Handcrafting Leather Luxury with Karrie from Priestleys Leather Goods

In this episode of The Sewing Social Podcast, we're joined by Karrie, co-founder of Priestleys Leather Goods, who takes us on a rich and inspiring journey into the art of leather crafting. With roots in art and fashion, Karrie shares how she and her husband, James, turned their creative vision into a sustainable, small-batch leather business that values craftsmanship, community, and conscious design.

We dive into what makes handcrafted leather goods so special — from the slow, detailed process behind each piece to the thoughtful materials they choose. Karrie opens up about the real challenges of running a modern ethical brand, the stories that inspire her designs and how she's using her platform to give back, through workshops and outreach programmes designed to support military families and young creatives.

Whether you're curious about sewing with leather, building a sustainable business, or just love hearing the story behind the stitch, this is an episode not to miss.

Key Takeaways:

• Karrie and James founded Priestley's, a handcrafted leather goods company.
• Karrie's background is in teaching and she studied art and fashion.
• Leather is a forgiving material, allowing for mistakes to be corrected.
• The leather industry has a supportive community willing to share skills.
• Leather crafting is on the endangered crafts list.
• Sustainability is a core value for Priestley's, using vegetable-tanned leather.
• The business story is rooted in military life and personal connections.
• Karrie aims to create timeless designs that are not trend-driven.
• Crafting has significant mental health benefits.
• Future plans include workshops and outreach for military families and young people. 

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Guest details: 

Instagram: @priestleysleathergoods

Website: www.priestleys.uk

Email: priestleysuk@gmail.com

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Priestley's Leather Goods

01:32 Karrie's Journey into Leather Crafting

05:02 The Community of Leather Crafting

09:51 The Leather Crafting Process

13:37 The Story Behind the Business

17:59 Design Inspiration and Process

20:16 Challenges in Leather Crafting

22:36 Sustainability in Leather Goods

26:25 Future Plans for Priestley's Leather Goods

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:10.199)

Karrie, welcome to the Sewing Social Podcast. I wondered if you could introduce yourself to the listeners.

Thank you so much for having me. So I'm Karrie and with my husband James, we founded Priestley's, which is a small butch leather goods company based in Lincoln in the UK. We specialise in handcrafted leather goods. So that might be accessories for men or women or other things for kind of other businesses. So lately we've been working on kind of menus and things like that, but essentially all leather goods, anything that people kind of need, handcrafted using traditional techniques with vegetable tan leathers.

Amazing. And I was curious, so tell us a little bit about your background and what initially drew you to working with leather.

So my background is teaching and learning really. So I've been a lecturer of art and fashion for about 15 years and kind of always maintained my own kind of creative outlet. you know, I guess people would call it a of a side hustle, wouldn't they nowadays? But really that's kind of what it started with alongside my teaching practice. When I studied my degree, I did fashion and textiles. I did a kind of a lot of surface patterns and

when I did my end of year kind of show, that was all handbags. The handbags have kind of been the consistent thing that's kind of been with me the whole time and it's borderline obsession with bags really, you could say. So yes, that was kind of what I did at uni and then it's kind of continued. I did a bit of freelance work alongside teaching with kind of surface patterns and just carried on designing really. And then the leather thing kind of came about because I had all these patterns that I designed that I kind of wasn't using, you know, I wasn't doing anything with them.

Speaker 1 (01:45.87)

And we had a few kind of commissions to put them on things and it was fabric or it might have been glass. And someone said, what about leather? And this is for a company quite long, many years ago now. And I put them on leather and I was like, yep, this is it. And then I kind of put that together with this love of handbags and yeah, that was kind of it really. I think it's a really beautiful material to wear with. It's quite forgiving actually, which is a good thing. And it's something that from our point of view, we...

we see as a real by-product of the meat industry. When we first set out designing bags in our first collection, we did look at the possibility of using alternatives for everything we'd found, for everything that was accessible for us as a small startup. It was really just plastic or a real synthesized version of what was already out there. It perhaps wouldn't last as long. The things that were available to small business, you couldn't repair them, you couldn't unpick them and redo them again. It wasn't particularly forgiving, which you need it to be.

So yes, that was kind of right. And then I think the more we've researched and used leather, the more we've kind of fallen in love with it, especially Vegtown, where it patinas and it kind of takes on people's memories. And I think that's a really beautiful thing about the material. kind of why we choose leather.

Sounds amazing. I didn't actually know leather was that forgiving to be honest.

I mean, to give you an example, I can remember we've got like a tool to kind of help us with the edges, it's edge beveling. So it's supposed to take off this little mushroom almost that you get when you're burnishing the edges or finishing the edges. And you can kind of scrape into it a little bit by accident and then you can kind of buff those marks out. Obviously leather can be polished, but it is really forgiving. mean, you can kind of buff out lot of marks with it. We tend to, and I think it...

Speaker 1 (03:25.902)

enables a kind of whole sustainable approach. So really is water-based glue. So if there's a mistake, can kind of pull something apart. We're getting better as we've learned more about it, but it is a really beautiful material to work with. I mean, you can't, you know, holes in it and undo holes or anything, but it's certainly, you know, you get away with a little bit if you make small errors or you can always make the piece smaller. I think it's quite flexible in that regard.

And how did you learn those sort of specific skills? Because there's a lot of tools and things that I wouldn't have a clue about as a lay person. How did you learn all of that?

I was really fortunate to do a course with a wonderful lady called Rebecca and I had this bag to sign on my head and it was this octagon. mean, why anyone would start and make their kind of first bag out of uni an octagon shape, it couldn't have been any more difficult if it tried to be. I did a course with her and she was amazing and she just taught me everything I needed to know about how to finish edges or how to cut out leather to start with. Because even that is quite a big deal, just to kind of get that right and the accuracy you need.

So I did that with her, I think I did an intensive week or two with Rebecca, Jane's sewing school. And then we've done other tips and courses and there's lots online. And so yeah, it's kind of just been like a real quest to learn more. And I think James and I, we both love to learn and we both love the craft. And I think that's really, really important. And then we've been quite lucky there, the leather industry or the kind of, you know, this side of it, the handcrafted aspect. It's really like a community. People are always really willing to support each other and help.

Yes, I guess there's an element of competitiveness, of course there is, but really people love the skills, people love to share what they're learning and what they're doing. I think that's another really beautiful thing about it is that we all want this craft. I it's on the endangered crafts list at Leatherworks. So we all want this to continue. We all see it as this kind of sustainable, really viable thing that we kind of use. So yeah, people are quite keen to support one another. So there's lots of YouTube videos, there's so many books that you can read, there's loads of online courses.

Speaker 1 (05:21.422)

People tend to kind of do workshops as well, which is really, really good. And I guess social media is another thing, isn't it, where we're all uploading videos of what we're doing and we're all taking note of each other, which is a really nice thing too.

Yeah definitely so it's on the endangered craft list. Wow. Yeah people wear obviously leather or use leather quite a lot but you don't realise that such a skill is endangered.

Yeah, that's quite a few.

Speaker 1 (05:46.208)

Yeah, people just, we just aren't using it as much. I think things like veg tan leather, think we use those more traditional craft kind of approaches to them, like the hand stitching. Like know we do, and I know quite a few of the crafters that we kind of follow and admire, they all hand stitch as well. I think, you know, it's about 80 % is still chrome. So I'd imagine with chrome tan leather.

people are using machines more and things are more mass produced with that leather than they are with veg time at best. I think I was talking to someone not that long ago, she was kind of like an old lady and she said back in her day that leather skills were taught in schools, like that's wild to me, that's a great thing and I wonder why we don't still do that. I think as we've kind of looked at sustainability and I completely get it and leather isn't going to be for everyone and I completely accept that. But it is one of those things that like so much of it already

is a byproduct of the meat industry. So much of it ends up in landfowl anyway. It's really great to be able to use it and repurpose leather. And you need those skills to be able to do that. Like you say, there's a lot of tools, there's lots of technique to it. So yes, we are kind of losing those skills and those craftspeople. if people obviously aren't investing in those leather products, if people aren't investing in that kind of skill set or don't really understand it, it just means that we do it less. The market becomes even more niche for us.

Yeah. And like you say, know, thinking about that older lady and having those skills taught in a school, that is amazing. And kids aren't even really taught how to sew on a button these days, you know. It's mad, isn't it?

And I'm, yeah, and I remember having this, I sort of taught up until I went all in on the business in April. So still got teaching in the forefront of my mind. And I would say to students about that, like, you know, maybe how many of you can sew on a button or a zip and not many of them can. And we think that's really shocking. But then how many of us can knit? Like my grandmother would have said to me, I can't believe you can't knit. I mean, I can knit a square, a really nice square, but that's kind of it as far as I can go. And it's these kinds of traditional techniques that, yeah, we kind of.

Speaker 1 (07:44.108)

losing out on. I guess sewing is a really wonderful thing. Sewing is something that obviously I did way before I did my degree and things, but it's a really beautiful skill set that guess when I was learning how to sew on a sewing machine, I had a single sewing machine that you would ... I've still got them now. I guess it's a real privilege to learn those things, isn't it? I think we need to

I guess again teaching head on, but think about curriculum and what curriculum offers young people because these are the skills that are to be incredibly important as we look for more sustainable options and viabilities going forward.

I mean, and our girls love it. We've got two daughters, one's only three, but my eldest daughter, she's seven. She loves the craft and we craft all day long and we taught her how to kind of saddle stitch and things and she really loves that. So I guess more children would be inspired by that too and like making something. I mean, there's all sorts of amazing recent studies about the impact on craft and the positive impact it has on mental health. So there's so many reasons why we should all kind of get behind the crafting thing, you know.

Absolutely, I completely agree with that. So have you done a bit of machine sewing as well then? Have you made any garments in the past?

Yeah, so I did textiles and photography and art throughout my time of studying. So I guess when I moved into leather work, it wasn't too dissimilar. There's parallels, there's crossovers. Obviously everything I do now is, at the minute, is hand stitched. So I'm using a pricking iron to do the holes in the leather. But really, it's the same sort of process. There's two layers when making a seam. My seam is might be on the outside as opposed to the inside of a bag or whatever. But it was a good basis of knowledge of sewing and how that works.

Speaker 1 (09:19.88)

As we build our ranges, I know we're going to have larger bags and holders and totes and things. I've got the machine behind me. I haven't used it yet, but in the future we'll probably move over to bit of machine stitching as well. Currently our smaller pieces, our wallets and our purses and the range of bags we have already are all hand-stitched. It's part of the design aesthetic and it's part of the construction.

gives a great repairability in the future. If a stitch rips, the seam is still kind of intact and it can be repaired, which is a really nice thing, whereas that's a bit more complicated with leather and a sewing machine.

Yeah, that's really lovely though and it's that sort of handcrafted piece that you're going for really, isn't it?

Yeah, absolutely. We kind of feel that, you know, it's, I guess it's like the epitome of luxury, isn't it? To have something that's hand stitched, it's kind of, you know, yeah, I think it just gives it that really beautiful aesthetic as well. And I think it's not mass produced and it's really obviously that it's not mass produced and that's important to us.

wondering if you could walk us through like the journey of a piece of leather, maybe from like the raw piece to the finished product.

Speaker 1 (10:25.502)

So we exclusively source our VegTan leathers from tanneries that have been audited by the leather working group, Golden Sore Rated. That's really important to us. I'm sure that there's more that auditors could do and I'm sure they'll get there. It's not perfect is kind of my point and we don't proclaim it to be. So yeah, in terms of that leather, kind of depend on what we're working on, but on bigger orders, I'll go to the tanneries. quite a few in Northampton, which are really kind and really nice people to work with. So we'll go and choose the hides because hides

are exactly as they are. They have those imperfections and those kind of marks that you'd expect. So when we're going to choose highs, we want to make sure the colors are the same if we're doing a batch of something. And then I'll bring it back. It's very heavy as well. And I think one of the things that we do that guess people don't always consider with leather craft is whatever we're making, each part of it will have to have a specific thickness.

So, you know, I have to send it off to get it split down to a certain size. We've got a bell skiver to do kind of smaller edges of wallets and things like that. But really we'll need the leather to be kind of skived all the way through to give it the thicknesses that we need. So yeah, so we'll send that away to have that done. And then the split comes back. So that might be the section of the middle that they take out. And we always get that back too, because that's what we do our samples and our test runs on. So we try and like, you know, reduce waste as much as possible. And then we use, we tend to have our, things that we make.

quite a lot of, so like our purses and our wallets and our pocket bags. We've created our own templates in perspex. Perspex can be recycled at a later point, which is good. But it means that we're not using paper and cardboard all the time because they just don't last, especially up against something sharp like an awl. So we tend to do those in perspex. And then we mark out all of the pieces using an awl, so it's like a tiny little line. And then we use kind of, you know, just imagine kind of quite sharp tools to cut the pieces out. And then, yeah, we...

You have wing dividers to mark where the stitches are going to go, pricking irons to mark where the holes are going to go. And then, yeah, then we kind of hand stitch the pieces from that. So it's a real labor of love. And I think it comes with, you know, I guess when we all try and sell pieces of handcrafted stuff, it comes with quite a price tag and it does. And that's why it is all that time and energy and effort that goes into it, which is a beautiful thing. And it's a really lovely, like it's a real privilege to be able to, you know, today talk about it.

Speaker 1 (12:46.626)

do it as my kind of day job for now, which is incredible, and kind of get to that stage of things. So I'm very lucky to be doing that. I think we get so much out of making it and we hope that the person who receives the thing loves it as much as we have made it, if that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely. It sounds incredibly satisfying.

It really is. And think that's it. After we've kind of stitched it all together, my favorite bit is the burnishing and the edges. That's when you can get the beveler out and take that little edge off and perfect it. And there's always a stage, I think, it's where everything's kind of together, but it's not finished. And you're like, you look at it and go, oh, this has got so much to go yet before it's this beautiful finished piece. But it's the tiny little details. It's putting like edge pieces in and extra lines and details, or it might be adding the logos to something or people's initials. It's a really beautiful thing to add onto the end.

And just to make it personal and I kind of ethos behind that is creating something that's personal to that person. So they don't look at it in a year's time and are bored of carrying it, know, and they want something new. It's reducing that need for more, but is, guess, having your initials or if people have kind of tried to offer as much options for.

customisation as we can, it might be threads and colours and things without it being overwhelming, like there's a balance to be had. But again, kind of having that person's, their own input into something in the hope that they treasure it for that little bit longer and they just love it a little bit more is the idea.

Speaker 2 (14:06.734)

Yeah, that's such a nice idea. really is. Because obviously we all need to be a bit conscious of our overconsumption. And I really like that ethos. I don't know much about leather at all. So are there different types of leather? And like you say, you use a veg tan leather. Are there other types?

So, vegetarian, we use it's tanned with kind of natural tannins. That could be tree bark or, you know, vegetables or whatever. So many kind of options of things that can create a really nice colour. And I don't know if you've ever done that with fabric, but it's equally beautiful. don't know, onion skins, for example, or turmeric. haven't quite got to that stage with the leather business where I'm dying it myself. It would be quite limited, I think, for us. But yeah, and then obviously there's chrome tans and that's kind of what's typically used.

I mean, chromiums have moved on. You'd expect to be able to source some in it from a really good place where hexavalent chromiums and all of that kind of stuff are taken care of. They're not producing those different facilities and things like that. So things have really, really moved on, which is important. But yeah, mean, for us its veg-tan all the way, we find that we can just do so much more with it. It patinas as well, which is a really beautiful thing. It takes on different kind of colourings and marks and it just ages beautifully. It's a bit like skin.

skin should age beautifully. not everyone wants it to, but people want to age beautifully and leather is exactly like that. It kind of takes on all these marks and all these memories. So for us, it's a really beautiful thing to work with.

There's quite a beautiful story behind your business, isn't there? I saw that on your website and I wondered if you would let us into that beautiful story.

Speaker 1 (15:40.27)

Yeah, obviously, as I said at the start, I founded the business with my husband. He was in the military, so was a submariner in the Royal Navy for quite a long time, many, many years. Submariners, they do incredibly long patrols at sea. James would always leave me a little note when he went away, one for each week. It would just be the normal stuff you'd expect if you weren't going to see your partner for like...

I don't know, four months at a time. They'd always leave me like a little clue to where the next note would be hidden and there'd always be little treats. Some weeks it would be like, you know, a matte lipstick or like a little mulberry purse or something really special and really lovely. They were all incredibly special gifts. It really kind of in to it. And always a chocolate bar as well. There was never a week without chocolate bar. So when I'd go and find them, it would just, I guess, in that moment kind of keep us a bit connected. And I would have done the same. So I'd have like written him a note for every week, not with a present. I wasn't that.

It's a very limited amount of space on a submarine. We'll go with that. I'd write him a letter and so he'd have one for each week that he was away. But it was just something that was really special between us. I think military life is really hard for families, think increasingly now with everything that's going on and we won't get into too much politics. But I think the military is to be part of it and to have been a military family was something we're incredibly proud of. We still have so much support from our military family and when we kind of set up the business.

our kind of friends who were still serving, they were really supportive and so behind it with us and still are now. And we're really grateful with the work that do. I started looking into the prospect of, could we have a military license? Can we combine the two? It took quite a while to get that military license, I'd say quite a while, over a year to obtain it. And now we're in the position where we can put military insignia on our products. So we've kind of got, which is quite niche and it's a beautiful thing for us. But I think the, you know, the intentions are as we move forward, we'd like to offer workshops.

to service personnel or veterans or talking to the Loughborough Rehabilitation Centre as well to look at whether or not we can help injured service people with some of those kind of skills or post-ops and things like that. So that's kind of like the greater ambition of what we want to do. Like you say, it's part of our story and our heritage and the idea and it came about because of all the amazing support we'd received from our military family really.

Speaker 2 (17:54.51)

really lovely. Just drawing it back to when James was away and he would leave those gifts, it's what inspired the little pieces that you make now, isn't it? So special things that hold memories and yeah, it's beautiful story.

No, I think it's been really lovely for us though. And I think it's so nice to be able to tell your story. think there's so many amazing brands out there and there's so many brands that inspire us and we're kind of like, how do you compete? can't, but your story is very much a story, isn't it? And I think it's a nice thing to be able to tell it.

Really is, yeah, that's really nice. Do you have a particular design process or anywhere that you get your inspiration from for your product?

Yeah, so I'm quite a traditionalist with my design. I think I still design in a sketchbook a lot of the time. I'm a little bit digital more so these days, but I always think about what I kind of see that's happening with accessories and bags. I always try and keep them timeless. And I think that's where the complexity is actually trying to create something that's completely timeless. So it's not in trend, but also popular. It's that hard thing, it? When you're a business, your customers are important, your sales are important.

You want to go off and design whatever you want in your own head, but really you have to design what people are looking for. Or if there's an issue with an existing product, how you can solve that kind of problem. yeah, so I'll kind of look at what's current. I've always got like a list of what I should be doing next and then something really random will come and disrupt that list. So yeah, trying to keep it focused and try and design things that are again, designing something that's almost forever and future-proof is the real challenge. So we tend to kind of look at, you know, those designers that will...

Speaker 1 (19:31.394)

very familiar with. It's forever, I think it's been like a hundred years to establish like a luxury brand. So we've got plenty of things to inspire us and then we're always quite inspired by nature as well. So the patterns that are on our pieces, they're all kind of designed by me as well. The one that's kind of our most popular one currently is our Eleanor pattern. And that was something that I did for, I did some samples of like marbling that's on paper and then abstracted like a little motif and spent quite a while developing that into a repeat pattern.

I've got others that are really more instant. was a photo I took of like, I think it was like a bus station in London from a great heights. It's these really simple shapes that connect together. And so some things take like moments to fit together as a pattern and other things are like months, if not longer. So yeah, and then it's trying to apply them to the leather, which we do ourselves as well, which is quite a complex task. Again, Vegtime lends itself really, really well to that. So yeah, but really I should say like I've got a really strict list of what I'm designing, but yeah, it kind of.

blotters about a bit. And then we're quite lucky we get sort of bespoke commissions and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, I'll do that. So yeah, it's quite nice. Keeps it varied.

It should be like that because it's creative, isn't it? And your brain sort of goes from one thing to another and it just flows and yeah, I think it should be like that. Are there any particular challenges when working with leather?

I'll go with that.

Speaker 1 (20:54.382)

Yeah, not messing up. There's many a time when I say it's all forgiving. That's very much like the start when you're cutting out, you can make your little errors. But there's been many a time when you've got to the end of a product, your deadline is your deadline and you've accidentally sanded a bit off or have messed up stitching at the last moment, which can be incredibly frustrating because you have to take all the spread out and start again. mean, I'm sure there's people out there, but no, just tie a knot and carry on. But no, we're of a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to it. So that's...

quite a challenge. Fairly recently we got to end of making one of our clutch bags and sometimes it can just be like little stress points or weaknesses in the leather that you didn't quite see at the time. So when the leather comes in, I put it out and we'll draw like little circles, little white chalk circles on bits that we can't use.

So that might be a big scratch or a cut or a real big imperfection that would be in middle of a bag, so you can't have that. You've to be mindful of also, don't want loads of waste either, so it's an important balance to have. And around the outside of the hide, it can be quite thin and it can be quite strep, so you can't use those areas either. If you've missed one and then you've made it into the bag, and you might not always see it, but the leather will feel a little bit different. So yes, and then the seam won't quite sit perfectly or it might not quite fuse together.

When you're to stitch, know, you're trying to kind of finish the edges. That can be quite a challenge. And I also think it's working at kind of pace as well, especially when you've got, it's almost easier when you've kind of got both orders because you can kind of batch things. So you can batch the stages. And then when everything's laid out and you've got quite a few bits out now and it's like, did I do that bit? Have I done that bit? And making sure everything gets to the same stage, but not losing that quality when you're kind of taking on more and more work is a really important thing for us. We've always had quite a flexible approach with our lead time.

it's typically between two and six weeks. So around Christmas, that can be quite interesting and people are like, where's the thing? And we kind of get emails every now and again, I didn't see you any time. I'm like, okay. So I have to make that even clearer. And maybe, you know, we've started to add it to emails and stuff and give people a bit more of a heads up of when their piece will likely be arriving. So that can also be a challenge.

Speaker 2 (22:56.556)

You've mentioned throughout the conversation that you are quite conscious about sustainability and you've mentioned a few points. And I think, you know, when you look through your website, there are certain standout things that you sort of ensure. Even your packaging, you like that to be sustainable as well.

I guess we are a leather brand at the end of the day. We feel that from any, I guess any person or people setting up a business, like it's the bare minimum nowadays of what someone should do. I think it's within our gift as like a small brand, small business to be able to do things right from the get go and to get, make those conscious decisions like at the basis of starting out your business. In this day and age, that should come from us.

I've had wider conversations with students about who's responsible, the brand or the consumers for the rise of fast fashion, et cetera. But I guess if you're starting out and setting up today or tomorrow, that's you, you should be doing that. And I guess from our clients and our customers point of view, I should be taking care of that. It shouldn't be something that they have to particularly worry about, you know? So I kind of think that's a good business thing to do. But then I never stray from the fact that we're using leather and not everyone agrees with that and that's okay too. So we don't necessarily.

stand up and shout on a soapbox about our sustainability because I'm still using animal hides. We know that we do our best to get them from there as sustainable we can. We see it as a byproduct of the meat industry. think it's something like 70 % of the hides and stuff go into landfill anyway, so we'd be contributing to that if we were using. I know that we did a lot of research about what else we could use instead. Again, that's a real challenge from...

you know, a startup point of view, because some things that are great from a sustainability point of view, just aren't in the mainstream or if they are, they're not affordable, they're not achievable. So I know that we do what we can. I'm sure we've got room for improvement. And so yeah, we're always open-minded about that. think when we first set up a business, we were really keen to source absolutely everything that's sustainable as we could. And we just couldn't, like our tools and stuff, like we couldn't, we, we were sourcing some of our metal hardware and that's again, it's like a whole other.

Speaker 1 (25:02.104)

thing to consider. We ended up paying more for stuff by accident, not realizing that yes, we were sourcing them within Europe, but someone else was sourcing them elsewhere and we were paying that difference. As a business, you can't afford to pay 30 % or more just because you think that it's coming from a more sustainable source channel when it isn't. It's that kind of thing that's been a real learning curve for us. We don't have a huge... There's some wonderful leather tanneries in the UK, there's some great

places where can learn about leather. There's so much here, but perhaps not as much as what there was at some other points. So trying to source everything is a challenge. So again, we do our best, but we're not perfect. And we wouldn't ever want people to think that we think that we are, because we're absolutely not.

I've had a lot of conversations about this with other people and everybody, you know, has to try their best really. And it is a lot of the time it is balancing costs against sustainability, isn't it? And you have to do what's right for you at the time. There's no right and wrong answer because there's no answer at the moment, but you have to do what's right for you.

Yeah, I completely agree. And I'd say that to anyone because if you end up thinking, maybe I don't start a business or a brand at all. Maybe nobody needs my point. And I get that too from that point of view. But then at the same time, if we can, I guess, from my point of view, we'd love to think that we're producing something like someone's forever wallet or someone's forever purse, which from a business point of view, that is also a challenge. So not going to come back for us until many years. Hopefully, I think that's one thing that's been.

really wonderful for us is our word of mouth marketing and people recommending us. And when we first started, it was like just friends and family, and then it was friends and family, and now it's kind of become wider than that. And then having these kind of, you know, networks within the military has been really good for us too. So I think that's kind of like what I've said to students is why you kind of want this ripple effect. You don't want it to be, I people aim for this kind of overnight success, which is amazing.

Speaker 1 (26:55.758)

But sometimes it's really nice to think about like a little ripple effect and just kind of gradually, like I think a sustainable business that's growing sustainably, being sustainable, the kind of different things, but you know, it has to kind of grow organically. And I think that makes it more manageable.

But on the flip side, you've also been featured in a few magazines, haven't you? Yeah. And also, did I see that you got a small Business Sunday shout out from Theo Paphitis of Dragon's

Yeah, we did. So we are so grateful to have had some sort of like magazine features and some press. And I think what that shows us is there is a bit of a turning in the tide, which is really a good thing. And, you know, people are willing to kind of prop, you know, little small local handmade business, whatever you call us, whatever you define us as, into one of those magazines, which is incredible for us. And I guess it's about kind of showing people there are other options available. And, you know, we try and have a range within, you

I'm building different kinds of price points within our ranges because it is expensive. It's not the cheapest things in the world. We're always quite conscious about what we do with our offcuts. That's why we've got kind of like everything from bookmarks to bracelets and what can we do with these smaller things. So yeah, but we were like really, we've been so lucky with some of their press features that we've had. It's been really lovely for us. And I think it gives us that motivation to know that we're doing the right thing and we're taking steps forward. yeah, the Theopathytus Business Award was a lovely thing. It was wonderful. We got to kind of go down to...

and meet him and have a photo taken. What was really amazing about that day was they had some incredibly inspiring keynote speakers and to just sit in a room with other creatives and other entrepreneurs and just to kind of almost have that feeling like you're in the right place at the right time kind of thing. But actually to get so much practical information and I guess that little bit of enthusiasm behind British craft or whatever people's businesses are, it was just amazing.

Speaker 1 (28:50.046)

experienced that. It was a really lovely thing to have won that award for sure.

Well done. You mentioned a little bit about your future hopes for the business. Do you have any exciting plans on the horizon?

And so yeah, as I said at the start, I kind of went all in with the business in April. So it only a few months ago, but I just got to that kind of stage where, I don't know, we had enough work coming in and I kind of took on another job and it wasn't quite the right thing. And I thought, what am I doing? Like, and I kind of took that as a sign, you know, I've got enough work coming in, like, let's do it. And a friend of mine has said to me like quite a few months ago, well, what will it take for you to be all in in a business? And I just didn't know. It's quite a big, it's quite a big deal. It's a funny sort of pressure and like.

Teaching is something that's been part of my life since I was 22. I was really young when I went into it. So it's always there and I feel like I'll always teach in some capacity. so workshops is something that think we're going to be doing more of to try and, know, like it's an endangered craft and I'd love to work with some schools. Like I said, at the start about it used to be something we taught in schools, not anymore. So that would be something that, you know, we're kind of looking at whether or not we do something, especially with our local schools. That'd be nice.

nice simple one for us to do. I want to work more with military charities, again working with children. I think there's a beautiful, there's so many beautiful charities out there. But there's a particular one called Little Troopers and they do some amazing workshops and events with children. So I think we'd love to be able to see what we could do with charities like that. think, yeah, working with like the Loughborough Rehabilitation Center is something I'm really keen to do. I'm kind talking to them at the minute. So how we can use craft to kind of improve people's lives. And I think for us, I think our business

Speaker 1 (30:26.72)

It needs to be more than transactional. think it's wonderful to sell our stuff. I love that and I want that to continue and I want to grow that. So we've got new products that I've designed. We're working on new tote bags, backpacks, which I'm really excited about. But in addition, I want it to be a kind of community-based business as well at the same time. Because I think both of those things are really exciting. I don't want to pick between them. So yeah. And I also think that, like I said at the start about leather craft and...

It has so much potential beyond here's an item. It has so much that it can give other people and just getting other people involved in it is a really nice thing. I think giving back is a nice thing. think it's an important thing. So yeah, so that's kind of where I'm at. I'm developing products and working on this outreach and what we're going to do going forward, which is really exciting for us.

That sounds amazing and you're actually speaking to my soul because by day I'm an occupational therapist. So I completely believe in practical rehab and obviously I love craft myself. So I think that's so nice. You've got such great ideas. So I really hope that they come off for you.

Yeah, think it's just in a completely different way as well. think that there's so many, like you say, from an occupational therapy, which is something I've had quite a bit of, got quite a bad back. So I've had many, all sorts of weird and wonderful treatments and solutions and surgeries and stuff. And actually, I think that something as simple as crafting, and that can be leather craft, it can be anything, anything where you're practically making, it's great for self-esteem, but it's also great for that kind of cognitive ability and great for coordination.

sort of really simple things. So yeah, think it has so many benefits to it.

Speaker 2 (32:02.858)

Amazing. And just to sort of tie up the interview today, Karrie, I'd to do a quick game of this or that if that's all with you. first of all, to your...

Coffee. I've never drank a coffee in my whole life. That was an easy one.

Spring, summer or autumn, winter?

Autumn, winter, I love the rain. Absolutely love the rain. Probably a takeaway these days.

Meal out or a takeaway.

Speaker 2 (32:25.718)

an organised workshop or creative chaos.

I'd have to be an organized workshop. couldn't do chaos, I don't think.

cottoned leather or plain leather.

Ooh, I'm gonna have to say patterned. Patterned like that. Could something really subtle though, like sapphiana or pebble, you know? Could be something really subtle.

bag making or accessory making podcasts or YouTube making for yourself or others

Speaker 1 (32:46.508)

or accessory making, think. Definitely a podcast. Definitely.

further is I think. Yeah.

one project on the go or multiple.

Multiple. Yeah, I like to spin plates, very organised plates, but yeah.

And the last one, a tried and tested pattern or something new.

Speaker 1 (33:06.264)

Something new, always something new. Definitely.

Keep it exciting and interesting. So where can people find you,

And so we are on our website, is www.priestleys.uk and then we're on Instagram as well, Priestley's Leather Goods. So yeah, it tends to be where you find us.

and will link all of that below in the show notes so people can find you. Thank you so much for joining me today. It's been a really interesting insight into leather craft and good luck with

Thank you so much for having us. This podcast is amazing because as I say, think craft is needed to craft together and stick together. So I think it's a really lovely thing. So thank you so much for including us today. You're welcome. Take care.

Speaker 2 (33:48.558)

Thanks so much for listening. you do just one thing today, don't forget to share the show with a friend. I'd really appreciate it. Also, if you do want to get in touch, you can always email. Our email is thesewingsocialpod at gmail.com. Until next time, happy sewing.