Get to Know Our Fall 2022 Small Business Grant Winners

Ready to meet our Fall 2022 Spoonflower Small Business Grant recipients? This grant is for small business owners, who can apply to receive up to $1000 in Spoonflower credit to test out different Spoonflower materials, create new products or otherwise expand their offerings. Grant winners will also receive a $2500 award to spend on marketing and branding efforts that will support their small business. Read on to hear more about the winners, their businesses and how they plan to use this grant to grow.

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I recently ordered sample yardage of a gorgeous print from Spoonflower to make shirt samples. I would use the grant to purchase more of this fabric for my next Aussie Summer collection to offer to my customers. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? It means so much to be a Spoonflower grant recipient. I run my business completely on my own. It is the quality and fit of my shirts that keeps my regular customers coming back. The fabric prints plays a huge part in this. My customers are always wanting fun fabrics that they struggle to find in off the rack garments. Purchasing unique prints in the small amounts I do is a constant challenge. I am limited by what my local suppliers have in stock and the price they can offer. Being a grant recipient will really help give my business a boost for my busiest season. The grant for fabric will cut my regular fabric costs and enable me to purchase the new equipment for my business I need to produce my shirts faster. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? My go-to Spoonflower products are Petal Signature Cotton^® and Cotton Poplin. The wide selection of prints that Spoonflower offers on these fabrics are perfect for the unique and high quality shirts that I make my customers. I cannot wait to order more! 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I print my designs on Spoonflower fabric to create my sewing and embroidery kits. I also teach design and sewing classes locally using Spoonflower fabric. I would like to continue to expand these two areas of my business by adding new sewing classes using my existing kits and through wholesaling my embroidery kits. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? It is so motivating and encouraging to receive this grant. Working on my own I have so many different hats to wear, and the outward affirmation of this grant goes a long way! 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? I love the Linen Cotton Canvas because of the sturdy feel and vibrant colors. I also love the Petal Signature Cotton for the smooth soft feel. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? With the Spoonflower grant, I can develop my own collection of original designs to use as covers for my notebooks. Creating an original collection of notebooks that are unique, reflect my style and are exclusive to Catalina Sánchez will help differentiate my products even more. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I am over the moon to be a Spoonflower grant recipient! It’s very exciting to know that the Spoonflower team sees potential in my work and is investing in my brand’s future to see it grow and conquer people’s hearts. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Petal Signature Cotton! It’s the most versatile fabric ever; it is lightweight, so I can use it to cover my notebooks and prints are vivid and beautifully matte finished. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? With the wonderful grant from Spoonflower, Oaty Bear will be able to offer more designs and bandana design selections. It will allow for Oaty Bear to expand our inventory for future markets and possibly wholesale clientele. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I am beyond excited to be selected for the Spoonflower grant recipient for Fall 2022. It has been a dream of mine to use my own illustrations to create nature-themed designs to share with all other adventurous dogs and humans. To be selected means a lot to me and having others see the potential in your brand and creation really pushes me to further grow this brand to its full potential. I cannot wait to have more dogs wear my handmade bandanas out in the wild! 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? My usual go-to product is Petal Signature Cotton because it’s the perfect fabric weight and the colors print beautifully and vibrantly. I know for a fact my customers love them just as much as I do! 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? This grant will enable me to increase the variety of prints available each month and produce pad wrappers and wet bags on a permanent basis to my customers. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? For Red Cat Cloth to be recognized and supported by Spoonflower is just incredible. Over the past 2.5 years, I have invested my energy into building my brand and developing a product my customers love and that I am very proud of. With this grant I will be able to grow my business to the next level and provide my customers with an even better monthly experience. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Sport Piqué and Minky are my two go-to fabrics and fan favorites from Spoonflower. They are very comfortable to wear against the skin, retain their colors beautifully, are excellent for stain resistance and incredibly easy to care for. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? Digitally printed fabric from Spoonflower will be the main fabric source for new product launches at Waku Waku Baby. This grant will help me expand my product offerings to include in-house designed fabric patterns and help further develop my brand. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I am beyond excited and honored to be selected as a Spoonflower grant recipient! As a maker, I am already a Spoonflower customer and now, as a surface pattern designer, I look forward to opening up shop at Spoonflower to further connect with this wonderful community! It feels amazing to be recognized by the Spoonflower team that I already admire so much. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? I love Spoonflower’s Organic Cotton Knit for baby shoes and bandana bibs because it is so soft and great for baby’s sensitive skin. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I will use the financial support from this grant to create new products. I plan on making larger-scale wings, further developing my snail shell backpacks, and making matching antenna headbands, along with a long list of other exciting possibilities. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I’m beyond excited about being chosen as a Spoonflower grant recipient! I’m ready to embark on a creative journey with the help of Spoonflower. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? My favorite fabric is the Perennial Sateen Grand. It has a beautiful luster and is 115” wide, which opens up a lot of possibilities on how this fabric can be used. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? Some of my most popular clothing items to date in my shop have been the items made from fabric featuring my custom digital illustrations. Currently, due to cost, approximately 10-20% of each collection features pieces with my custom fabric. This grant will help tremendously with allowing me to increase that to 50% and expand my product offerings overall. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I’m so incredibly grateful and thankful to be a Fall 2022 grant recipient. Winning this grant feels like a tangible representation of the fact that there’s space for artists and fashion designers like myself. This grant really is the perfect nudge to encourage me to keep being an online, retail safe space for folks who look like me. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? As an illustrator and maker, this financial support will help me to be able to create new tea towel designs and expand into new fabric product offerings, as well. This support will also help me to develop new art collections that can be offered to the Spoonflower community! 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? Being selected as a Fall 2022 grant recipient means everything to me and my little business! I am beyond excited for this opportunity to move my business forward. I cannot thank Spoonflower enough for seeing the potential in my work and supporting me! 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? The Linen Cotton Canvas! I love the durability and beautiful print quality of this fabric. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? This grant will allow me to purchase more, more, more beautiful, colorful and fun fabrics for my customers and to add new design categories to my collection. More designs equals more sales for Fishbellies! 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I am so honored to be selected as a grant recipient. It reminds me that my entrepreneurial day-to-day hard work can be rewarded and appreciated in other ways. Spoonflower is always thinking about the small, handmade businesses, and is one of the few companies that recognizes the hoops we need to jump through to grow our business. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Lightweight Cotton Twill is the perfect weight and softness for my product line. The colors printed on it are truly brilliant and eye catching. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? We plan to use the Spoonflower grant to expand our collection of Spoonflower fabric surgical caps by adding more healthcare themes as well as more hobby and special occasion themes. The financial support will allow us to purchase new designs and in larger quantities providing higher levels of inventory to our customers. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I am ecstatic to be a Fall 2022 grant recipient. It is an honor to know that the Spoonflower team understands how the work of their community artists turns into expressions of our customers’ personalities. We enjoy taking the artwork of others and turning it into an inspiration piece for our healthcare heroes. We are excited, to now be able to offer more themes with the financial support! 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? My favorite Spoonflower fabrics are the Petal Signature Cotton and the Organic Cotton Knit. Both these fabrics are lovely to work with and are the perfect weight. We have received excellent reviews from our customers. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I will use the donation to buy the yardage of fabric needed to start my first collection and thus be able to open my online store officially! 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? Being selected is a recognition that feels so good. It incredibly encourages me. It’s not easy to chart your course as a creative person, and this boost from Spoonflower means a lot financially and morally. I am infinitely grateful for this support. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? I design shirt dresses, and Cotton Lawn is my go-to for that. I love this lightweight fabric for its silky hand and elegant drape. It’s perfect for my purpose. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? Christmas is my busiest time of year. I love to embrace the colors and themes of the festive season. I am very excited to use my grant to purchase lots of new designs for my AW22 collection. I also plan to buy a Spoonflower PRO membership, which will come in very handy. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? Finding out I was a Fall 2022 grant recipient was such a special moment. Spoonflower has been at the center of Monty & Mabel since I started six years ago. I love working with designers, it is very important to me to credit each designer for their fabrics on my website. I feel so lucky to work with such beautiful creations. Winning the grant will allow me to continue working with designers and showcasing their amazing work. I’m very excited to start communicating with them, and browsing the thousands of designs available at Spoonflower. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? 100% the Petal Signature Cotton. It is the perfect thickness for my needs, and the colors are always so vibrant. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? This grant will allow me to grow the Mom’s Fanny collection of denim fanny packs with colorful and dynamic designs from Spoonflower. I’m really excited to be able to offer joyful retro colorful funky prints for Fun Mom Band customers to rock on their fannies. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I am super excited and grateful to be a Fall 2022 Spoonflower grant recipient! As a scrappy women-owned startup in Durham, North Carolina, it’s particularly meaningful to receive this grant from the Durham-based Spoonflower, as I work to grow my business and infuse it with the joy and potential that are Spoonflower designs. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Right now I am all about dreaming big with the denim swatches that evoke retro funky brighter days! 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I will use pet-themed fabrics to craft an exclusive line of products that my customers can buy as a limited edition. This will help my small business grow and expand by offering exclusive pet-printed themes. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I am over the moon for being chosen as a Fall 2022 Spoonflower Small Business Grant! I am very excited to be a part of this and knowing that you at Spoonflower saw a potential in me is very encouraging! 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? During the many times I have visited the site I have always had a soft spot for ferret-themed fabrics, I wanted to buy them all! 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? The Spoonflower Small Business Grant allows me to procure beautiful and high-quality printed fabrics, explore different types of fabrics and print my own custom designs. This grant will help to greatly reduce material and shipping costs so that I allocate the budget towards marketing and social media ads to increase awareness of my business and showcase my new range of products using Spoonflower’s fabrics. 

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient? I feel empowered knowing that the Spoonflower team sees value in what I do and I am extremely grateful to be the Fall 2022 grant recipient. It will help to propel my pet accessories business into growth with the year-end/new year launch and craft fair participation in 2023! 

About the Author: