Small But Mighty Episode 6: Alina Fedorowicz on stitching lasting memories

Alina Fedorowicz, the brilliant artist behind Hipster Stitcher is relatively new to business, but she’s learned a lot in a short time (as so many business owners do) about how to navigate the world of locally made artisan creations. Her custom embroidery customers get to display unique pieces that have meaning to them, and Alina’s work is fulfilling because of the joy it brings her to express her creativity.

Full episode transcript

Karen Wilson: Hello and welcome to the Small But Mighty Biz Stories podcast. Today, I am honored to welcome Alina Fedorowicz from Hipster Stitcher who is here to talk with me about her business, where she creates beautiful embroidery creations. I’m going to hand it over to Alina now to introduce herself. Tell us about you and your business and what you are doing for your customers.

Alina Fedorowicz: Sure. Thanks so much for having me, Karen. As Karen said, I do hand embroidery. It’s a fiber art. It’s like a lot of people know cross-stitch or needlepoint or those kinds of things, which are a little more of an older style. Hand embroidery is like the next iteration, where it’s really a lot more loose. You’re almost like painting with thread is how a lot of people think of it. Cross-stitch would be just one kind of stitch, whereas hand embroidery, you can do all kinds of different stitches to create different textures, different effects.

What I do is a lot of custom hand embroidery. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of bridal bouquets. People will send me a picture of their wedding bouquet and I will recreate the flowers on a hoop that you can hang in your home, sometimes with names or dates, and it recreates the flowers in your bouquet out of embroidery floss. That’s a big one I’m doing lately.

I do also. lately quite a few house portraits, so people will send me a picture of their house and I will recreate that in embroidery, in thread. Otherwise, there’s so many different things, like florals, a lot of gifts. Sometimes, people will have world maps with hearts for where they are and someone else’s or basically anything you can think of, but it’s mostly done on hoops.

The other thing, I guess, I should mention is for Christmas there’s a lot of ornaments always, like tiny little hoops of different-- like a family name or a child’s name or businesses, like that. Lastly, the other side of my business is I love to teach hand embroidery and I love to share that with other people. I teach classes in person when COVID is not limiting that.

Alina: Also, create patterns and kits, so people can do their own hand embroidery. I sell those. I either sell a physical kit, where it has all of the things you need and the instructions to recreate, like a basic pattern that I’ve created or just a PDF that you can download with the instructions and which colors of floss you need. Then people can buy their own supplies and just use the PDF that I’ve created.

Karen: I love this. It actually reminds me of so many of the gifts that we had when I was growing up. I had cross-stitched ornaments on the tree that my mother had made and different things like that. I remember she would hand embroider blankets and she had this big standing hoop that she put them on.

I never inherited the creativity that she had but I love seeing that a lot of these handmade arts are coming back and there’s an interest in knitting again and crochet and embroidery and a lot of this, especially with the rise of Etsy and artisans on Etsy and other places. What is it that you love about doing this work?

Alina: Oh my goodness. It allows me to be really creative, but I’m not an artist. I can’t paint or draw really, but I can create these beautiful things and they’re 3D and they’re lovely to touch and they’re lovely to look at. I’m not having to do it with paint or a medium that I’m not excelling in, but this is one where, I don’t know, I find it’s really just well suited to me, like I will look at things and see how they could be embroideries.

I’m like, “Okay, this is where my creativity is channeled.” I don’t know, I think that’s what I love about it for me. It’s just really well suited to me, but I also love that it’s really easy to pick up. The thing I love about hand embroidery is it looks really complicated.

I learned needlepoint and cross-stitch first. I never really loved the look of them, but I thought hand embroidery would be so much more complicated because it looks really more advanced to me, but it’s just really easy. Easy to pick up and when I teach classes, I’m so impressed what people can make on their first time doing it and that, but it looks intimidating. A lot of people who buy my kit will be like, “Can I do this as a first timer?” Like, “Is this going to be too hard?” I’m like, “No, it’s pretty easy to actually pick up.”

It’s just that, like you said, “We don’t really have that where our moms and grandmothers have been doing it and taught us like they did back in the day,” so it’s a bit of like a lost art. I love it for that.

I love the 3D. I love that you can have something a bit different. Like for the bouquets, it’s a nice way. You may not frame a picture of your bouquet, you might, but this is another medium to have an artwork that represents your bouquet. Because most brides love their bouquets and don’t really have a way to display them after the wedding day. I just love that it’s different.

Karen: That’s one of the things that actually piqued my interest in your business is the bouquets, because I hadn’t heard of this method of memorializing that event. Because usually, the suggestion is, “Well, dry out the flowers and then pour this stuff on it and it preserves the petals.” I’m like, “Oh, that feels like an awful lot of work.”

Alina: I think anyone who’s married, you know what I mean? It would be nice for anyone, because I feel like most people love their bouquets and also, I feel like anniversary gifts. I swear, any wife who received that from her husband, like, “How thoughtful is that?” It’s sentimental, it’s personalized.

It’s floral, so it’s beautiful. Because I find florals are one of the most pretty things you can do with hand embroidery. Because flowers and nature are so beautiful. It’s a naturally beautiful subject matter. Then you can do such cool things with florals in hand embroidery. I feel the bouquet is a really nice expression of all that.

Karen: With just that handmade medium of artwork, it’s so much more meaningful than something that has been put through some mass-produced sewing assembly.

Alina: The thing is that every stitch is done by hand. They’re really time consuming. The bouquets can take 15 hours. I just myself doing at house and it took 11 hours. I don’t usually time myself, but I’m trying to just a little bit to get a better sense of how long each one takes me for time management purposes. It didn’t take so long, but they’re just done by hand with love.

Every stitch is something I’ve thought about and how it’s going to go. I do love that. I love that it’s handmade. I have a few up in my home, like in the entrance of my house. People who come in are always drawn to them and look at them and almost want to touch them because they’re textured, they’re 3D. I do find that it’s something that people really notice.

Karen: They engage with it little bit differently than they would other artwork.

Alina: Yes, for sure.

Karen: I think about some of the ways that in my own family we’ve memorialized certain things. My grandmother had a really special house. Someone in our family took a photo of it and my dad actually varnished it and put it on a wood plaque.

Alina: That’s so lovely.

Karen: Yes. We’ve got a few things like that. Because this house got moved twice, it was a big two-story house and actually in the 1930s got moved from one location in town to another, and then in the ‘80s it got moved to a third location.

Alina: Wow, that’s really cool.

Karen: It’s still standing today. This house is nearly a century old, but it’s still standing, but not its original location, which is a pretty cool story. Of course, we’ve memorialized that within our family because it’s where my dad and all of his siblings grew up. The idea of doing houses really interested me too. What are some of the things that you’ve had customers get in touch with you to memorialize? What are some of the stories that you’ve been able to hear? It must be so fascinating.

Alina: Yes. For the houses, for example, one of the ones I did was this beautiful heritage home that was actually torn down, which is so sad. The person had sent me a photo. It was just torn down recently. They sold it and they had thought that it wouldn’t be because it was a heritage home, but I don’t know how the person got around it.

Anyway, the customer wanted it memorialized for her parents who had owned it and she had grown up there and it was this beautiful home so I loved working on it. I’m glad I got to do that for them. Then it’s also kind of sad because like knowing that house doesn’t exist and it was just gorgeous, so full of character. That was one that I really liked. It was a special one.

Then another one was this house that was painted rainbow colors when the person bought it, literally every color of the rainbow and more like multiple shades from left to right.

It was crazy and they spent nine years fixing it up. It looks like a totally different house. Now, it’s super modern, they redid the exterior, interior, everything. Now, it’s just like a really modern, gorgeous house. They wanted to show both sides of it. We did a rainbow walkway in front of it to do a nod the rainbow house that it used to be. Then the house itself is like the newer, what it looks like now.

That was another one where it was trying to think of how to do the rainbow and not fully go rainbow. That one, I think it was a little famous because of when it was a rainbow house.

It’s fun to hear these stories. Then there’s some that are just a beautiful house that someone purchased and they just want it memorialized the way they have it. They’re proud of their new home where they’re raising their family. Then there’s not really a story of change behind it or anything like that, but they’re just memorializing their family home.

I love that too because there’s so many little things for a cottage or whatever that have such special meaning to people. Almost everyone has a special place that means something to them. I feel like it’s a nice way to do that. There’s so many ways to do it like I’ve seen beautiful art but I love making the embroideries of the homes and it’s also really funny.

I’ve been going back and forth between the bridal bouquets and the homes a lot. It’s really interesting because for the bridal bouquets, you’re looking at each flower and you’re looking at the color and what’s next to it and how they’re reflecting off each other, and doing this whole how each one fits together and everything, and you’re looking at each real closely.

Then you’re going to the houses, which also have foliage sometimes around them. They’ll have a little garden that I’ll do in the front or trees behind them or whatever and there you’re doing almost like an impressionistic like just the trees are in the background. They’re just made up of some texture, symbolizes the trees or symbolizes the flowers. It’s really funny to go back and forth between those two.

I really liked the juxtaposition between them one after the other. It’s like a nice little change and shifting your thinking of how you’re representing them.

Karen: Let’s talk a little bit about the climate right now for artisans.

Alina: Sure.

Karen: Because we’ve got these big box stores like Walmart and chain stores, department stores, and the Amazons of the world that are all selling “handmade” products that are really just mass-produced.

Alina: 100%

Karen: What are some of the challenges with that as a handmade creator? What are some of the advantages that people would have actually going to a local artisan to purchase these things? Because I would imagine that a big differentiator is the quality number one and also, just the fact that you’re supporting the local economy.

Alina: Yes, definitely. I feel like I’ve been very surprised with this, since I started my business, which is not actually that old. I’ve only started it in the fall of 2019. It’s still a new business, but since that time I’ve learned so much.

I definitely thought that people might not understand the benefits of buying a local handmade good. I think in recent years, there’s a real trend towards local. I don’t feel like I even have to do a lot of convincing people or anything. People come to me and they already have it in their heads like, “I want to support a local maker.” I think, I’m really impressed with that and on Etsy too, as I do sell on Etsy as well.

People really understand the value of supporting an individual. People will say that to me, I won’t even bring that up, but people will say, “I love that this is a small business.”

There’s a lot of knowledge out there about the local handmade industry and worried about the prices like, “How can you compete against something generic that’s going to be cheaper?” People see the value in it. That’s been really just so reassuring and rewarding to see that people really appreciate the art and appreciate what goes in [inaudible 00:18:05] and the impact it has on the small business they’re supporting.

On the other side of it, in terms of Amazon, it’s funny you say that, because I think one area that I’ve noticed for handmade goods is the kits. The kits that I make, where people can make their own embroideries, a lot of people will create those on Etsy, and those are artists that come up with the design, sell it and people will buy that there, but a lot of them get knocked off.

On Amazon, there’s a lot of them that are a lot cheaper. They’ll sell them for, let’s say $10. Whereas, mine would be $25. It’s all mass-produced in China and all of the designs are stolen and it’s literally copied. They don’t change them. They literally will recreate the artists made and sell the exact same thing. I think that they’re able to charge less because for artists who just create these kits, it’s all of their time and their effort and they’re designing like time and process that goes into it.

Karen: They probably don’t get the same level of discount on the materials, too.

Alina: Yes. It’s funny—I’m in a lot of hand embroidery groups. It’s a medium when people are really supportive of each other. I will see a lot of people join and their first kit will be off Amazon and they won’t even know the story. A lot of people will say like, “Oh, that’s actually this person’s design that was stolen by this Chinese mass-producer.”

People, once they realize, a lot of times they won’t buy again from there. I think a lot of people don’t know the first time so they’ll start there because it is, it’s like, “Oh, this is $10 and on Etsy they’re all let’s say $25.” You can’t really lower your prices below a certain point for that, because of the time spent putting them together, the effort and writing up all the instructions and that. That is something where you might be paying a few dollars more to support a local maker, but it’s a person who’s designing it from scratch, putting it all together. I get it. I get that people want to save money, but I think if it’s someone who’s stealing designs, it’s wrong. I know people don’t know.

The other thing I wanted to say was just that one thing I think is with hand embroidery, there’s people who really-- like I follow a lot of other hand embroidery artists and a lot of them really like they have their own style. I can see right away when I see one of the works that it’s them, because they do it in a certain way like any art form.

I think a lot of them is like, “I will buy kits from other people because I want to support them and I love their style.” I want to recreate something that they made, just for fun. I wouldn’t sell that, obviously, because that’s their product but just to try a new type of stich or whatever. I think some of it is like, you want to support that artist because that’s their style and they’re the only ones doing it that way. There’s a value there too.

Karen: For sure. It’s a challenging world to be in, especially if you’re making a physical product. This is the first time I’ve had a guest that wasn’t a service-based business. It’s a very different world when you are promoting your business. Because you have hard materials that you have to factor in to your pricing along with the time and so there are often misconceptions about the value of creator’s time. Which has gone back to the beginning of artistry, really.

What are some of the challenges you’ve had, if any, along those lines in actually not just setting your value but then owning it with customers?

Alina: You know what I always had that in mind where, if I was to get push-back on price, I always have it in my head to say like, “Well, this takes 15 hours, so per hour I’m not making that much.” Let’s say, for example, just to justify because, yes, it’s something where it is hard to just set a value that’s fair for these kinds of works that are really, really involved.

But no one has ever, ever questioned it or pushed back. I think people understand that it takes a long time. It’s not something that’s really quick. I’ve only ever gotten positive comments that my prices are really reasonable and that kind of thing. I’m always prepared, because I recognize that that’s your hard-earned money that you’re spending on someone’s art. Yes, I’ve really had a positive response so far.

Karen: That’s so good.

Alina: I really don’t know what’s going on.

Karen: That’s okay. No worries. [crosstalk]

Alina: I think the thing is, when I started, I was undercharging a lot, to be honest, because I just love it so much. I just really was like, “I want to do it and I can’t believe anyone would even pay me for it.” I think that’s something that a lot of people probably feel starting out. It’s hard to have that confidence in yourself.

Karen: Every business, I think.

Alina: Yes. I’m sure there’s pieces I even made it a loss and not accounting for my time and all that at first. I’ve always just enjoyed doing it so much and I’ve gained so many skills and confidence in that, that I have raised my prices over time just to be able to allow me to do it frankly. Because now I have built it to where there’s a lot of demand.

I feel like you have to find the sweet spot where you’re getting compensated for your time and efforts but you’re not really super busy where you have a lot of orders and you can’t keep up. I think I’m around the sweet spot. Right now, I have enough orders to keep me busy for probably the next month. It’s just kind of pivoting to let people know that there’s a weight and because it’s a custom product.

Karen: What are some of the ways that people find you, obviously, searching through Etsy that they can stumble upon various different creators? But do you promote through social media actively? Tell me about your marketing.

Alina: Yes, sure. I started out just selling on a local handmade group. That’s how I started and that kept me busy through Christmas, just with custom ornaments. That was really what I was doing for the first couple months and that was great. Because it was all local and it was a great way to start. Everyone was so lovely, people were really encouraging and it was nice because I didn’t have to figure out the shipping and all that right away. That kept me busy right through.

Then in January, I had to pivot, because obviously the ornamental markets were gone. That’s when I joined Etsy. Then I spent some time doing that. Then, at that point, I got more serious about making an Instagram account and a Facebook account as well. Those are really the only things I’ve done. It’s been the handmade groups, Instagram, Facebook and then my Etsy account, which I’ve had to put some work into being found there, because it’s such a big marketplace.

I feel like that’s grown over time. As long as you’re patient and put in the work I feel like it does grow enough and you can be found there. Then I also, started the classes right before COVID and then had to put that on hold. Now, it looks like I’m going to be able to teach a class at the end of August, again, in person with social distance measures. Yes, so that’ll be back.

It’s just been really those platforms because those are the ones that I feel comfortable with and the ones where I look for brands. I love to follow people on Instagram makers or brands. That’s a medium that I feel like, I don’t know, if it’s generational, but my generation uses to find people and products.

I feel there’s a lot online where it’s telling you, “You need to have an email list,” and all of this kind of stuff, but I don’t really respond to those. I’M just not really inclined to make that. I feel in this day and age the social media is the way to go for me.

Karen: Well, it’s funny that you say that. Because I am the same. I hate email. I’m on so many lists. I just set up email marketing for my own business because I know how really effective it is. It’s still over social media, it’s still the number one most effective tool. It’s hard to keep up too much, though.

One of the things that I always talk about with my clients is making sure that what you’re doing is realistic, so that you can be consistent with it. It’s interesting because my last guests, actually, was talking about, for her business, she just sometimes doesn’t do things that people say she should do, because for her, it just doesn’t work. It’s not even necessarily a data thing. It just doesn’t feel good or right.

There may be lost opportunity when that’s the case, but we also have to acknowledge our limitations, and acknowledge when we’re just not going to be into doing something and giving it our best just because it’s not an approach we want to take.

Alina: That’s how I feel about the email. Just for me, I agree, it works. It gets the brands into your head and you see the coupons or whatever. It definitely works, but it’s also like, I get annoyed with receiving a lot of them. I just don’t want to contribute to that for someone else’s inbox. I feel like on Instagram, follow me or if you’re searching a hashtag that’s going to find my business, then at least you’re seeking it out. Then I’m not worried about annoying people.

Karen: There’s a lot of power to that because social media is such a passive medium, whereas, email is more active. If you’re getting the business through social channels, and you’re keeping busy, it’s really working.

Alina: Exactly. I just find the hardest thing is figuring out where I want to focus the limited time I have. Because the embroidery like I said, it takes so long for each piece, which is why even with having a few orders. I’m looking at like the next month being full because if each bouquet takes 15 hours to make, I really have to plan out how long that’s going to fill my time. Then that leaves little time for product development.

I don’t want to focus too much on just, let’s say, the bouquets in the homes because I love making kits so that I can share it with other people, teach other people how to do it, and come up with new ideas for patterns. That’s another creative side of it.

It takes time to create them ahead of time and then same with the patterns and same with the teaching, that takes a lot of time to set up. It’s hard. I find it’s hard now to just strategically figure out how to divide my time, planning for Christmas, and ornaments I want to do this year. Then there’s craft shows, I’m going to be doing my first craft show.

So, I feel like I’m at the point where my big focus right now is trying to think strategically about how much time I can devote to each aspect of the business. When I was just starting out, it was easier to do a little bit of everything. Because I had the time to look all the orders that came my way and then also proactively be making kits and patterns. I feel like I’m getting to that point where it has to be a little more strategic.

Karen: I find it so interesting being in the Ottawa area and as you are too, we have such a robust crafter community. The crafting, or the craft shows that happen throughout the fall into Christmas and they’ve all come together and created this, the passport where if you go to all of them you get something for it. I don’t remember how it works.

It’s actually really genius how connected and organized that community is. I actually bought a few things from, there was a—you might remember the name of it, it’s totally escaping me. It was an online craft sale in May.

Alina: Cheerfully Made.

Karen: Yes. Thank you. That was a fantastic event.

Karen: I’m losing you again. Still not working. You’re coming back now.

Alina: I was going to say I thought about doing that one, but I didn’t have the inventory on hand to even apply, because you needed a certain amount and it was a bit more short-term that it was planned. I definitely shopped because I thought it was a really cool way to pivot with COVID and to do it all online.

Karen: It went well. It went really well from what I heard after the fact, it was quite successful and I was very happy with all of my purchases. I love the crafting community in the greater Ottawa area, because it extends far outside of Ottawa, too. There’s so many talented artisans and work that’s being done.

So, do you have any advice for other business owners who are doing similar kind of work?

Alina: Interesting. I would say it can take a little while to get going. Don’t get discouraged. You have to put in the work at the outset to be found, like, for example, on Etsy and that kind of thing. People sometimes think as soon as they get on there, the sales are going to start.

Even to be honest, I thought that at first to an extent, I thought, like, “Okay, the handmade groups are great. Now I’ll just sell on Etsy and that’ll go just as well.” Without realizing that there’s a lot of back-end work on the SEOs and your descriptions and your pictures and all that kind of stuff that you have to do. I’d say one thing is just to be persistent and keep at it because it takes a little while to get that traction.

As long as you’re doing it for something that you love to do, then hopefully you’ll enjoy the process, like enjoying the process is key. I’d say, for me, it was really helpful to find groups of like-minded people. I’m in the hand embroidery groups, a ton of them on Facebook, and that’s been just a wonderful community. Also, I’m in groups for Etsy sellers, and that’s been really helpful too to get some coaching from people who have done really well in that field. I feel like the community aspect is really great.

I went to an event actually for people starting out on Etsy, in February, before COVID and they have a Facebook group. Being there like I had met a lot of the people in person at the event and so it’s really nice to know some of these makers in Ottawa now. I’ve met them face-to-face, so we support each other and we like everything that the other people post. When I can support them, I do. That’s really nice to actually have a little bit of that connection with other makers.

The same thing with craft fairs. If you can’t find an event like that one, which I was lucky enough to go to, doing something like craft fair and then meeting the people in the booths next to you and making those connections can really help. I am not shy to message people. I will message other makers in Ottawa and ask them about things that they’re doing or message other embroidery artists and ask them questions and get to know them.

It’s really funny because there was a business podcast I listened to where they were talking about promoting other products and they were like, obviously, not to promote competitors, but you could promote like, X, Y, Z, other things. I’m like, “Oh, my goodness, I love to promote my, quote unquote, competitors.” Because there’s so many embroidery artists that are doing amazing things and they’re even doing, let’s say, even if it’s a house embroidery or bouquet embroidery, that’s technically my competition. I don’t know, I love to lift others up and then people do it for me and they’ll share my work.

I don’t know, there’s nothing as nice as being recognized by someone in the field for what you’re doing. I don’t know, I feel like the community part cannot be understated because it really helps you. Let’s say before you’re making enough sales or when you’re having those moments where you’re wondering if it’s worth it, that kind of support really makes a difference.

Karen: The art community I find is such a different approach too, it’s more coopetition instead of competition, because art taste is subjective, too. A style like yours may be very compelling for some people and then your competitor, or coopeter, is more compelling for certain projects, so it’s all so subjective in the art community. I love that kind of collaboration between businesses.

I tell people all the time, I’ve hired marketing help. I’m a marketing consultant but I hire people who specialize in certain areas of marketing that I don’t specialize in to get their help. I’ll even hire someone like me because I don’t want to be the shoemaker that has no shoes.

Alina: For sure.

Karen: Sometimes getting that third-party view into your business can be incredibly valuable. Having that kind of coopetition and collaborative approach to business it just makes a lot of sense.

Alina: I think there’s a big enough pie for everyone to have a piece and promoting hand embroidery as a medium is important. I don’t mind if I’m raising awareness of someone else’s products that maybe people buy instead of mine but it serves to have more people get into hand embroidery then that’s good.

When I taught my classes in the past, I’ve hired another, let’s say, competition in the area, like another hand embroiderer to help teach the class. Even if people look into her work and buy it instead of mine, I don‘t know, it’s still nice to have that like you said, the collaboration because a lot of my work is really solitary. If I’m embroidering a piece, I’m just sitting at home by myself or with my kids.

It’s not like you go to an office and do it with other people. It’s a lot of being alone, so I think the opportunity where I do have to share it, like the teaching or a craft fair or whatever, it’s really special.

Karen: Nice. Alina, it’s been great having you on. Tell everybody how to find you.

Alina: On Instagram you can find me at hipster.stitcher. On Etsy my shop name is thehipsterstitcher, all one word. And same with Facebook, thehipsterstitcher. Those would be the main ways.

Karen: Is there anything in particular you want to promote today?

Alina: If you follow me there, you will see my Christmas kits and patterns coming out in September to make your own personalized Christmas ornaments if you want to give it a go and try hand embroidery and make a gift for someone. That will be a big one. Then I will be at the Mac Craft Fair on December 5th at Immaculata High School.

Karen: Fabulous. That is great.

Alina: Thank you so much, Karen. Thank you for having me.

Karen: I will make sure to get links from you. We’ll put all of that in the show notes and the transcript and to make sure that everybody knows how to get in touch with you, and learn more about your ornaments that are coming out, which sound very appealing to me. Because I am never going to probably embroider something, because I won’t sit still long enough to do it, but I do love that kind of work. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this year. Thank you again for coming on.

Alina: Thank you for having me. This was so fun. Bye.