'Sewing' the seeds of love: 'How my son’s cancer battle ignited my dream of starting a Northern Ireland embroidery business'

Our business journey started in February 2020 from our kitchen table.

Our son was in remission following a brave battle and we were ecstatic.

But when this difficult chapter was finally over, I found that for me, my emotional battle was only just beginning. Whenever you have a child so acutely ill, it changes you and the level of worry you have as a parent just escalates. I found myself worrying about everything.

I started counselling and it was the best thing I did. I immediately started to realise that I had no goals, no plan, so spark and nothing for me. When I said this to my husband Paul, he reminded me of my dream of starting an embroidery business and the rest is history.

I purchased a sewing machine and got to work. I initially starting making things for myself, family and friends. That Christmas I made a ‘Nate Believes In Christmas’ jumper and when I shared it on my social media, my friends loved it, they asked me to make jumpers for their children and the momentum really gathered.

I then went on to create Ted & Stitch, set up social media business pages and four years on we continue to go from strength to strength. We have established an amazing community online and we have a growing portfolio of products including custom embroidery jumpers, t-shirts , bags and workwear.

My husband Paul left his job in sales to work alongside me and we haven’t looked back.

Never in a million years when I was sitting at my kitchen table stitching those initial orders did I imagine that Ted & Stitch would be where it is today.

Throughout my business journey, one of the big things that really stands out for me is that Northern Ireland has an incredible small business community. I love that we are a small family business and I love purchasing and supporting other small businesses.

Which led to the creation of The Tedberry Market which we first launched in 2022. It started as an idea during Covid. We wanted to give small businesses, who were mainly online only, the opportunity to have a shop front for the day to help them to connect with their customers face-to-face.

We believed that if we could champion small businesses, like our own, and bring them out from behind the screen and right in front of their customers, we could build a supportive and positive community that gave them a platform to increase their revenue and visibility, and I am so proud to say that we have achieved this.

Fast-forward two years and this weekend (Saturday, June 29 and Sunday 30 from 10am – 5pm), we have taken over Glenarm Castle and given a platform to over 100 local businesses to showcase the very best of what Northern Ireland has to offer.

The previous four Tedberry Markets have welcomed 500 local retailers, attracted over 12,000 customers and helped to generate an estimated total revenue of approximately £750,000. Each event gets bigger and better, it’s a great day out for people of all ages and has something for everyone.

This weekend we have a fabulous line-up of vendors with everything from beauty to crafts, handmade goods to pet apparel, jewellery to artisan food and handcrafted linen to knitwear as well as live music, family entertainment and a great selection of food options.

We’d love to see you there!

Tickets for The Tedberry Market are priced at £12 per adult and £4 per child and to purchase, go to www.tedberry.co.uk