Although recent reports indicate the nation’s financial slump is making a rebound, many Oklahomans, such as SaraRuth Pearce, continue to feel the impact and are forced to find creative ways of supplementing lost income.
Pearce’s husband, Michael “Bear” Pearce, was pushed into early retirement — with an annual income now about 22 percent of what he was accustomed to — at the end of October, three years prior to the time he would have received full benefits from his employer for 30 years of service. Two weeks later, on Friday the 13th, SaraRuth and her daughter, Christiana, decided it was time to move the family’s home-based business — SaraRuth Custom Creations — to an in-town boutique.
“It might not seem like the best time but for us, it seems everything is falling into place,” SaraRuth said. “ But it is a big risk.”
Christiana agreed and said the benefits are worth it.
“It’s a risk we’re willing to take,” she said.
In addition to making their embroidery shop more accessible to customers and generating additional income for the family, Christiana said there was one more reason for the move to a commercial site.
“We had all of this, everything in the store, in a sewing room in the house that was about one-third this size, where we had to walk sideways to get through, and since he just retired, he basically wanted the house back,” Christiana said, smiling.
But Michael has found himself in the store a few times the past couple weeks and has even “started up the machines himself,” SaraRuth said.
Christiana and her mother had discussed opening a boutique outside the home for about two years, they said, but after Michael’s layoff, they quickly began looking for “just the right location.”
That location was at 838-C N. Kickapoo.
The Pearces said sewing and sewing-related crafts have been a part of their family for years and has gone on to Christiana’s daughter, Alexis Kostura, 9, who “knows how to run all the machines and can diagnose and fix most problems herself.”
“My mom was a first class quilter who could sew anything,” SaraRuth said. “I started crocheting at 7 and started sewing at 8. Crafts have always been something I’ve just done. I never thought of it as creative. People will tell me something they want and ask if I can do it and it surprises me when I can do it.”
But even with a family history of sewing, SaraRuth said it was her name that really gave her the push to learn embroidering.
“With my unusual name, I couldn’t get anything with my name on it,” she said. “And with my daughters’ names, Christiana and Charity, they can’t either.”
Christiana said her mother’s friend urged SaraRuth to buy her first embroidery machine.
“Mom just wanted something embroidered and she asked her friend if she could borrow her machine,” Christiana said. “The friend said that with how much mom liked embroidering, she should just get her one. Mom bought her first machine and I said she should put the patches she made on eBay. We sold so many, we had to get an eBay store in 2003. Then, that got so busy that we had to buy an industrial machine.”
SaraRuth’s first industrial machine, which she still uses, requires a floppy disk to put the computerized drawings in to the equipment so that it can be embroidered onto the item. Her second industrial machine, which uses a flash drive for input, was purchased after a relative opened a small shop in Shawnee Mall during the Christmas season one year.
“I needed my machine at home for the orders I had already, so we had to buy a second machine for him at that store,” SaraRuth said.
Although the Pearces’ eBay store once generated about two-thirds of their business, the addition of their Web site, srscustom.com, and now, the boutique, has evened out the business to a 50-50 split between eBay and word-of-mouth sales, they said.
Another change in the family’s business is that once, the majority of sales were made up of patches for biker’s vests and jackets, but now, the majority of items ordered are baby products and gift items.
Still another change is the hours the pair keep while working on orders.
“When we were in the house, it was 24-7,” Christiana said. “A couple Christmases ago, we took shifts every two hours to check the machines to get all the orders out on time. We literally set our alarms to go off in two hours and one of us would get up and let the other go rest for two hours.”
The boutique is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
“But we are going to have one day that we do an early morning and a late evening, like until 7 p.m.,” SaraRuth said. “There are people who work 8-to-5 and they need us to be open earlier or later so they can make or pick up their orders.”
Knowing they have given customers a unique, custom gift to enjoy, motivates the Pearces to keep their prices as low as they can.
“We don’t have a minimum order, we’ll even do a $1 embroider and we don’t have a set-up fee,” SaraRuth said. “Sometimes, I have to charge a drawing fee, if I’ve spent several hours on the computer, but I don’t like having to do that because it’s more important to me to give a customer a deal than to make money. We want this to be something nice that anyone can afford.”
Among the most-popular holiday items the Pearces have embroidered are Christmas stockings, which they said they have sold thousands of throughout the years. But there is almost no limit to what they can, or will, embroider, they said.
“You bring it, we’ll embroider it, on most things,” Christiana said.
She said the most unusual item she remembers was a leather guitar strap.
“It was interesting and turned out beautiful,” she said. “We’ve also made things for Renaissance fairs, Native American ceremonies and funerals.”
The funeral items are typically handkerchiefs, but other items have been requested for funerals, as well, she said.
“I think the most unusual one we made is a casket liner,” SaraRuth said. “It was really nice. The man was a musician and his wife wanted a saxophone with a music staff on it and the quote, ‘Let the music I have played speak for me,’ on it. It was beautiful.”
In addition to orders for purchase, the Pearces also donate many items per year.
“Mom and a group of her friends gave out about 100 lap blankets to veterans in local nursing homes one year for Christmas,” Christiana said. “They let them pick them out and they would ask, ‘How much?’ and they couldn’t believe they were free and they could pick out the ones they wanted.”
They also donate blankets to BirthChoice each year for new mothers.
“It gives them something handmade, made with love in it,” Christiana said.
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SaraRuth Custom Creations, 838-C N. Kickapoo, will hold its grand opening from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 28.
Refreshments will be available during the grand opening.
Most custom orders are complete within three to five days, and some same-day orders are available.
As a rule, offensive embroidery orders will not be taken.
For more information, call 275-5261.
