it's me, hi!

I'm Paige, the creator of Sails & Spools! Sails & Spools set sail in June of 2024, but that's not the beginning of our story! Below you will find out a little bit about how Sails & Spools came to be...

From a very young age, I've always been known for my love of all things creative, and I had a family that nurtured and cultivated that love. By the time I reached double digits, I was able to use a sewing machine, cross stitch, and knit with relative ease. Those skills only grew and were added to through the years as I added crochet, quilting, embroidery, and needlepoint to the ever-growing list of hand crafts I loved!

In 2018, it became clear that my love of creating needed a larger platform for me to share with the world. I started selling my first products at craft fairs under the name "Small World Sailing Co". I sold a variety of giftable items, my most popular being bow headbands, scrunchies (see some of them below!), and wristlet key fobs!

After a successful Christmas season selling at craft fairs, I decided that giving up every weekend to sell at a craft fair just wasn't for me. From the experience, however, I gained valuable insight into what my customers loved (and didn't love!) and was able to launch my Etsy shop and wade into the online retail waters!

My time on Etsy was so much fun! I built a small following on Instagram and, in time, I was regularly shipping out orders all over the country! It was a dream fulfilled getting to see the things I had spent the time making be shared with so many others.

In March of 2020, as the world closed, changed, and was shaped in ways we could’ve never imagined, I was lonely in my house and, quite frankly, bored. While everyone was scrambling to find masks but couldn’t it occurred to me that, since I sold scrunchies, I was sitting on quite a bit of fabric and elastic. Naturally, I started sewing masks! From just selling them to people I knew and people around town, I ended up selling over 1500 masks! It was truly a crazy time. I would wake up to start sewing at 6am and continue sewing to close to midnight every evening for a long stretch.

I had a few other products go “big” in 2020, and by the end of the year, like so many others for so many reasons, I was feeling like burnt toast. I ended up closing up shop in early 2021, with joy, knowing that I had loved my time selling and I needed a break. Ironically enough, in the beginning of 2021, I met the man who would become my husband (the Weasley sweaters below I made us for our first Christmas)!

Holden, the Mr. of Sails & Spools, and I started dating in November of 2022 and he proposed aboard a surprise magical fireworks cruise in front of the Magic Kingdom in Disney World in July of 2023.

Just a week or two after getting in engaged, in August of 2023, I was sitting on a bench waiting for the ferry to one of my friends and I back home from Nantucket. It was then I re-named my Small World Sailing Co. instagram page over to “Sails & Spools” with the intention of it being a place that I shared whatever crafty project I was currently working on. At the time, I had no intention of getting back into the selling business, but I suppose re-starting that page made it inevitable on some level.

  

Holden and I married in March of 2024 and began living in our 1776 built home. It was around that time that I painted my first batch of needlepoint canvases with the intention of giving them as Christmas gifts. Soon after I started designing my own canvases and painting them and launched sailsandspools.com in June of 2024!

It’s only been around two months since our launch, but I am full of enthusiasm and excitement over all the possibilities that are in front of this little business! I hope you’ll stick around and enjoy being part of this ride with me!