Remember my very first fashion post? And the super-cute black and silver bow I wore?
My friend Meagan Albert, owner of super-cool and creative shop Rainshine Stitches, made it for me! It’s a one-of-a-kind hair accessory. I absolutely love her shop, and one day, when I’ve organized all my old t-shirts still at my parents’ house, I plan on ordering a custom t-shirt quilt from Meagan.
Meagan graciously agreed to answer a few questions about Rainshine Stitches! Check out her interview (and then check out her store!).
When did you first start crafting?
I don’t remember exactly when birthed my first creative baby, but I have a ceramic snowman ornament that I hang on my tree every year that I think my mom said I made when I was 3 years old or so. I painted the entire snowman purple and then my mom went back with a black marker and drew in eyes with lashes and highlighted the other facial features of my little guy. When I look at him, I know I started at a young age with my mom and grandma to guide me. The first things I can remember creating on my own were purses out of old jeans or duct tape. and that was around 7th grade. I would give them to friends and family members as gifts and embellish the jean purses with trim and patches.
What inspired you to start Rainshine Stitches?
To be honest, I’m not sure I remember. I had been working in my current job for about a year and had continued to make custom crafts (many pictures in my gallery) for myself and others over the years, but I didn’t have any kind of formal avenue for my crafting. I THINK I made an ID holder for work that had a pocket behind it for my cell phone to slip into and a clip that my keys could latch on (sometimes when I visited families, I liked to just go in with my phone and keys rather than lug in a purse). I had thought through what my needs were in the field, developed a plan to create something that made those specific needs, customized it to my liking, and then executed the design. I shared my new handy dandy creation on Facebook and obviously used it at work and was really surprised by how many people really loved the idea and asked for ones for themselves! I didn’t start Rainshine Stitches right away after that, but I think that was the catalyst for me to start focusing energy on creating an outlet where I could funnel my skills into creating custom crafts for people… Being able to meet a need they identified in their everyday life (like having a place to carry their cell phone and keys without a purse) in a fun, creative, and customized way.
What’s your ultimate goal with Rainshine Stitches?
My goals for Rainshine Stitches have changed over the years as I’ve gone through different stages of my personal and professional life… Right now, given all the demands on my time in addition to Rainshine Stitches, my goal is for this craftness (crafting business) to be something that remains fun for me, doesn’t add too much stress to my life, allows me to provide custom and quality goods to those who order them from me, and adds a little jingle to my pocket. I’ve never looked at this as something that could be built to replace my full-time job, but that doesn’t mean I’m not serious about it and put my heart into it. It does however, mean I have the luxury of making it as high or as low of a priority as I want depending on the other demands in my life, and that is a lovely place to be.
What personalized project do clients request the most often?
T-shirt Quilts, hands down. I have had a lot of word-of-mouth references from past customers, and around graduation and the holidays, I get a good number of order requests for them to be given as gifts. It’s a pretty amazing and humbling experience to be asked to assemble a gift that holds so many special memories for a person you may or may not know.
Tell me more about Project Brainstorm.
Project Brainstorm was an idea I had with a twofold purpose: to generate interest and engagement from people who were viewing my website but not making contact by incentivizing involvement (the chance to win free labor of a custom craft) AND to better know what kinds of crafty needs people had and what ideas were floating around in their heads. I was getting bogged down with ideas I was seeing on Pinterest at the time and was in need of a little more focus and personalization and thought hearing what people wanted straight from then would be a great way to get that. Unfortunately, Project Brainstorm has not been as much of a hit as I had hoped, but I did get to make an awesome Halloween costume for someone through it.
What has been your biggest creative challenge?
My biggest creative challenge is finding time, on a regular basis, to be personally crafty. I like to dabble and play and experiment with new things when it comes to my creations, but I have trouble prioritizing my own craft time in addition to Rainshine Stitches, my job, my family and friends, my relationship, being physically active, household responsibilities, and all the other white noise that comes with being an adult. I sometimes go on crafting binges and will go through and entire season of The Pretender, The Golden Girls, or Daria while I work on a new project just for fun or as a spontaneous gift to a friend, but I wish those times were more routine and didn’t necessarily gobble up the entire day!
When anyone from any wall of life asks me what is my biggest struggle and what am I trying to work on, the answer is balance. So it’s really not all that surprising that my biggest struggle in life is also my biggest creative challenge. 🙂
Thank you so much, Meagan, for answering all of my questions! If you’re interested in a custom craft by Meagan, you can contact her at her website.
