THE FACE BEHIND THE MACHINE
Hello! I'm Emma, wife to a lovely husband, mum to two gorgeous boys, and owner of Memories made by Emma. I'm based in Hampshire, England but make keepsakes for customers across the UK.
Sewing is not something that I have always been good at. In fact, in the beginning I'd say I was positively terrible. I taught myself to use a machine in 2021 whilst on maternity leave with my second son. After struggling to part with my boys' baby clothes - I literally cried every time they moved up a size! - I decided I wanted to make a keepsake quilt to treasure all the precious memories held in their beautiful baby outfits. How difficult could it be?
Turns out it's quite difficult! I had a lot to learn and made a lot of mistakes - it was a very steep learning curve! But I love a challenge and am a bit of a perfectionist so I bought old bundles of second hand clothes and practiced and practiced until I was confident I could achieve a good quality of work.
I made my first 'proper' quilt for my sister's friend and decided to share it on social media. The rest took off from there! I never thought anyone would actually be interested in my work but I started getting order requests from friends and family and the ball kept rolling. I made myself a logo, and set myself up a business page, and soon became so busy with keepsake orders that I didn't have time to make the quilts for my own boys!
In April 2024 I took the leap to make this my 'real job' and left my teaching career to give it my everything. I have since grown the business by investing in two professional embroidery machines and expanded the amount of work I can take on by outsourcing to a wonderl lady called Lillie - she is the miracle worker behind your beautiful sweatshirts. Having now streamlined the business to offer just bears, lions and sweatshirts I am I am now looking forward to focussing my efforts on expanding the business further to create a range of courses, tutorials and coaching session to teach you how to make your own keepsakes at home!
The support I have received to grow this business has been phenominal. I remember worrying for hours about posting my content online and never believed that anyone would take me seriously. Now I have been lucky enough to grow my business to provide my family with a full time income and sell out in minutes each time I release slots - it really is so unbelievably overwhelming. Your support means I have the flexibility to spend more precious time with my boys whilst they are still young and for that I will be forever grateful. I am honestly so incredibly overwhelmed by the love and support my little business receives and couldn't be more grateful to my lovely customers and followers for making it happen - it really does feel like a dream come true.
I know that parting with your loved ones' clothing is not an easy thing to do - I feel so honoured to be trusted with your precious items. It brings me so much joy to be able to create something special that you will treasure forever and I hope you love your keepsakes as much as I love making them.
Emma x