Episode 6 of our Made in Ely podcast series, recorded here at Ely Work Collective. Click here to listen to the episode.
Some businesses are carefully planned, whereas others are born out of necessity, out of a quiet house, a sewing machine pulled out of storage, and a genuine need to feel like yourself again. That’s exactly how Crafts by Kate came to be.
We sat down with Kate Shepard to hear how a furlough-era creative outlet turned into a thriving business, one that now spans Cambridgeshire and Norfolk markets, a Shopify website, and a product range covering everything from dog bandanas to handmade baby bibs and fully bespoke raincoats.
Recorded here at Ely Work Collective, it was one of those conversations that just kept going, full of warmth and brilliant practical advice.
“I pulled out my sewing machine and went back to my childhood of making”
Kate’s background is in marketing and photography – not textiles. Her sewing skills came from her grandma and her mum, not a classroom.
So, when the pandemic hit, and she found herself furloughed, with her mental health taking a real hit, the sewing machine came out more as a lifeline than a business plan.
“Everyone was making bread,” she laughed. “For me, I pulled out my sewing machine.”
It started simply – face masks and scrunchies for family and friends. Then her partner made the comment that would change everything: “You could probably do a business out of this, even just on Etsy.”
She gave it a go. And within six months, she knew it had legs.
The moment everything clicked
The real turning point came from an unexpected request. Someone reached out and asked if Kate would make a bandana for their dog. She’d never done it before, but gave it a try! Around the same time, she and her partner were in the process of getting a dog themselves. Enter Arnie. (More on him later!)
That one custom bandana opened the door to an entire new direction. Bandanas became bow ties. Bow ties led to baby bibs. A niece arriving in the world added more inspiration. Kate found herself spotting gaps in what was available, in what people were asking for and realised she’d landed somewhere genuinely interesting. “I found a little opening that wasn’t fully fulfilled, not too saturated,” she said.
The first market stall (and why it was chaotic)
When Kate first set up at Ely Market with her six-foot table and borrowed gazebo, she had something of an identity crisis. Dog bandanas, baby bibs, wax melts, soaps, and earrings. (Kate promised a photo from those days, which we can hopefully share!)
“If anyone had come to my stall, they’d have been like, ‘ What is this? What are you even selling?” she laughed. “It was a very confusing stall.”
Now, every year on her Ely anniversary, that first photo gets dug out. Not with embarrassment, but with pride. Because looking back is how you see how far you’ve come.
It’s something Kate feels strongly about: you don’t have to have it all figured out from the start. That first messy table? It was still a starting point. And starting points matter.
Why Ely Market feels like home
Kate is one of Ely Market’s most enthusiastic cheerleaders, and it’s not hard to understand why. “It is not a clicky market,” she said plainly. “You could literally turn up, and traders will help you set up your gazebo. Your neighbour will watch your stall if you need a toilet break. It’s a proper community.”
When Kate first moved to Ely from Milton Keynes, she knew almost no one outside of her partner. Going self-employed meant no colleagues, no office, no ready-made social circle. The market fixed that. “Now I’ve got this whole community of small business owners who all just support each other,” she said. “We share links to good markets, we support each other, and we rant about the weather together. Nobody understands you more than another trader.”
(And yes, some of those friendships were absolutely forged while freezing at a Festive Friday market and very much hoping to survive it!)
For anyone thinking about giving Ely Market a try: Kate’s advice is to take a breath, don’t panic-buy a gazebo, and start with a rented setup to see how it feels. Saturdays come with stall setups included. Sundays have the option to hire a gazebo.
And if you do eventually commit to your own gazebo? Get the weights. Get the bungee cords. Kate is a woman who arrived at a market in 30mph winds with standard weights, sandbags and 20kg dumbbells, and she will not apologise for it. “Did my gazebo move? No. Could I sit down and relax? Yes.”
Making things that actually mean something
What sets Kate’s products apart isn’t just the fabrics – it’s the thought that goes into them.
Every piece is designed with safety and practicality in mind, not just aesthetics. Her dog bandanas, for example, are elasticated and sit loosely around the neck, so if a dog gets caught on a twig or bush, they simply slide off rather than tighten. Her baby rattles double as teethers, her dog coats – a full six months in the making – are both rainproof and thermal.
“I don’t just want something that looks cute,” she said. “I want people to feel like it’s been thought about – like there’s a real reason it’ll work for them.”
That thinking extends to where she sources her fabrics, too. Around 90% come from small UK businesses – many local to Essex, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk – with Kate building genuine relationships with suppliers rather than just picking the cheapest option. She even shouts out the Fabric Townhouse in Huntingdon as a brilliant spot for hobbyist sewists, too.
And recently, she’s taken that philosophy further with a new collaboration: teaming up with Ely-based Duck Egg Designs to create a joint Pride ghost collection, with custom-printed fabric designed by Duck Egg’s Kat and made into dog accessories by Kate. Half the range will be on Kate’s stall, half on Kat’s – with both stalls at Ely Market’s first Saturday of June.
That’s the kind of thing that only happens when small businesses support each other. And Kate loves it.
Building online – slowly, sensibly, and without losing the plot
Kate stayed on Etsy for about two years before committing to her own website. The decision wasn’t rushed – it was made when the time, the budget and the confidence were all in the right place.
Her advice for anyone thinking about the same move? Do it in January or February – your quietest period. Give yourself the headspace. Build it properly. And don’t kid yourself that launching a website automatically means sales will follow – SEO and marketing are a full-time job in themselves, and she’d know.
As someone with a marketing background, Kate is refreshingly honest about how much work the online side of things takes. But she’s equally clear: you don’t need to do it all at once. Start with what you can. Build gradually. Know where your customers actually are.
The proudest product, the most famous dog, and a couple of quick-fires
When asked which product she’s most proud of making, Kate didn’t hesitate: her dog raincoats. They took six months to crack. Multiple prototypes. A very specific standard she’d set for herself before she’d let them out into the world. But when she finally released them, the response made every frustrating evening worth it.
“Going from face masks to making raincoats – that’s a big journey,” she said, quietly chuffed. (Green raindrop versions are in progress, by the way. Followers of her socials already know, but they’re coming!)
And of course, we couldn’t finish without talking about Arnie! Kate’s dog. The original muse. The reason dog accessories became a core part of the business. He doesn’t come to the market (he has a complicated relationship with other dogs, we’re told!), but he’s basically famous in Ely anyway.
If you’ve visited Kate’s stall, there’s bunting made from photos of her dog customers. Arnie is on there. So is Pablo the Tanto (the one who barks until he gets a treat at the food stall – allegedly every single time). And Coco from Jake’s Kitchen, whose enthusiasm for spotting Kate across the market is, apparently, something to witness.
One last piece of advice
At the end of the episode, we asked Kate for the best piece of advice she’d been given as a small business owner. Her answer was simple: don’t compare yourself to others.
“It’s so easy to look at another business’s socials or the stall next to you and think they’re having a great day, why aren’t I. You know what – you’ve got your own journey.”
She was quick to admit she’s not immune to it. Nobody is. But the reminder to be your own cheerleader – to recognise that your good day looks different to someone else’s good day -is one that landed really well.
“The moment you step onto that market and say ‘I think my products are worth selling’ – you’ve won. Because you believed in yourself enough to put yourself out there.”
Where can you find Kate?
Kate is at Ely Market on the first Saturday of every month, next to Jake’s Kitchen and across from the fish and chip shop – a perfect combination by anyone’s standards.
You can find her full events calendar, plus the full range of products, at www.homemadecraftsbykate.com or find her on Instagram here.
You can listen to the full episode of the Made in Ely podcast here via Ely Work Collective Podcast.
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