A savvy woman has revealed how she turned her lunch break hobby of embroidery into a successful business – making £120,000 a year.
Niamh Wimperis, 31, who now lives in Cheltenham, used to work 9 am to 6 pm, four days a week as a London-based receptionist, but felt unsatisfied by her job and sought solace in her favourite pastime.
“I was stitching in any spare time I had. My lunch break would involve eating as fast as possible so I could spend the rest of the hour with my needle and thread,” Niamh told NeedToKnow.online.
When lockdown hit in 2020, Niamh’s job was put on hold and she was able to spend more time embroidering colourful hoops with hand-stitched artwork inside.
She said: “For the first time, there was time to stitch all day if I wanted to, and the idea of going back to work, sitting on the tube and then behind a desk all day… I just couldn’t do it. It’s not what I wanted my life to look like.
“When furlough happened, I realised I couldn’t go back to working in an office. I have rheumatoid arthritis, and working a ‘normal’ job was becoming increasingly difficult. Flare-ups meant I’d need to spend days in bed, and my boss never quite understood.”
Niamh decided to see if she could earn a living out of her passion by offering subscription boxes so other people could make embroidery hoops with homemade kits.
She threw all her £500 savings into the project, and three weeks later, Wimperis Embroidery was born in May 2020.
She said: “I remember working out I’d need 55 subscribers to make the same amount of money as my receptionist job.
“In the first month, we got up to 53. In the second month, we got to 70, and now two-and-a-half years later, it’s sitting at 400.
“I’ve never advertised. All of my success has come from being my authentic self on social media.
“People would share their progress on Instagram stories etc, so it all grew from word of mouth.
“People emailed to say they adored my kits. They loved the mindfulness of it, they loved making something with their own hands.”
Niamh works from home, with some days requiring her full attention and 10 hours of graft, and others spent working from her sofa replying to Instagram queries – allowing her more flexibility in her working day.
She now offers the service on a bimonthly basis and has gained over 100 more subscribers in the last year.
The former office worker is now reaping the benefits of building her dream from the ground up – from earning over £1,500 more each month compared to when she was a receptionist, to be able to save for her dream wedding and home, and positively impacting the lives of her customers.
Her love of embroidery began back when she was 21 when Niamh completed her photography degree at the University of Plymouth.
She said: “I was working in a restaurant with big breaks between the lunch and dinner service, and I wanted something to occupy my time.
“I don’t know why I thought I’d go to the haberdashery and buy an embroidery hoop – I’d never tried it before – but it was love at first stitch.
“I found it calmed my anxiety, my heartbeat would fall into sync with the sound of the thread, the soothing repetitive motion.
“I love how portable it is. I always carry an embroidery hoop in my bag, so if I ever have any spare time, I can just pull it out.
“I also love how non-permanent it is. If you go wrong then you can just cut your stitches out and start again.”
For Niamh, the hobby has transformed her life.
She added: “I now have savings for the first time in my life, which will be going towards my wedding and a house.”
“The growth is brilliant, but it means more to me when people tell me that my embroidery kits have changed their life.
“They found exactly what I found – that it helps with anxiety, and that it’s the perfect way to wind down at the end of the day.”
