NEW business owner Victoria Weston hopes it's a case of 'suits you!' when her new embroidered clothing line hits the market.

Victoria honed her sewing and design skills while working for one of Crewe's most iconic firms Chester Barrie for decades ensuring its line of tailored clothing was just so.

From working on pockets to buttonholes for some of the country's most respected suit brands, some of them bound for Savile Row, she knows a thing or two about fine detail.

Now she is bringing that intricate eye to her own business, Puddle and Co, which is creating highly personalised gifts embroidered with some fantastic designs.

From gift bags to baby hoodies and dog bandanas to aprons and towels, Victoria has compiled a varied range of products that she is currently selling through an online shop.

"I have always enjoyed sewing, embroidery and creating items for family and friends and with the pandemic I decided it was time to take my hobby and create a small family business," says Victoria, whose eldest son, Ollie, helped get her up and running by designing a website for the business.

The Crewe-based business owner is proud of her product range. These are no mass-produced items here and an investment in time to find the right suppliers as well as the work put in to create them suggests quality is of the essence.

Victoria takes up the story. "I wanted to source products that are organic and sustainable, I spend months finding suppliers, researching products, threads and trims so I can bring quality items to my customers.

"After working in clothing manufacturing for over 33 years I've gained an eye for quality and attention to detail.

"With my passion for design I've enjoyed creating all the designs on offer and continue to create new ideas for customers. Anything can be created into stitches from imagination, it just takes time and patience."

She says running her own business is a steep learning curve. While she has sold bespoke items before to individual customers, scaling the business up and using social media to promote her products online is new territory for her.

Her target customer would be eyeing up a nice gift for a family, friend or even themselves, she says.

"It is something they can personalise by choosing the item colour, design, thread colour, personal wording, name or birth year and so forth. It is about creating a truly personal gift that will be loved and enjoyed for many years," she says.

"I've created items that cover everyone, from baby and kids pieces to items with wording like 'Vintage - Aged to perfection' for the older person in your life celebrating a special birthday."

"At the moment the business is online. But after the current pandemic is over I hope to take my pieces to makers' markets and alike.

"If I've created a custom design for a customer, I email or message a visual image so they can see what the design will look like on the item.

"Sometimes I even do a mini video of the stitching, it's like a story of the piece."

With an eye on the future she says she is planning to expand to take on wedding pieces like rings cushions, date cushions, baby pieces with names, weight and date stitched onto teddy bears as keep sakes, as well as her own personal favourite - memory bears created from items of clothing like school sweaters and blazers or a loved ones' clothing item.

She says she is currently working on a family tree cushion showing family members from grandparents to great-grandchildren.

But the business is not without cost. Victoria has invested in a multi-needle embroidery machine, an industrial sewing machine as well as design software.

She says her favourite piece of equipment is embroidery software that can turn her designs to stitches before sending to the embroidery machine.

"I can spend hours creating the designs, this is where my patience and attention to detail comes in handy," she stresses.

That won't be a surprise to those that worked in the clothing industry alongside her at Chester Barrie.

She started working for the Crewe firm back in 1987, hand-sewing suits and coats and learnt about bespoke pattern cutting Liverpool City College.

Then when she transferred to the design department she drafted patterns freehand and on CAD for many prestigious brands.

"I met some amazing people along the way. Anyone that worked at Chester Barrie always remembers the fun Christmas parties, the friends and work colleagues over the years, many I am still friends with," Victoria recalls of an industry that has sadly declined in recent years.

"Its such a shame that a highly-skilled clothing workforce has been mainly lost in the UK. However with the Covid-19 situation and during the first lockdown it's remarkable the amount of people that came together to cut, sew and create scrubs and other items for the NHS.

"I hope the UK government helps manufacturers to keep supplying UK-made NHS items after the pandemic is over."

You can find Puddle and Co here.

They are also on Facebook here.