Medium-sized Binding Babies.Ā You can also order customized Binding Babies or Buddies (the male version), choosing different hairstyles, clothing and skin color.
Photos courtesy of Doohikey Designs
Barney was enamored with the gift. “My heart skipped a beat. I knew she had come up with a brilliant idea,ā she recalls. She encouraged Shari to make more, telling her friend, āYou should take this to Quilt Market and see what you can do with it.ā
Shari and Dan Butler
The Butlers live 20 minutes away from the convention center and they headed home after the showās opening day with their heads full of new ideas for how to further develop Binding Babies into a product. āWe took it home and used a saw to create a slot in the legs because we thought you needed something to gather and hold the binding,ā Butler recalls. Her husband, Dan, who works as a technician for DirectTV, is handy with tools and got to work. āWe wrapped the binding around it, put a clip and pin on it, and brought it back the next day. People were going even more wild over it,ā she says.
Thatās when the Butlers knew they were sitting on a product with potential. āWe started trying to figure out what we were going to do for manufacturing, but that took a while,ā Shari recalls. āWe wanted to keep the momentum going so in October we launched the Binding Babies on my website.ā
Meanwhile the couple filed for a patent on the product and, through a friend of a friend, connected with an agent overseas who had the knowhow to research and vet a factory on their behalf. Shari drew a CAD file indicating how the wooden bodies and heads should be made and painted.
Dan Butler carves the slot in the wooden spools to hold the end of the binding in place.
Over the course of eight months Shari Butler hand painted and sold over 9,000 Binding Babies.
A Binding Baby in action. Wrapped with quilt binding, it sits on your spool pin and unrolls as you attach the binding to your quilt.
Last month Shariās company, Doohikey Designs, had its own booth at Quilt Market for the first time. A few weeks earlier the couple had a booth at a consumer quilt show in Utah, an experience that Shari says was tremendously helpful in refining the layout of their booth for the trade show. āIt was great to do our demo there first because then we were able to move the desk out so people could walk around and feel more comfortable in the booth.ā
Shari asked several sewing machine companies to partner with her for Quilt Market and was grateful when Bernina offered to help. āThey said what they had available was the Cotton + Steel one. I was able to go in on Thursday on setup day and grab the machine and practice before Quilt Market opened.ā Demonstrations are imperative for a product that isnāt immediately self-explanatory, Butler emphasizes. āWe did Sample Spree and you canāt really demo anything. Some people purchased without really knowing how to use it,ā she said. āWhen they actually came to the booth they could see it live in action.”
“Itās an easy way for the binding to not be on the floor anymore, around your neck. Itās keeping it clean and tidy as youāre sewing on your binding,ā Butler says.
Thus far, the couple has financed this enterprise entirely on their own. āIt is a risk, but from excitement we got at Quilt Market I donāt think itās a bad risk,ā Shari says. Theyāre considering launching a crowdfunding campaign in order to expand the business into other specialty sewing notions. Recently they added Binding Baby jars and a ruler holder and they have plans for more. āWeāre really trying to do a lot of this on our own, but it is getting a little overwhelming with all the new products we want to do,ā Shari laughs.
Her friend, Jina Barney, the recipient of the first Binding Baby, says of Shariās journey, āThere have been many disappointments and people who believed in her and people who scoffed at her. I have watched Shari persevere and continue to believe in herself. She has not only launched a new product into the craft and quilting industry, but she has brought life and purpose back to herself. These Binding Babies represent so much more than the cute wood object you see. They are symbolic of everything that can give us a reason to continue living and working hard to make it happen.”
What an honor this is and beautifully written! Thank you for including Jina! This is so surreal and makes me teary eyed!
What a wonderful story, Shari. I fell in love with your Babies the minute I saw them, loved finally meeting you at Market, and so appreciate all your talent and perseverance to see your dream come alive.
Wonderful article. I was lucky enough to meet Shari and Dan at Quilt Market – they are the loveliest people and I hope they have lots of success.
Callie! Thank you for your lovely comment! It means so much!
What a great article! I’ve had fun watching Binding Babies come to life- it’s great to hear the story behind them. Congrats!
Jessica! Thank you for your support and trust me I am about to get you on my blog! Just redoing the website right now to accommodate wholesale orders.
I have had 2 for a longtime I am glad š they are exploding for the company
What a beautiful article about a beautiful person. I too have just met Shari and Dan, but I’m happy to call them friends! I wish Shari all the best in this new chapter in her life! She’s a great fit with Sweet Bee Designs! I have 3 Binding Babies and LOVE THEM! So cute when they aren’t working hard in my sewing room! Ok they are cute when they are working hard too!!
Lovely article. The Binding Babies are so cute.
what can I say , except it’s so well written and will touch everyone’s heart! We all wish them the BEST and be role models for the friends and family they touch. Bless them both.
inspiring!
A beautiful story! Congratulations, Shari and Dan!
I, too, have watched this lovely couple persevere thru many heartaches and pleasures. They have many great ideas and I am so happy for your success. I love my “granny” binding baby. Love to just look at it while sewing. A great product with a beautiful, touching story to bring much more meaning to its production. Keep up your great work, smiling with happiness as you bring joy to others. ā¤ļøā¤ļø
Wow that is awesome I didn’t kniw of the depth of your binding babies when you told me about it the last time I saw you. That’s awesome it’s sounds like you have a real gold idea Shari I hope greatness comes of it
Shari and Dan,
You must be so proud to be part of the quilting world. Thank you for sharing your wonderful story. I hope to be able to buy a Binding Baby someday and will look for one today for my Bernina!! Best of Luck!
Congratulations on creating a new product to the quilt world. Just the other day someone brought it to my attention. I will be getting one soon.
I stopped at a lovely local quilting shop in Chesterfield, Indiana today. I saw your Binding babies on display and immediately bought one! I wish I had bought more! They are a fabulous idea for storing binding in a decorative way to beautify my sewing room. I looked up your company and love your designs! The photo of the Binding babies on the sewing machine spool pin perfectly illustrated a great way to deal with an annoying problem. I hope to see your products in many booths next weekend when I head to a Cleveland Ohio, for the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo! This Binding baby needs some sisters to help me organize my bindings. It will be a fun trip, just for me, as I am a new āempty nester,ā and am jumping head first back into my favorite things – sewing and quilting! So happy to have your Binding baby with me!
Love this article and learning a bit more about how this product came to be! And a special thanks to Shari for gifting me one! Not only is it functional…it’s adorable!
Shari & Dan,
What a terrific story to read in the first month of a new decade. I hope you come up with many more clever ideas for us sewers.
I will be attending QUILTCON 2020 in Austin next month. I will be looking for your product to purchase for friends & to show our local quilt shops-we have 4 in our mid-size city, we’re very lucky and they need this wonderful product.