My hobby’s made me £146k – but I only started it as a whim on mat leave… now I’ve quit my proper job
A MUM has told how a series of tragedies led to her creating a product which earned her £146k.
Tracy Fishburn, 38, founder of Tracy’s Treasured Keepsakes, made a small teddy bear from scratch while on maternity leave.
Tracy and her husband, Matt, from Bedford, had always talked about having a family and after their first little girl, Elizabeth, 10, was born, Tracy assumed everything would go to plan when she got pregnant again.
“We were so excited,” she says.
“We got all the family together and announced it after about eight weeks.
”We told Elizabeth she’d be having a little brother or sister.
”Then when we went for the first scan, they couldn’t find a heartbeat and said the baby had died. It shattered everything.”
Tracy suffered three miscarriages in the space of nine months. Then, in October 2017, she found out she was pregnant again.
“When you’ve been through a loss, it takes all the magic out of pregnancy, she said.”
“I was on edge the whole time.”
The scans were all fine and she could feel the baby kicking. Then a week before she was due to give birth, she started bleeding and had an emergency c-section.
“My placenta had ruptured and the cord had wrapped itself twice around the baby’s neck, I thought we were going to lose her again.”
To her joy, she had a little girl, Harriett, now five, who was born fit and healthy.
“She was my ‘rainbow’ baby,” says Tracy.
“And when she was six weeks old, I decided to get a keepsake teddy bear for Elizabeth.”
At first, Tracy tried to find someone to make her one, but after coming across a sewing pattern, she decided to dust down her old sewing machine and have a go at making a bear herself using Elizabeth’s old baby clothes.
“She had so many beautiful baby grows and they were just sitting in the cupboard,” she said.
“I loved the idea of re-using them and I thought it could be a nice project while Harriett was asleep.”
Although she’d learnt to sew at school, Tracy had no proper training.
“I looked up how to do it online and watched a couple of videos,” she said.
“The nose was a bit wonky and took me a few goes, but after a couple of weeks, the bear was finished.
”I showed it to Matt, now 40, and he said: “You should do that as a business. People would love that.’”
Unconvinced, Tracy, 38, posted some pictures on social media and was inundated with requests from friends wanting one too.
She made the first bear in July 2018 and within a month, she started a small busines and was getting three to five orders a week.
It was just nice to be able to provide some comfort to people who were going through a difficult time,” she said.”
Tracy Fishburn
“At first, I was just making them for local mums, then a woman contacted me, who had lost her 21-year old-son and asked if I could make her a keepsake bear and a blanket from his clothes,” she said.
“When I handed it to her, she was in tears and I could feel myself welling up too.”
After experiencing loss herself, Tracy knew how much it meant to her and wanted to help more people.
“It was just nice to be able to provide some comfort to people who were going through a difficult time,” she said.
“Some customers had lost parents, some had lost a child.
”They all liked the fact the bears were handmade and the person they spoke to was the person who would be creating it.”
At first it was a hobby and she went back to her old job part time.
I kind of hope I’m showing them that if they want something in life, just grab it by both hands and go for it.”
Tracy Fishburn
But as the orders kept coming, her spare room was starting to fill up with bears.
“The thought of leaving my steady income to be self-employed was scary, but I knew I could make a go of it,” she says.
By the end of the first year, she’d made £8k.
At the start of 2020, Tracy launched a website allowing people to order directly and in July 2020, she quit her job to focus on the bears full time.
“I now take 12 to 15 orders a week and have a waiting list,” she says.
Since 2018, the business has made approx £146k.
She has upped her income, won two business awards and been able to treat herself to a new car.
Alongside teddy bears, she’s made cushions and blankets from sentimental items, including wedding dresses, school uniforms and old NHS uniforms.
As well as generating a lot of likes on social media, the bears have also enabled her to raise awareness of baby loss – a subject close to her heart – and she has partnered up with a local mental health charity CHUMS who offer a Baby Loss Bereavement service.
“It never crossed my mind to have my own business,” she says.
“I’ve got two beautiful girls and a job that allows me to be here for them.
”I kind of hope I’m showing them that if they want something in life, just grab it by both hands and go for it.”