Three images have been placed together in one rectangle. In the left photo, a person wears a red wig and a red, white and a blue outfit. A white wall is behind them. The pants are wide and have red sections that stand out against a white background. The top features several red sections as well as several striped sections that are either black and white or blue and black. In the middle photo, a small child sits cozy in a pram liner with a white sheep design on a gray background. The child is wearing a gray hat and sitting in a black pram. Tan goats can be seen behind the child. In the right photo, two people are standing next to each other in front of a tall display of floral bouquets. The person on the left is wearing a swirled tropical floral print design on a crop top with long sleeves and a skirt. They person on the right is wearing a jade crop top with a maroon ribbon at the top and a blue-and-cerise skirt.
Just a few of the amazing products made by the Fall 2023 cohort of Spoonflower Small Business Grant Winners and Runners Up. Photo credit, left to right: desiree scarborough, Fantail’s Nest NZ, Lizzy Gee LLC

Every day at Spoonflower, we get excited by what our community creates. While we are driven by seeing the brilliant work everyone makes, we’re always proud to announce the winners of our Spoonflower Small Business Grant, which supports handmade business owners from all stages of development. As always, grant winners and runners up are selected by a panel of former grant recipients. Staff picks are nominated by a group of Spoonflower employees.

Grant winners receive up to in $1000 Spoonflower credit as well as a $2500 award to spend on marketing and branding efforts to further support their small business. Keep reading to meet our Fall 2023 cohort and learn about their businesses, how they plan to utilize the grant and where you can find their products!  

Small Business Grant Panel 

Patty Variboa portrait
Patty Variboa
Oaty Bear
Cycle: Fall 2022
Sue-Ching Lascelles portrait
Sue-Ching Lascelles
Sue-Ching Lascelles
Cycle: Spring 2023
Sally Otis portrait
Sally Otis
Small Joy
Cycle: Fall 2021
Armand Castilleja portrait
Armand Castilleja
The Honest Crook
Cycle: Fall 2021

Fall 2023 Small Business Grant Winners

Allie Chamberlain of Reclaim Creative 

Allie Chamberlain portrait

United States • reclaimcreative.space 
Instagram 

Brand snapshot: Reclaim Creative is a repurposed textile studio focused on making beautiful works of art from unwanted materials headed to the landfill. All pieces are sustainably handcrafted in Knoxville, Tennessee, by our very small team! 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? We are working on a sustainable quilt coat collaboration with a surface designer (JULU). The investment costs on this collaboration are massive, and using this grant to print all of the custom fabric will allow us to bring this collection to life! This allows us to try an entirely new product offering and see if it will work for us in the future. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Custom-printed fabric—it allows for custom textile projects that are completely unique and customizable. 

An image of two people at work cutting quilts on a cutting table.
A person stands in front of a white wall wearing a quilt coat featuring white quilt blocks with pastel flowers in the center, each surrounded by a mint green border.

Christine Bejarano of HomeGrown Tots 

Christine Bejarano portrait

United States • homegrowntots.com 
Instagram • Facebook • TikTok 

Brand snapshot: HomeGrown Tots is a children’s brand focused on providing fun clothing and accessories for all your little one’s adventures. Located in the heart of central California. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? With the current rise of belt bags coming back in style, HomeGrown Tots is committed to keeping your little ones up to date with the latest trends as well. Our kiddie belt bags are made to be trendy but also useful for your child’s everyday adventures and treasures they pick up along the way. Everyone loves matching Mommy-and-Me pieces, so we will soon be releasing a line for mom and tot. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Spoonflower’s fabric selection is something I continue to come back to, for the quality and durability. 

A belt bag with brown and dark orange flowers and brown, yellow and black peace signs on a white background lays on top of a dark yellow outfit.
Two pink belt bags lay to the right of the image. The top bag is hot pink with black-and-white stars. The bottom bag is light pink with mouths and lightning bolts. Both bags have black straps and are laying on a cream surface. A tall green plant is to the left.

Desiree Scarborough of desiree scarborough 

Desiree Scarborough portrait

United States • desireescarborough.com
Instagram  

Brand snapshot: “desiree scarborough” is a brand focused on creating wearable art that doesn’t hurt the planet. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I will use this grant to fund my upcoming collection, which will be my biggest collection yet. I want to update and reintroduce key shapes and techniques essential to my brand’s DNA that will establish our place in the fashion industry.  

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? My go-to Spoonflower fabric is Modern Jersey. I love how it takes the color in my prints, as well as its comfort and durability. It’s easy to work with and customers love the way it feels! 

A woman stands against a cream wall wearing a black dress with large blue-and-white fabric pieces hanging from different parts of the dress.
A person wears a red wig and a red, white and a blue outfit. A white wall is behind them. The pants are wide and have red sections that stand out against a white background. The top features several red sections as well as several striped sections that are either black and white or blue and black.

Tatiana Anisimova of TA ART SHOP  

Tatiana Anisimova portrait

Canada • Instagram
Spoonflower shop 

Brand snapshot: The TA ART SHOP offers handmade versatile roll-up brush/pencil cases for any artists’ needs. We care about your creativity and want to help you keep supplies organized and ready to go, no matter whether you work in the studio or outdoors. Use it for paint brushes, make-up brushes, pens, pencils, markers, crochet or knitting needles and be inspired by designs based on original watercolour paintings. All brush cases are handmade by Tatiana Anisimova and based on her original artworks.  

How will you use this grant to support your small business? The TA ART SHOP launched as a small hobby project created by the needs of an artist. When I made my very first brush cases, I was asked if I sell them, so it gave me an idea to incorporate my original artworks into fabrics and sew them into brush cases for artists, hobbyists or anyone who’d like to organize their supplies and loves art. It’s like an artwork in your hands that inspires, motivates and encourages you to create. This grant will help me to expand my collection of brush/pencil cases. It will also allow me to sew more cases with various watercolour designs, patterns and sizes so anyone can find a unique piece that will suit their needs and preferences. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? I just adore the ultra cuddly Minky and its soft finish! It brings a unique and delicate touch to my brush cases as it’s sturdy enough to keep shape and perfect for the outer layer of brush/pencil cases. As adults, we don’t buy plush toys for ourselves. Brush cases made of Minky bring back the brightest memories of childhood and allow us to enjoy the moment. 

A hand reaches out to touch a lavender paint brush case with white flowers laying on a white surface.
A paintbrush case that rolls up lays on a white surface. It features two designs: one with large lemons on a brown surface and another with smaller lemons growing on trees next to green leaves.

Alicia Morris of Chispa Park 

Alicia Morris portrait

United States • chispapark.com
Instagram • Facebook 

Brand snapshot: Chispa Park creates educational content to empower families to establish sustainable home routines that cultivate wellness and longevity. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? Chispa Park is currently producing a series of basic wellness books for toddlers. I have enjoyed promoting the series by offering two of the titles as cloth books. I’m excited to use this grant to print these titles in Spanish. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? The Organic Cotton Knit for my cloth books! 

Alicia Morris at work making Chispa Park products on a sewing machine, fabric books in progress as well as a pair of scissors lay on the table as well.
A fabric book lays on a pink-and-navy tablecloth. On the cover is the book is a young child wearing an orange hat. Oranges growing from a tree above the child extend next to the left and right of the child’s head. A blue bird sits on both the left and right orange tree branches. The title of the book, The Five Senses, is written at the bottom of the book cover in light orange and sits in a blue box.

Sheena Bean of Naisish Handmade

Sheena Bean portrait

United States • naisishhandmade.com
Instagram 

Brand snapshot: Naisish is a 10+ year-old-swimwear brand that creates custom swimwear for children. Each swimsuit is handmade by Sheena Bean, a seamstress obsessed with quality, functionality and all things tropical.  

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I have long wanted to expand my swim trunks line, Papaya Boardies, into a wholesale brand that I can offer to small boutiques. This grant will allow me to make samples and start production in hopes of seeing Papaya’s in shops coast to coast!  

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Sport Lycra®. No other swim fabric substrate comes close to the quality of Spoonflower’s Sport Lycra. It holds up beautifully no matter how much sand, sun, salt or chlorine you throw at it! 

A two-piece bathing suit is laid out on a white surface. The bathing suit features several different bright floral designs as well as a print with surfers against a white background.
Seven pairs of small board shorts are displayed on a wooden table next to a sewing machine. They feature bright floral prints.

Sophia Zhou of Taneko Says Hello 

Sophia Zhou portrait

United States • tanekosayshello.com
Instagram • Spoonflower shop  

Brand snapshot: Taneko Says Hello specializes in handmade plush toys, soft sculptures and art featuring a combination of food, animals and wordplay. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? This grant will help me expand my new tote bag collection. My brand is a very tactile business and its primary focus is handmade plush toys of characters I invent and sew. Its secondary focus is creating art featuring these characters. Making a tote bag collection featuring character patterns has helped bridge the tactile nature of my plush friend products and my two-dimensional art items. I’m excited to grow this new product category! 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? I print my designs on Spoonflower’s Recycled Canvas and use this fabric to sew my tote bag product line. I love its durability, how vibrant the color printing is. Both my customers and I love that this fabric uses recycled plastic! 

Sophia sews black-and-white penguin plushies with a sewing machine.
A close up of a pink tote with cats shaped like bread loaves. Some cats are gray and black, some are white and orange, some are yellow and some are tan and brown. The tote bag is over a person’s shoulder, only their torso and arm is shown.

Mariah Thomas of Aesle 

Mariah Thomas portrait

United States • aesle.com
Instagram • Spoonflower shop

Brand snapshot: Aesle designs botanical, geometric and abstract prints for handmade travel bags, pouches and accessories. Aesle creates art, patterns and gift items for creatives, explorers, entrepreneurs and anyone else who seeks delightful patterns, fresh ideas and beauty in their lives, every day.  

How will you use this grant to support your small business? We are so excited about how much more creative and responsive we can be in the next year with the help of this grant! Not only will we be able to provide a larger selection of prints and colors to our customers for our handmade goods, but we will also have the freedom to explore what our patterns look like on home decor products and provide more patterns in our shop for other makers to use. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Our go-to is Recycled Canvas. We love how smooth (and durable) it is and how vibrant our patterns look when printed on it. Plus, it’s made with recycled bottles! 

Against a blue wall, a finished Aesle accessory bag with a teal background and turquoise leaves and white dots lays in front an unfinished turquoise bag. A rotary cutter, ruler and black-and-white cutting mat lay in front of the bags.
A yellow scrunchie, black zippered accessories bag with a white swirled design, and two smaller zippered accessory bags, one lilac with white flowers and one yellow, lay spread out next to each other on a white surface against a white background.

Elizabeth Gee of Lizzy Gee LLC 

Elizabeth Gee portrait

United States • lizzygee.com
Instagram • TikTok 

Brand snapshot: Lizzy Gee is an independent fashion brand that creates chic, sustainable designs for all genders and sizes! Each vibrant, whimsical piece is made with love in Brooklyn, New York, using bold, eco-friendly textiles, zero-waste production and convertible innovations so that the design may be styled to suit the wearer. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I will be using the financial support from this grant to produce my most popular designs in every size for my customers. My garments have been made to order but now every customer no matter their size can try on my corset tops and dresses. All my designs have my original print designs, so I will be printing fabric for small production runs. This way my brand can be truly inclusive. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? I’m especially excited to use Spoonflower’s Recycled Canvas fabric to print original designs to create my brand’s convertible corset tops and other more structured garments. 

A person is wearing a swirled tropical floral print design on a crop top and a skirt. They are standing in front of a tall display of floral bouquets.
Two people are standing next to each other in front of a tall display of floral bouquets. The person on the left is wearing a swirled tropical floral print design on a crop top with long sleeves and a skirt. They person on the right is wearing a jade crop top with a maroon ribbon at the top and a blue-and-cerise skirt.

Runners Up 

Rosie Powell of Fantail’s Nest NZ 

Rosie Powell portrait

New Zealand • fantailsnest.com
Facebook • Spoonflower shop 

Brand snapshot: Fantail’s Nest NZ is the home of the 2-in-1 Universal Pram Nest, a universal fitting pram sleeping bag/liner carefully crafted from New Zealand wool and cotton. It’s designed to last from newborn to 5-years old and beyond! Items are handmade by Rosie Powell, a Kiwi rural mum who focuses on quality and just wants kids to be safe and warm on their adventures. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? We want to steadily increase the number of nests we make with a larger range of prints. We are hoping to get to the US and UK market with this beautiful product. This incredible grant will help kickstart this to no end. Currently, I’ve been waiting for Spoonflower sales and it’s been sporadic in ordering. I’d love for this to be more consistent. 🥰 I’d also love to delve into creating more fabric designs that other Spoonflower creative community members can enjoy and love too! 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Linen Cotton Canvas. It’s the best quality, and thick and robust enough for my pram nest print panels. It’s also the perfect weight for the handbags and schoolbags that I make also. 

An image of a pram liner in progress. The inside lining is black, while the outside has a green fern design on a light gray background. A pair of scissors is laying on top of the liner.
A small child sits cozy in a pram liner with a white sheep design on a gray background. The child is wearing a gray hat and sitting in a black pram. Tan goats can be seen behind the child.

Christine Guanipa of Little Man 

Christine Guanipa portrait

United States • littlemanoriginals.com
Etsy • Instagram • Facebook

Brand snapshot: Little Man is a women-owned business based in Massachusetts. We create a collection of self-care products and accessories that are vintage inspired, modern driven and made to enhance our everyday living. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? Our collection of self-care products are currently made from several of our custom designs printed through Spoonflower. Our small inventory of happy prints has our customers wanting more. We’re so excited to have the availability to create more prints to expand our inventory and reach a larger audience. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? We currently use Petal Signature Cotton® by the yard as we wish to incorporate natural fibers into our self-care line. It is also important to us (and our customers) that our selections not only have charming prints but are printed in the USA.  

Some of the materials used in creating Little Man products, including pins, scissors, a zipper, and stacks of fabric on a white cutting mat with a blue grid.
Eye masks in Day of the Dead and Frida Kahlo prints lay on a white background.

Lera Hephner of Ojiberish Designs 

Lera Hephner portrait

United States • Facebook
Spoonflower shop • Linktree

Brand snapshot: Ojiberish Designs is an Indigenous-woman-owned business that specializes in traditional Ojibwe Floral artwork along with powwow regalia and beadwork. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? There is little to no Indigenous representation in the national and international market when it comes to fabrics and designs. The grant will allow my business and artwork to reach a larger audience and share the beauty of Ojibwe Floral with the world. It will also allow me to provide unique designs and patterns that can be used to create powwow regalia. Along with my patterns of powwow regalia outfits that can be easily cut out and sewn together, this work will make these items more accessible and affordable to Indigenous people. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Petal Signature Cotton® is my go-to Spoonflower product because it is easy to work with for any skill level, and cotton is often used in powwow regalia making.  

Fabric with a purple background with a bright floral print in pink, blue, yellow, orange, green and more. Four stripes are at the bottom of the fabric, a light tan, a light brown, a dark brown and black.
A skirt with a top section featuring pink flowers on a blue background and a brown trellis design; a middle section with horizontal stripes that are cream, peach, red, light blue and blue; and a bottom section with a blue background and pink-and-red flowers lays on a gray-and-white cutting mat.

Alana Allison of Needle and Dagger 

Alana Allison portrait

United States • Etsy
Instagram

Brand snapshot: Needle and Dagger offers book sleeves that not only keep your books secured and protected, but they also provide utility without sacrificing the details of a cute design.  

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I only just started this business and I already have so many plans for where I want to take it, though I knew realistically it would be a slow process as my business grows. Having this amazing support from the Spoonflower grant will launch my business exponentially into the future. I feel very lucky to be given the opportunity to get this business running. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? I have only been able to window shop fabrics up until now. 

A process photo of Needle and Dagger’s work. A sewing machine is to the right and book sleeves in progress are to the left. There are three book sleeves, two have a light blue background with black owls, cats, ravens, pumpkins, spiders and large spiderweb and one has a gray background with a light white cross hatch.
A book sleeve sits on a round wooden surface. The book sleeve has an orange top section and a forest green bottom section with small orange-and-white mushrooms. There is a cream button closure at the top.

Elizabeth Spiers of Honey and Hudson  

Elizabeth Spiers portrait

United Kingdom • Etsy 
Instagram  

Brand snapshot: Fun, cute and modern pet accessories for your pup and cat. All handmade in the United Kingdom.  

How will you use this grant to support your small business? I will be able to expand my range of fabrics I have to offer. I am especially excited to offer a brand new Christmas range for my customers. This will help my business by offering new and exciting prints!  

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? Lightweight Cotton Twill. This is my go-to fabric because the quality is perfect for my collars and leads. It is durable and sturdy, yet also soft and easy to wash! The colours always show up so vibrant and clear. It truly is a beautiful fabric. 

A muted burgundy leash with small white polka dots lays curled up on a white surface with the leash clip at the bottom right of the photo.
Photo of a dog harness made from a sage green fabric with white dots.

Meleah Hickman of Cascadia Threadworks 

Meleah Hickman portrait

United States • cascadiathreadworks.etsy.com
Instagram

Brand snapshot: Cascadia Threadworks fearlessly embraces color and pattern to make handmade bags that are joyful, functional and inspired by the beauty of the natural world. These bags are handcrafted one at a time with sustainable and recycled materials, with 1% of sales donated to Washington Trails Association to support their efforts in protecting and maintaining Washington’s hiking trails. 

How will you use this grant to support your small business? This grant will be used to expand Cascadia Threadworks’ product lines to include bicycle panniers, laptop messenger bags and larger backpacks. It will also support Cascadia Threadworks’ commitment to making bags with sustainable materials. 

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product and why? From its inception, Cascadia Threadworks has featured Spoonflower’s Recycled Canvas, with modern designs from various artists featuring mountains, trees, fungi and other flora and fauna. The unique designs and the sustainability of using digital printing and recycled fabric that Spoonflower provides aligns with Cascadia Threadworks’ mission as an eco-conscious and nature-loving business. 

Materials for making Cascadia Threadworks products lay on a gray cutting mat with a white grid. Grommets, dark blue fabric with a white mushroom print, thin strips of leather, a rotary cutter, a grommet machine are among the items.
A purple bike with a brown seat sits in front of a bright green hedge. A pannier with a green fern design on a black background is attached to the back wheel of the bike on the lefthand side.

Spoonflower Staff Picks – Honorable Mention Awards 

Geraldine Wilkins portrait

Geraldine Wilkins of Living Water Quilter

United States • beautifulsisterquilt.com/home
courses.livingwaterquilter.com/home • Spoonflower shop

Brand snapshot: Through my brand, Living Water Quilter, I empower women with inspirational stories and practical workshops through a live streaming show (Quilt Conversations LIVE!) and at local and national events. With this work, I share my experience and expertise, enabling quilters to become more confident and develop professional, creative machine quilting skills. 

Geraldine Wilkins is at her sewing machine making a quilt with her Beautiful Sister fabric, which features the face of a Black woman in black, with a bright yellow background.
Geraldine Wilkins’ Beautiful Sister quilt, which features blocks of the face of a Black woman in black, with a bright backgrounds in different colors, blue, red, orange and yellow. In between the portraits are small strips of fabric, some horizontal, some vertical. The overall background of the quilt is black.

Jennie Middleton portrait

Jennie Harlow of J Harlow

United States • Etsy

Brand snapshot: J Harlow is a plus-size woman owned and -designed clothing company specializing in actual plus-size retro styles. 

A model wears a black-and-white skirt and a black shirt. The model is standing in front of a screen with a blue eerie background with trees on either side. The model is holding out the sides of the skirt as if to twirl.
A model wears a dusty pink dress with a repeating floral bouquet that is black and white. The model is standing in front of a screen with a night sky depicted on it, with white stars and a navy blue and black background. The model is holding out the sides of the dress as if to twirl.

Itzela Quirós portrait

Itzela Quirós of The Bella Vista Collection

Panama • Instagram
Spoonflower shop   

Brand snapshot: Inspired by Panama’s “hydraulic tile” floors, The Bella Vista prints bring together history and fashion. Hand crafted in Panama, these designs represent the best expression of these unique floor patterns that were booming in the first half of the 20th century. 

A close up of a yellow-and-white scarf around a person’s neck. They are wearing a white tank top and a pink building is behind them, which has green palm trees growing in front of it. On the scarf, the background is white, and there are alternating rows of yellow motifs. One row features small yellow diamond shapes and the other features yellow floral shapes with brown lines within it, as if marking out the petal shapes.
A close up look at a scarf tied around a ponytail. The scarf has a white background and a blue-and-green abstract flowers throughout. The person is standing in front of a yellow building with white architectural details. A stone path leading to the building’s door is to the left.

Fresco portrait

Fresco of Madcap Menagerie 

United States • madcapmenagerie.carrd.co 

Brand snapshot: Madcap Menagerie is a plush doll shop that specializes in handmade pet keepsakes and other custom work. The current focus is on rats, with plans to expand to other creatures. 

A gray plush rat stands on top of a small round mirror. The rat’s ears, nose and paws are pink; whiskers are white; and eyes are black. The background and surface the mirror is laying on is bright orange.
A brown-and-white plush rat peeks out from a tissue box with a green floral design. The rat’s ears, nose and tails are pink; whiskers are white; and eyes are black. The background and surface the box is laying on is bright orange.