Exploring Life & Business with Sarah Ferguson of Craft Habit

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Ferguson. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Craft Habit started as a shouted conversation in a loud bar between new acquaintances Sarah Ferguson & Taylor Lee. About 5 years later, Sarah was at loose ends career-wise and remembered the conversation with Taylor about a shared love of crafting and desire to own a fabric store. She reached out on a whim and asked “Any interest in starting a craft business?” And got an immediate YES.

What started as an idea for a modest sewing studio – mostly offering classes & carrying a small selection of fabrics – blossomed into a multi-craft store, as the founders realized they couldn’t really decide on ONE favorite craft. After six months of setting up tents at local events to teach crafts and sell crafting kits, they opened a temporary pop-up shop in downtown Raleigh for the holiday season of 2016. It was a great “practice store”, allowing them to try out retail and classes in the same space while building visibility for the business.

In the summer of 2018, they opened a much bigger store in Gateway Plaza on Crabtree Blvd and started expanding the retail, classes, and program offerings. Today, almost 4 years later, the shop has survived a pandemic and a parking lot renovation and has built an incredible staff and group of instructors to offer craft expertise and cool supplies to our creative community.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Well, there was the pandemic, which shut down all our classes and events for 6 months and continues to keep us at reduced class capacity. Before that, there was a major renovation of the shopping center that left us without a parking lot or signage for 9 months. And before that, there was a long-delayed build-out of our retail space that left us without a physical space for a year.

Luckily, we are incredibly creative people, and every obstacle led us to create something new to balance it out. During our “floating period”, after the pop-up lease ended and before our permanent location was finished, we developed relationships with other small businesses in Raleigh. Through these connections, we were able to host classes at other businesses, collaborate on craft fairs, and sell our branded kits in local shops.

The disruption of the pandemic allowed us to step back from the work of programming in-store events, and use the time to re-launch our e-commerce store on a great new platform, expand our line of kits, and connect with local non-profit Camp Corral to teach virtual craft classes to kids across the country

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Craft Habit is a craft supply retail store that also offers classes, camps, birthday parties, and events.

We carry supplies for sewing and quilting, knitting, crochet, and other yarn crafts, jewelry-making and metalwork, needlecrafts like embroidery, cross-stitch, and sashiko, felt crafts and wool roving, macramé and weaving supplies, crepe paper for sculptural paper crafts, decoupage, wood burning, glass etching, and kid-friendly art and craft supplies. We are always adding new craft supplies, and especially love to carry kits with everything you need to try a craft for the first time.

We offer classes for youth and adults, and some that are open to all ages, so families & friends can learn to craft together. We offer camps for ages 6+, including Teacher Workday Camps, spring break, and week-long summer camps with optional after-care.

We host birthday parties for kids and adults, offer a monthly Crafty Happy Hour on Friday nights, and have a monthly Community Crafternoon meet-up for folks who want to work on their own projects in a social & creative environment.

We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Sarah & Taylor are self-avowed NON EXPERTS in any craft. We are dabblers and craft explorers, interested in learning a little bit about everything. While we aren’t going to lead any master classes, this does make us the ideal stewards for a shop whose unofficial philosophy is Try All The Crafts!

Pricing:

• Classes from $25 and up
• Parties from $160 and up
• Single Day Camps from $55 and up
• Week-Long Camps from $225 and up
• Craft Supplies $$ – $$$

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: http://crafthabitraleigh.com
• Instagram: @craft_habit_raleigh
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crafthabitraleigh
• Twitter: @craft_habit_ral
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CraftHabitRaleigh

Image Credits
Erin Mullinix Photography, Erin Kraftchick, and Sarah Ferguson