Sometimes, when I tell people I'm into crafts, they nod their heads and smile, as if to say, "Well, isn't that nice, dear."

I don't think the general public realizes that crafting, sewing, knitting and generally making things by hand is a big industry. One need only turn on HGTV to see how popular it is for folks to "do it themselves" or read about Etsy sellers quitting their day jobs and earning six figures working out of their homes.

So it's exciting for me when I see a local seamstress land a big deal with a major company.

You remember Cherie Killilea, right? She's the creative force behind Studio Cherie, the Etsy shop that sells her handmade creations and sewing patterns. Cherie, a mother of three, moved to Spokane seven years ago from Seattle.

Well, remember the duffel bag pattern I purchased and followed a few months ago? The design director for the crafts department of Simplicity Creative Group, the big pattern-maker you've probably known about since childhood, spotted Cherie's duffel bags on Etsy and contacted her. 

"She said she liked my clever products and thought they would make a nifty pattern," Cherie told me via an e-mail interview. "She offered me a licensing agreement and left her name and phone number. A tear or two trickled down my cheek."

That's right. Next year, you'll be able to walk into most major fabric stores around the country and buy a Studio Cherie sewing pattern. The packet will include instructions for her duffel bag, as well as her luggage tags and clutches. The patterns will be bundled together under a "destination wedding" theme, and Cherie will earn royalties from the sales. She's been busy sewing five examples of each of the items this week, which she'll send off to Simplicity for a photo shoot.

Cherie says when she heard from Betsy Burger, the design director from Simplicity, she flashed back to summers in high school spent sewing her next wardrobe with Simplicty patterns, dreaming of being a designer.

"I wasn't dreaming anymore," Cherie wrote to me. "I was just doing what I know how to do and putting it online for people to buy. Her message was like someone knocking on my door and saying, 'Remember that dream you had a long time ago? That was real.'"

Betsy, in a phone interview this morning, told me she often looks for new talent on Etsy and has made similar liscensing agreements with four other Etsy designers besides Cherie.

"We have an in-house design staff, but we can't do it all," Betsy said.

The crew at Simplicity had been mulling over a "destination wedding" theme for a while, but Betsy said they hadn't seen anything they liked as much as Cherie's duffels, luggage tags and clutches. The fact that Cherie already had "a line" of products that fit a theme was appealing to the company.

"We never do a pattern with just one item," Betsy said. "It's always a spinoff of a theme."

She also said that Cherie was an "ideal candidate for licensing" because not only are her products attractive, but she knows how to write clear, concise instructions for sewers.

"We have a whole department here that writes (patterns), and we've been doing it for 75 years, but if a designer has that already and they're actually selling the pattern, as well, it makes our job so much simpler," Betsy said.

Cherie has sold more than 1,600 items in her Etsy shop and has a 100 percent satisfaction rating from her customers. She got a big boost when Sew Mama Sew!, a popular sewing blog, featured her shop in February.

Cherie says you'll know when you've hit on a product that "has legs."

"It will take off almost by itself," she wrote. "It strikes a chord with people. They want it."

Then, she advised, look at what else you could pair with it and expand from there.

Cherie said the most popular item you sell might not be the most innovative thing in your repertoire. 

"It won't always be the product you thought should take off," she wrote. "If you have to explain why your product is the best thing since sliced bread, chances are it isn't."

Congratulations, Cherie! It'll be fun to see all the handmade duffel bags flying the friendly skies in the years to come.

 

---

---