenes to Christmas stockings—along with needles, scissors, and other tools. And both stores offer classes, from beginner lessons to finishing workshops, a monthly “Sip and Stitch” event, and in-house painters who personalize designs.
It’s an approach that suits the timeless craft’s modern resurgence. In 2015, the average needlepointer was 61 years old, according to a survey by the National NeedleArts Association. Today, the owners say, their customers keep getting younger—high school and college students among them—enticed by canvases featuring pop culture and fashion rather than traditional florals.
“You could stitch anything from a floral arrangement to a marshmallow,” Malagiero said. And no one is grading your technique. “We always say it’s just a hobby; it’s just needlepoint. It’s supposed to make you happy.”
Next up for the duo? A line of original canvas designs inspired by family, travel, and the Jersey Shore; a collaboration with a fashion brand; and a canvas for the December cover of Westchester Magazine.
Pick Up Your Own Thread
As for Local Connections, Rossi McCluskey hopes Stitch Night inspires other young alumni to pitch their own gatherings through the Young Alumni page on Forever Fordham.
“We’re really encouraging anyone in the young alumni community to step up if they have an idea,” she said, “and we’ll help them bring it to life.”
