Today we’d like to introduce you to Alaena Jones
Hi Alaena, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Shortly after graduating college, I wanted to pursue a side hustle/business that I could do alongside working my regular job as a speech therapist assistant. My family comes from a long lineage of seamstresses back three generations, so I believe that that’s why this line of work came naturally to me. My sisters and I have always sewed clothing as a hobby on the side, and a few years back we purchased a sewing/hobbyist embroidery machine. We had never tried the Embroidery side of that machine until 2023. In January 2023, I decided to try out the Embroidery side of the machine with a friend and my sister. At first, we had to watch a YouTube video or two on how to use it and just play around with the machine. Playing around with it was a lot of fun and piqued my interest because it was very difficult. I really wanted to excel at it, and it became my new obsession. I was really fascinated by the digitizing aspect of embroidery and how you can make basically any drawing or custom vision come to life. It really inspired me to create a business that can help other businesses and individuals create clothing/fabrics that they can wear/use to express themselves and also show off their businesses/custom logos and designs exactly how they want them. I think it’s really great to have something like this in the community because it’s difficult to order things online custom and get them exactly how you want them without talking to a real person 1 on 1. It’s really nice for me as a business owner to have face-to-face conversations with my customers where I am able to personalize it exactly the way they want it. I think that’s what makes the Bees Knees Co. so special. We work one on one with businesses and individuals to make sure their orders are exactly what they want. I love serving my community, and bringing their visions to life, one stitch at a time. After I became very good at the small embroidery machine, it was a single needle machine that can only run at 350 stitches per minute and the hoop size was very limiting. It’s only a 3 x 5“ hoop so after I worked with that machine for a few months, I started looking into a bigger machine that was more commercial grade and had more limitless opportunities. I finally decided to go with the Ricoma Machine because it is a 15 needle embroidery machine and can run up to 1000 stitches per minute. I was so excited to order this machine because the possibilities are really endless. Since starting my Embroidery business officially in June 2023, I have really learned so much about myself and really pushed the limits in my capabilities as an embroiderer. I am forever learning more, and teaching my boyfriend Zander the ways of embroidery now too it has really helped me step out of my comfort zone and trust myself. It touches my heart, knowing that I’ve brought people’s vision to life, helped out companies, restaurants, and created beautiful personalized gifts for so many people. I’m so excited to see where this year takes our company because my boyfriend has been helping me with so much with the business, we are now able to do pop-up events, farmers markets, and flea market markets, and I can’t wait to bring our brand to the community and meet even more people and show them everything we have to offer.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Embroidery has not been a smooth road. There are always struggles good days and bad. Sometimes I get discouraged because business can be slow and when you start your own business, it’s all on you. You’re the marketer, the owner, the operator, the social media marketer, the photographer, the accountant, and everything. So it can be really difficult to balance a side business with a 9 to 5 job during the week. But through all the struggles it’s always been worth it running an embroidery machine is also very difficult because you have to account for thread breaks and needle breaks. You have to know how to man the machine so although it is a digital process and I do press buttons and the machine sort of runs on its own, I have to be there to manage and make sure the design is coming out smooth, I have to fix any needle brakes when the thread breaks I have to rethread the machine manually. I have to hoop the garments manually, and after I take it off the machine, I have to trim all of the excess threads, cut the stabilizer off the back, put a piece of fabric that protects the skin so that it’s not a scratchy material, etc. I think another struggle for me, in the beginning, is just gaining confidence with the machine you can’t give up. You have to keep going. When I have large projects, I always run into a hiccup no matter what it’s just the way it goes and you just have to keep pushing forward and make it happen and I think if you have that mindset, you can surprise yourself, especially with a small business. I think as a business owner that’s an important mindset to keep because there are ups and downs but in the end, it’s fulfilling work and it’s fun to create something with your hands and make a customer happy.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The Bee’s Knees is an Embroidery business and we also take heat press orders, which is if you don’t know what that is it’s a vinyl printed sheet that is adhered to fabric with heat. So we take custom orders and we also lately have been doing pop-up events and cater towards the events vibe. For example, we just did a pop-up event for this company called pink7 which is a wellness brand that is sober and specializes in wellness so we made a lot of wellness merch And brought a couple other things out to show people different things that we are capable of. I most proud of all the work we’ve accomplished in such a small amount of time. We only started this business in June 2023 and have grown so much and helped so many people in our community. What sets us apart from others is that we really take our time to connect with our customers and work one on one with them to make sure they customized orders are exactly what they want we work back back-and-forth with them until we get their order right.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Over the next 5 to 10 years, I see our business growing even more. I see us helping out schools with uniforms for sports and after-school events, I see us working with a lot more businesses in the community. I see us doing a lot more pop-up events and farmer’s markets/street fairs to get our brand out there. I see us helping brides with customized gifts for their bridal parties. I see us helping moms with embroidering their kid’s clothes and so much more. Everyone could benefit from Embroidery so I see us just expanding a lot more hopefully getting more machines so we can do even more orders and yeah that’s where I see our company going over the next 5 to 10 years. I hope we can expand into a warehouse or sore front setting so that we can take orders from a more professional space because right now I am currently doing embroidery orders out of my bedroom. It would be nice to be able to expand into something more permanent for my business.
Pricing:
- Our pop up event prices
- shirts- $20, pants- $35, hats- $20 shorts $30 crewnecks $35 bags $10
- for custom orders it is more nuanced because of size, stitch count etc so if they reach out to me with what they want I can give them a estimate
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @thebeesknees.embroidery
- Other: email: alaenabkco@gmail.com
Image Credits
Alaena Jones
