Cross-stitching can be done anywhere – as proven by Sioned Hywel, who has set up a business based on personalised baby presents using her stitching skills.
Sioned has worked hard to fit in commissions around family commitments, which has meant stitching away at unlikely venues, including football tournaments and caravan holidays, with her husband Osian and family.
Like many Sioned had always wanted to run her own business, but it wasn’t until she was expecting her third child that it actually happened. Just before the birth she had been clearing her home at Llandwrog, near Caernarfon, and found shoe boxes with cards and items from the birth of her sons, Gwion, nine, and Meilir, six.
She decided to create personalised boxes for them instead, using her cross-stitch skills.
“I had six friends who were expecting at the same time as me, so I made similar boxes for them as gifts, and it grew from there,” she said. When daughter Lleucu, now two, arrived there was another incentive: “After two boys I wanted to create pretty things!”
Sioned said she realised straight away that the boxes were not enough to support a business, so she developed other personalised items such as albums, blankets and scrapbooks.
Because each piece is individual it is possible for the boxes to be produced in any language and Sioned realised straight away there was a gap in the market for Welsh-language baby gifts.
“People then started to look for me, people who had been given gifts I’d produced wanted to buy more,” she said.
Customers also came forward to ask for new items, which then became firm favourites in the range – such as an album especially for doting grandmothers (Llyfr Brolio Nain).
It allows Sioned to work two days a week as a teacher in Criccieth – where her creative skills are being put to good use as she teaches art to primary school children of all ages. The rest of the time is devoted to the family… and the business.
“It’s not the family having to fit in around the business; it’s the other way round. I find the cross-stitch very relaxing to do, especially in the evenings after the children have gone to bed,” she said.
The business is however being taken a step further with the development of a website.
“I felt that I needed a shop-window, a place where people could see what’s available and the prices,” she said.
“I might not do this forever, but it fits in with my life right now. I love what I do. Inspiration comes from all around, from found items, even a box of pretty buttons, I’m buzzing with new ideas.”
