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Embroidery shop helps customers create
Published 10:39am Tuesday, August 28, 2012Quilter, farmer, textile artist and motorcycle enthusiast Sandy Kaiser recently opened a fabric and custom embroidery store in Elbow Lake, and although she is always full of helpful ideas, when you come into her store, you have to be willing to “create it yourself.”
Located across from Star Bank on Main Street, Create it Yourself opened for Flekkefest the first weekend in August.
Although she grew up in Brooklyn Park, Kaiser likes the country and small town feel. After owning a fabric and custom embroidery store in Mahnomen for a few years, she moved to Elbow Lake in 2010 where she purchased a home with four acres of farmland and took a job at Project Central.
While she was enjoying her job and hobby farm, Kaiser still had a lot of equipment and inventory left over from her store in Mahnomen. After living in Elbow Lake for a couple years, Kaiser saw a community-wide need and decided to open Create it Yourself.
The store’s name, Create it Yourself, was first spoken in a conversation between Kaiser and one of her customers.
“Somebody asked me to put together a design, and I said, ‘You have to create it yourself,’” Kaiser said.
Elbow Lake has been a great community for Create it Yourself, she said.
“The people here have just been wonderful, and business is picking up,” said Kaiser.
More space might be beneficial to Kaiser eventually, but she said the facility is great. It has been newly renovated, and it’s just enough room for everything.
So far, Kaiser has done a lot of work with custom embroidering for various businesses and community members.
“The embroidering department might take off quicker than the fabric department,” she said.
Kaiser has done custom embroidering for Lake Country Technology, the Grant County Herald, local farmers and even a group trying to get on “The Price is Right.”
“I can custom embroider everything from socks to hats,” she said.
Kaiser embroiders hand towels, gym bags, clothes, memory blankets and more.
“Custom embroidered gifts are great Christmas items for hard-to-shop-for people,” she said. “Think about it; nobody ever throws away something with their name on it.”
In the coming months, Kaiser said she hopes to start a line of embroidered clothing and accessories called Mad Mama’s Motorcycle Merchandise.
“I have a concession trailer, so I could go to motorcycle runs and bring the merchandise,” she said.
This will be an opportunity for Kaiser to bring together several of her passions and make a living by doing what she loves.
