Emily Sanders was interested in embroidery long before she ever picked up a needle and hoop herself. As a child, she would watch her nanny embroider. It wasn’t until her 21st birthday, though, that she actually went out and bought herself a kit. From there, Sanders was able to teach herself the craft and use the internet to help her understand certain stitches. In no time at all, she was selling and gifting embroidered hoops to friends and family. Sanders quickly turned her passion into a profit by creating her own small business, Thread Counted.
Sanders runs Thread Counted through Etsy and Instagram. On Etsy, the fourth-year McGill student sells already-made embroidered hoops and buttons, ranging from $12 to $30 depending on their size and detail. However, Instagram is where Sanders has found more traffic. The social media platform isn’t a typical business platform, but for Sanders it’s been extremely beneficial. In a matter of months, Thread Counted gained over 1,000 followers. Sanders used hashtags and giveaways to grow her clientele. The Instagram app has also allowed clients to commission work. Through Instagram, they can directly message Sanders with requests for custom designs.
Embroidery does more than just supplement Sanders income though—it also acts as an ideal creative outlet for her. As a full-time student in North American studies and world cinemas, Sanders found that embroidery allowed her do something more creative and hands-on than her classes. In her first year at McGill, for instance, she tried drawing. Sanders had tried other artistic mediums before, but they didn’t take off for her the way embroidery did.
“I bought this book called Drawing for Dummies which I got really obsessed with my first year of school,” Sanders said. “I think that helped a lot. It was really transferable to [embroidery].”
Being able to draw has allowed Sanders to create her own designs which, she said, is an important part of her process. Not only does it let her draw up potential patterns for clients but it also lets her develop her own style.
In addition to being a creative outlet, for Sanders, embroidery is an exploration of femininity. The first time Sanders felt truly confident in her embroidery was when she was doing a project for a horror film studies class. She used embroidery to explore the movies Misery and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. By embroidering hoops for the project, Sanders felt she was able to explain more about the boundaries women face.
“I really talked about the confines of women,” Sanders said. “How they work within those confines and how embroidery is kind of a way of literally keeping women framed.”
Sanders explained that embroidery has been historically feminized. It was usually a pastime for women, especially in England and continues to be a source of income for women in Africa. Because of this connection to women, Sanders feels there is a lot of significance in every new project she starts. However, her work doesn’t always have feminist motifs. She’s embroidered everything from poutine to whale bones—but the medium’s past is something she never loses sight of.
“I’m not very political in [what] I create,” Sanders said, “but [the feminized history of embroider is] always in the back of my mind.”