A love for making beautiful things from scraps of materials led one woman to opening her own manufacturing business. Jenny Laue speaks to accessories designer Kerrie Murray.

TURNING a hobby into a business is always risky, but for Kerrie Murray it was a natural progression.

The 33-year-old mother of two officially launched her home accessories business in 2006, but in reality it has existed much longer than that because ever since she can remember she’s created things for herself and for others.

“Making things has always been my hobby,” she says. “I’ve always made my own clothes, such as tartan, straight-legged trousers, which I then sold to everyone. When I got married, I made my own wedding dress and I made the girls’ Christening dresses too. I’ve always done things for the house.”

“A close friend of mine wanted a memo board making and I made her one and then another friend wanted one. That’s how I got the idea, so I went to Business Link to get some help,” she says.

Now with her own workshop and offices on an industrial estate and three employees, Kerrie’s company, Pins and Ribbons, has a wide customer base. People love her quirky, romantic designs and the fact that everything is made in England and by hand.

“We’re quintessentially English, in design and in method. We don’t go down the retro road,” says Kerrie. “All our products are hand-made by us in British patterns and fabric and, of course, with love and attention to detail.”

Nothing in the Pins and Ribbons range is mass-produced. As well as the company’s staple items such as the afore-mentioned memo boards, there are also door stops, pet beds, peg bags, cushions, bunting, wall hangings, draught excluders, bedding, curtains, head boards and wedding accessories – all pretty and useful and available from the company’s colourful website.

“That’s why we’re doing so well because we don’t make our products cheaply in China. The customers are fed up with British products being taken out of the country. The feedback we’re getting is that that’s what they want.”

Kerrie, who left a career as a police sergeant, has never looked back and says she has never regretted her decision to leave the police service after 13 years.

“The reason why I left was that the job had changed dramatically since I started. Plus having two small children was very hard. My mother had a brain tumour and that made me look at life in a different way.”

But the beginnings weren’t as easy as all that. Kerrie remembers cutting out fabric on the kitchen table and working into the small hours of the morning. “At first I made things on the kitchen table in the days when I sold things on eBay. Our neighbours must have wondered what we were up to because we were doing things with staple guns and sewing machines until two o’clock in the morning,” she laughs. “After the first trade show we could afford to move to a unit in the Allens West Industrial Estate, in Eaglescliffe, where we’ve now been for the past two and a half years.

“I have never worked so hard in my life being my own boss, but it will pay its rewards one day. For now, I can leave work when I want to, I can even take the children to work or my mum when she feels okay. I work hard, but it’s on my terms. So my children can help when they come along. My oldest daughter, Grace, even has her own little office, where she can be creative,” she says.

“It was a big gamble but it worked out.”

■ Pins and Ribbons products are also available at Fenwicks, Rossiters and Fortnum & Masum.

To look at the product range, to find stockists or to order, visit pinsandribbons.co.uk