We couldn’t be prouder of the Barrydowne Paint team members who have recently branched out to start their own creative and crafty endeavours. Meet Katrina, one of these inspiring entrepreneurs with her business Kat's Embroidery. Join us in supporting her small business by browsing and buying her imaginative artisan products.
Katrina Proulx, Barrydowne Paint Team Member
Business: Kat’s Embroidery, personalized attire and gifts
Instagram: @kats_embroidery
Always an adventurous crafter, Katrina found herself in a perfect creative storm at the height of the pandemic: she had the time, the talent and the inspiration to learn a new skill. Intrigued by some hand embroidery work she found on Pinterest, Kat headed to the craft store to buy materials, picked up the basics by watching YouTube tutorials, and launched a brand new business.
Kat’s Embroidery specializes in a wide range of apparel featuring uniquely customized hand embroidered, machine embroidered or heat-transfer vinyl messaging. In addition to garments including t-shirts, hoodies, crewnecks, zip-ups and jogging pants for adults, toddlers and babies, Katrina has recently introduced personalized Christmas stockings, toques, towels, baby bibs, canvas bags, socks and embroidery hoop keychains.
“My business has come a long way since I started and I’ve since learned so much more and upgraded my machine to provide bigger and better designs to my customers,” she says, adding that the embroidery, customer service and social media learning curve has been steep, but the support has been “beyond amazing.”
“I can proudly say I’ve come a long way and learned so much about software and the digitizing process and have upgraded my embroidery machine to provide bigger and better designs to my customers. I’m always open to chatting with customers about new ideas and making their dream sweater a reality: funny, sentimental, holiday themed – I’m open to anything!”
Katrina began working at Barrydowne Paint five years ago while still attending high school. As she continues her studies in civil engineering at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, she plans to continue growing her new business, build her Instagram feed, offer Canada-wide shipping to her customers, and even start her own sweater brand.
“I’m always wanting to pay it forward as a thank you for supporting my business – so I’m excited that this new brand will revolve around spreading kindness and positivity.”
