02/06/2026
Want to know a funny story...?
Some of you know that I am also a singing teacher and run choirs, one was in Upton. One evening, I was chatting in the break about knitting and sewing and was told there was nothing in Upton selling such things. I said I'd love to own a shop and one Jenny Gibbons told me that there was one for rent soon in Old Street - just go and ask.
That was a Wednesday night. By Saturday, I had signed the lease and we opened on 15th June 2020.
We had always driven past 'the Old Bank' and laughed saying how that would make a fabulous shop. Once again, we asked and relocated in May 2021.
We started The Stitchery because I grew up amongst avid knitters, crocheters, tailors and dressmakers. I was taught old school dressmaking and learned to knit age 5 - I was the only one in the 5th Form sporting 80s style big mohair jumpers made by myself!
We're very proud of what we've achieved - Finalists in The Small Awards, Runners up in national craft shop awards, customers from across the UK and being recommended from a sun-bed in Sharm-el Sheikh to the Australian outback.
But it's the local community we mostly love - helping a customer to find an elusive one ball of wool to finish a project, teaching people to crochet and admiring a young person's first stitching project.
Running a small business is hard work, but it means everything when customers choose to support us. With other choices available out there, this matters.
That’s why Small Business Week matters.
If you’d like to support us this week, you can buy or order from us, share this post or recommend us to a friend - especially if you're on a sun-bed in the Canaries :)
Thank you for backing small businesses like ours.
