Q&A How did you start your small business?
Hello everyone, and welcome welcome.
I've touched on it before, but I started my small business kind of as a hobby. Around 2019 and 2020 I really got into sewing. I didn't have a sewing machine at the time, so I did all of my projects by hand with a needle and thread.
I took a lot of influence from Bernadette Banner a lovely Youtuber I started watching watching roughly before then. Her videos helped me a lot in learning new stitches and applications of those new skills.
I even used her videos as rough tutorials to make my own historical clothing, a waistcoat here and a Victorian walking skirt there. I also started making some 1950s inspired dresses with my needle and thread too.
When my grand-mother heard that I had taken up sewing and was doing these relatively big projects by hand, she told me to go down into the basement and find an old sewing machine that my grand-father had bought her back in the day when it was new. A Singer Stylist 834. I unfortunately no longer have the machine itself and it's solid leather case anymore and the little orange manual.
Due to it's age, use over the years and plastic internal gears literally wearing down to a point where they became useless. The thing that really sucked was I couldn't even get fixed because the cost of getting replacement parts would be more than what the machine itself was actually worth.
So... I started looking for a new machine. Back to square one for now with my needle and thread for any sewing projects I came up with.
By the time I found a machine the world was in lockdown, I had found it through Facebook Marketplace, it was $40. It was a old Singer, from 1934 with a light and a knee powered peddle. However it needed a rewire job, the original cord was crumbling and I was scared to plus the crusty and bend plug into the wall.
Through the internet I eventually found a gentleman in Saint-Thomas Ontario, a good drive away from where I lived who repaired and sold antique Singers from his garage. He was so nice and he fixed my machine for me and he and his wife made sure it worked like new before I came back to pick it up. They even showed me how to use it.
While I was there, I couldn't help but notice the walls were covered in beautiful machines from every decade and he had more inside from their own collection some dating back to the 1860s.
That's when I noticed this full size hand crank with a gorgeous decal named "Wings". At first he didn't want to sell it to me, thinking I was a collector who would just put it on shelf and the machine itself would seize from lack of use. Older cast iron machines cannot be opened to fix internal problems like modern machines so if there's an issue in the hidden part, then its near impossible to get to.
Once I had explained that this wouldn't be the fate of the machine he opened up to the idea of parting with this beautiful piece that he had had multiple good offers on it the past, all from folks who would have put it on a shelf.
He showed me how to use this one, he even threw in 7 extra bobbins for me that he had laying around for it. I paid $160 for it and I was on my way back home.
Now, with two reliable machines. I could go back to my hobby. The electric knee peddle scared me a bit so I opted to sew on older 1913 machine instead. It was quiet and slow, things I really liked about hand sewing.
During the lockdowns I made lots of fun looking masks for family and friends as a decorate thing to put over their more protective ones. Then I made a scrunchie as a gift for someone and then I started making more and more...
Until I had a small bin full of them in multiple different fabrics and patterns. I couldn't wear them at the time, I was sporting a buzz-cut and it would take me a few years before I felt comfortable enough to let it grow out again.
With this dilemma I decided to open an Etsy shop. I had had a few other items I had listed back then, some handmade cards, things from when I went through my book-binding phase, and some left over face masks. I no longer have any of those in my Etsy shop as of now.
I found my thing, scrunchies and other sewn accessories like bows, lanyards, bags and more.
So in short, my small business started because I was bored during the lockdowns and that turned into a way for me to make some pocket money at the time. Which over the years its brought me to now. Opening a Shopify website to further my reach and grow what started on my kitchen table with a needle and thread that ended up turning into a 100+ year old sewing machine. A machine that still sits on my work table today, that I use everyday, just like I told the man who sold it to me I would.
I take care of both of my machines, I oil them, wipe them down with soft cloths to avoid dust, put the wooden bell cloches over them when I know I'll be going away. Go out of my way to try and use both as equally as I can to maintain both of their inter working parts.
I love them and my business wouldn't be anything without them, over the years with the amount of sewing I've had to do to keep on top of everything, I was forced to get over of that little fear I had of the 1934 machine and the super fast electric needle I had been terrified of when I started... Turns out it's not that fast and not so scary at all.
It's just that I was new and not used to the equipment in front of me. Now I can use both without a second though. Though I am still partial to the 1913 because the level of precision, quality in my stitches and overall professional look blows everything else out of the water. Maybe I'll make another post about comparing both of them in that way in the future if you'd interested in reading about it.
Until next time,
Sabrina
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