About Kait Makes
Welcome to Kait Makes… or, alternatively: welcome to me, Kaitlyn Willow, monetizing my hobbies, per usual. I needed a creative outlet from my career in corporate America, so I've pretty much always made art on the side since I started my first job out of college. I joke with my friends that I need to tire myself out each day so I can actually sleep at night, and... it's kind of true? My mind is like a hamster wheel always spinning with new anxieties and new ideas.
I began my career out of college working as a marketing designer for USA Today’s events team and eventually led me into reverse logistics tech with Optoro, both giving me decent insight into the retail and events world, both B2B and D2C. In late 2020, I started taking my concepts and designs into physical products for fun, making them by hand with a Cricut and thrifted goods and setting up at local markets and art fairs around Chattanooga. While I loved this hobby and exploration, something was missing.
I was first introduced to chainstitch embroidery in 2018 while in Italy with my college’s art department and stumbled into an embroidery bodega. Similar to this shop, Ricami Veronica in Verona, the store was wall to wall with items to customize and the unfamiliar drumming noise of what I now know to be a Cornely chainstitch embroidery machine. I was dumbfounded. I had never seen a “sewing machine” quite like that, and it really never left my memory.
During COVID, I started to see these machines more often and found embroidery artists showcasing their work on social media. Entranced, I bought my first machine, a Consew 104-1T, without ever actually putting my hands on one in real life. I remember asking a friend of mine if it was a dumb idea to drop a few thousand dollars on a highly specialized machine that basically came with zero instructions. She told me to go for it, and that turned out to be exactly the correct answer. She (Brooke Bragger Photo) also took the above photo, rather serendipitously.
Chainstitch has been the perfect blend of my design and illustration skills, plus an outlet for my physical need to tinker and keep my hands busy. I now own several vintage, industrial chainstitch machines, and we chainstitchers joke that to be one of us you have to be just a little bit crazy and maybe more than slightly obsessive.
After nearly two years of juggling both my 9-to-5 tech job and an embroidery “hobby” that was slowly taking over my brain and my schedule, I took the leap and left my corporate job to do this full time. I remember making a promise to myself before I wrote my notice: “you have six months. If this doesn’t work you have to go back to corporate America.” Yet, within the last 6 months of the year I quit, I brought in more revenue than my yearly tech salary at the time. I haven’t looked back since.
My small embroidery studio has been through many changes through the years: started in a corner of my home office, then moved to a tiny shared studio at ClearStory Arts to a huge studio, then back home into my dream space in the home my partner Laur and I purchased in 2026. Having the opportunity to work from home, have the space to make banners and store all my machines, while making enough to support buying my first home with my partner? Actual dream come true, and not something I ever expected. As a queer small business owner, I try to bring my whole, authentic self into my work, and I want the people I stitch for to feel like they can too. My studio and onsite service are built around that authenticity and taking the time to do the job right. Every stitch is hand-cranked, hand-steered, and designed by my little brain, right here in my home studio in Chattanooga, TN.
Outside the studio, you'll usually find me hanging out with my two cats, Olive and Ash, or my partner Laur, perfecting our home espresso setup and bird-watching from our back patio. If you see me out and about, ask me about my favorite tattoos, or whatever podcast I'm currently obsessed with.