Image courtesy of Rachel Shelton
It may be surprising that Rachel Shelton is the owner of Sew Good and Trendy, a local business that produces eco-friendly bags. After all, she’s a nuclear engineer by trade and is legally blind due to juvenile onset macular degeneration. Nevertheless, in her business she’s found a way to combine her varied talents and interests, while providing women everywhere with fashionable and earth-friendly purses, shopping bags and more. Visit Shelton at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market on August 11.
Tell me a little about your background.
I grew up in Union, Mo. I obtained a degree from the University of Missouri—Rolla in nuclear engineering, which may be unexpected for someone who makes bags. But actually, it helps me see where the stress is so my bags last longer. If a bag is going to fail, where will it fail? Customers are still using my bags even after two or three years. I worked for Lockheed Martin in New York, but when we had our first child we moved back to St. Louis. I never went back to a full-time job, but I wanted to do something with my free time and I love to sew. I think people can make eco-friendly choices without giving up style.
What led you to start your own business?
I really wanted to make friends. It was hard to meet people, but I found that the indie craft community here was vibrant and had a lot of cool personalities.
What are some of your most popular items?
My most popular two bags are the Sophisticate Purse, which has been popular for the past two years, and the Chic Sack. I find myself selling these two over and over.
How have you used Etsy in your business?
It’s great because it gives me a platform to get my product out there and it’s a low-cost way of creating a business website. Someone who I’ve never even had contact with can buy a bag. I like how you can search locally or all over the world. It seems like Etsy is becoming more widely known in the area. So if someone is looking at a bag at a show, I often find later that they have favorited it. A lot of people open an Etsy shop and list 5 or 10 items, but there’s definitely manpower you have to put into it. My children are small, so my efforts have been geared more toward local shows. Now that school is starting, I have aspirations to work on my Etsy shop.
Where are your Etsy customers?
The vast majority of my Etsy sales are outside of St. Louis.
What makes your work eco-friendly?
I work really hard to make sure all the fabrics for both the lining and exteriors are 100 percent recycled, organic cotton or made from sustainable resources like bamboo. I also upcycle upholstery samples from Maryville University to make the embellishments. The buttons I use come from Ecuador and are made from Tagua nuts. But there are a few things I’m limited to, like zippers. When I started, there weren’t any organic prints, but now my vendors have 3 or 4 lines of coordinating fabrics. But I still have to be careful. Someone tried to sell me something they said was organic, but they couldn’t prove it. The people who buy my bags can feel confident that what I’m saying is true. Before I build a relationship with a vendor, I put them to the test. I won’t use it unless I know how the waste that’s generated is disposed of.
Why is that important to you?
I want my kids to make good choices. I didn’t start living a greener life until I was an adult. If I’d started earlier, I could have made a bigger impact. Also, green can be pretty. I really like the surprise on people’s faces when I tell them what a bag is made out of.
What are some of your favorite fabrics to use?
My absolute favorites are a gray mix and a brown mix that are made from scraps from textile mills. They weave new, undyed fabrics from it, so you can see flecks of orange or brown or different colors. It also doesn’t show dirt because it’s flecked. But it’s not easy to find eco-friendly fabrics manufactured in the States. It would have been in a landfill if this bag hadn’t been created.
What’s next for you?
I’m really excited about the fall. I’ll be at Strange Folk Festival in O’Fallon and Artropy at the Regional Arts Commission. I’m also hoping to do some designs for the fall and next spring.
