Little Spools turns 2 years old!

Happy birthday Little Spools!!!❤❤❤

Needless to say, the 7th of December is a really special day for me, and since I missed this date last year, this post will make up for that overlook! 

Little Spools turns 2 today! 

That's right, it's been TWO WHOLE YEARS since Little Spools was born. We've been swept up in a whirlwind of stalls, sales, and more since then. It has been a wonderful period of learning marketplace tips and tricks, exploring new avenues of creativity, and sharing wonderful creations with the communities around us. 

For me, 2019-2021 was an amazing ride, but not just from stitching simple hems to whipping up everything under the sun with my trusty sewing machine Jemima (named so because she's a Janome and I wanted her to be a girl). It was also significant because in mid 2020 I picked up my first crochet hook, opened an instruction booklet that came with a craft kit, and plunged into the beautiful world of crochet and amigurumi! 

So, in this birthday post, I'm going to list the milestones I reached in this first 2 years of my journey with Little Spools. Read on to discover how we blossomed into what we are today! 

8 Major Milestones: 2019-2021

In order of occurrence 😛

First sewing machine experience

I first learnt to sew when my mum signed me up for sewing lessons in 2019! I fell in love with it in the trial lesson and begged to go back for more. After 3 terms of learning basic sewing skills and dressmaking techniques, I stopped taking lessons to focus on school. However, I didn't stop sewing - I bought a secondhand machine and chug-chug-chugged my way through this strange new world, with the help of Pinterest and Youtube :)

Starting Little Spools

Mum gave me the idea of starting a small business to balance out the costs of sewing materials. I thought, why not? It would be a perfect way to offload expenses but also give me a chance to explore new projects, test their popularity, and share them with people who would appreciate handmade products! 

I came up with the name Little Spools when I was working on a school project where we had to make a logo for an imaginary business. I came up with one for the assignment, but then a little bit of spare time led to me also designing one for my (then future) sewing business! 

Little = small business

Spools = sewing! 

Website, blog, biz card

And as they say, the rest is history!

I employed those Gen Z tech savvy skillz that we're all meant to have in my generation, and actually successfully made a basic website, blog AND business card design within a few weeks! 

As time went by and I added more products to my inventory, I gradually updated, revamped and changed elements of my website and blog to make them more user-friendly and accessible. We're currently on V2 of my business cards, and V3 will be out soon with updated contact info :) 

First crochet hook

I initially wanted to learn crochet instead of sewing, but Mum decided that sewing was the way to go to get me set up with a new hobby. She was right, and looking back I'm really glad she signed me up because it gave me the foundations to think out of my comfort zone. 

To me, crochet seemed better because I'd already had some rapport with knitting experience. But learning sewing first helped to establish the basics of Little Spools, and so as a result my business was up and running nicely and then I could turn my attentions to amigurumi! 

Amigurumi was my crafter's dream from the start and since I was little I've always held crocheters with respect as I admired their dainty little creations. I finally got an amigurumi donut making kit from Kmart one day and was sooooo excited to start! I read through the instruction book cover-to-cover and tried my best to stumble through learning the basic stitches. Let's just say there was a lot more hard work than smart work at the start :). 

But finally I did get there, and crochet was added to the Little Spools' shop! I was sooo happy and I would definitely say expanding our line to fit in crochet products was a great step - our amigurumis sell out at every stall. 

Buuuuuuuut enough with the essay, I'll save that for another post (and another day!) 

First stall!

First stall vibes - I won't say tooo much about this because the gist of it is in the post I wrote about the stall itself, wayyy back in December 2020. We announced its opening hours and our address on our neighbourhood Facebook group and opened shop on our front lawn. We took a photo - you can see it in this post - and it's so heartwarming for me to look back and see how we've grown from a tiny table in our garage to full-size monthly stalls in a proper crafters' market! 

All the vibes are just awwwwwwwwwwwwwww right now!! 

Insta page

Again, check this post out for the nitty-gritty details and a quick QR code to get right to our page. We only jumped onto Insta this year in April, so we're relatively new on social media but the support from friends, fam and customers has already been sooo amazing! Thank you everyone xx 

Insta is proving to be a marvellous way to interact and reach new customers! (As well as staying tuned with the happenings in the crafting world!)

It's safe to say that Little Spools' 2nd birthday marks the start of a new set of ideas, explorations, adventures, and yep - challenges! But most importantly it's a reminder that all the effort, time, money, and support invested into this little business, started by a teenager, was worth it. We've built a wonderful supportive crafting community and are soo soo blessed to have beautiful customers who support us through thick and thin. 

So, thank you all so much for journeying with us this far - customers, friends, family, fellow crafters - there's still heaps more to come, and we can't wait to see it unfold! 

Happy birthday Little Spools, and may God bless our efforts and continue to show his hand in what we do 💜💜💜💜

~ Ash & the LS Fam ~