Introducing….SweetShop Creations

Mel Watkins of Sweetshop Creations is sharing a stall with the very lovely Knitella who I introduced you to a few days ago. Mel wanted to share with you the ethos behind her business and when I read her words I couldn’t wait to feature her…

So in January 2010, I was staying in a crowded back bedroom belonging to friends. I couldn’t find a job and that bothered me not only because I was finding it hard to get by, but because I strongly believe that one of the best things about making money is giving it to people who need it more than I do.  So, in order to pay my bills and hopefully someone else’s too, I founded SweetShop Creations  with seventeen skeins of borrowed yarn, and a few big ideas. I’m personally (ir)responsible for hand-making every item myself after learning crochet about three years ago from a pattern book.  I decided to combine my desire to have an extra source of income with my desire to further social justice in the world. To that end, SweetShop was created and is still going over a year later. 

I’ve actually done far more with it that I thought I would–from doing product swaps with Sew Grown to craft shows with Knitella Basically though, I stick to my original idea..making affordable, fun handmade clothing and accessories without resorting to unethical means of procurement…unless you consider me staying up until midnight maniacally counting stitches unethical. A portion of all proceeds are donated to educational and sustainable economic development programs, such as Helping Hands International Ministries, which educates, empowers, and encourages people in Uganda. To find out more about them, please click here  

 To find out more about me, you can visit my etsy shop (of course) or visit the SweetShop Creations blog(which has some cool free patterns created by yours truly available for download) Thanks x

Thanks for telling us about your business Mel, here’s hoping you sell lots of things on Sunday to help you give back to the charities that are close to you x