Made in Scotland: Doodle Craft

This week for our Made in Scotland series with J Boult Designs, we are featuring Doodle Craft. Located in the beautiful Fife countryside, their studio shop shells a range of craft kits for knitting, hand dyed threads and more craft accessories. All the kits are made and designed by Debbie Harding at the workshop! We asked her some questions about her business and how they got started.

Can you tell us how your business got started?

 DoodleCraft Design started life in 2015. I had worked in the Payments industry for 20+ years and was unexpectedly made redundant and at the same time advised by my GP to stop travelling for work. I suffer from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a genetic condition which affects the collagen in the body. I spent a few days feeling sorry for myself and then decided to start my own business, I remembered what my grandfather once told – always do so in something you are passionate about. I have always loved drawing and painting (but can no longer use a pencil or paintbrush) and I love hand stitching, so I decided to start designing my own cross stitch and blackwork embroidery kits. I found some great software which enables me to design and we make up all our kits by hand at our studio in Fife.

 

 

Where do you look for inspiration when you are designing new products?

We are known for our ‘stitchable’ games boards, we have a range of Snakes & Ladders, Backgammon, Chess and other games. Each year I choose a theme and design a set of games boards with the theme of the year, we have had Celtic, Egyptian, Oriental, Botanical, Seashore and this year the theme is Gothic. We also have a range of clocks and other usable items and the more traditional pictures. My inspiration comes from what I see around me, we are lucky to live in a rural part of Fife on the edge of farmland and there is always something to take inspiration from. I also offer a ‘Photo-2-Needle’ service where I take a customer’s photo and create a chart for them to stitch.

 

 

Can you tell us a bit more about your products?

The process of creating a kit starts once the design is finished and all the instructions for stitching it are written up. We sell a number of different types of products using the same designs. A Full kit which has all the fabric and threads to stitch the design included, the threads are sorted by hand and each kit has the exact amount of each colour needed for the design. We make a Chart Only kit which just has the chart and instructions for stitching the kit, a lot of customers have their own stashes of fabric and threads so don’t need the full kit. There is the kit which includes chart and instructions for stitching the design onto clothing e.g. denim jackets, a kit which includes the design printed onto cotton to use for quilting. We also make a range of gifts which use the designs.

All the kits are pulled together with their relevant parts in our studio in Fife where we also have a shop and run stitching workshops.

What are your most popular products and which are your own favourites? 

Our most popular products are the games boards, and especially Snakes & Ladders and our variant of it, Dragons & Beanstalks. Also, I have designed a range of blackwork embroidery animals which has been very popular, especially the Highland Cow, the Owl and the Wolf.  One of my favourites is a collection of designs created using hand dyed silks from another Maker in Herefordshire, the collection is called ‘Elements in Blackwork’ with Water, Fire and Earth available to stitch and Air coming very soon. I also love working on commissions for peoples own designs.

 

 

If you had to pick one place in Scotland to recommend that people visit, where would it be?

f I had to pick one place in Scotland to recommend people visit it would be The Wemyss School of Needlework in Coaltown of Wemyss, Fife. (https://wemyssneedlework.com/)

 

 

To continue the chain, can  you recommend any other small businesses and makers in Scotland?

I would recommend Daniel at D Taylor Woodworking (https://dtaylorwoodworking.com/) based in Dundee. Daniel makes up wooden frames which we sell for our games boards and has some beautiful designs for other wooden items.

We would love to try one of these kits from Doodlecraft and think they would also make wonderful gifts. The stitch snakes and ladders in particular looks like a lot of fun. Browse their website for more of their beautiful designs or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.