Kristin Marshall Graves shows some of the handbags and purses she’s designed and sewed.

Kristin Marshall Graves shows some of the handbags and purses she’s designed and sewed.

Perhaps the one plus of the COVID-19 pandemic was the ample time it gave some people to pursue new hobbies and passions.

One person was Kristin Marshall Graves who discovered a passion for designing and sewing purses and handbags in May of 2020.

“I started with masks,” the Waunakee woman said, as she recalled watching a YouTube video and learning how to cut out the mask from an old Oxford shirt and hand sew it.

“I said it would go faster with a sewing machine,” she said, adding she then borrowed her mother-in-law’s.

She began watching more YouTube sewing tutorials and discovered videos on handbags.

“I always loved accessories,” she said, noting they don’t need to be tried on.

Using the borrowed machine, Marshall Graves began sewing small zipper pouches before becoming more adventurous and using different materials. She was going to need her own sewing machine.

Two years later, Marshall Graves is designing patterns for all kinds of handbags, wallets and purses with a variety of hardware and selling the patterns to others who sew. After going through three different sewing machines, she bought one that could handle vinyl.

“I was going to different groups on Facebook and seeing all the beautiful bags made on industrial machines,” she said.

Along with selling handbag patterns online and handbags on her Etsy site, Marshall Graves sells her handmade totes and purses at art shows. She’ll be one of the vendors at the Oct. 1 Waunakee Artisan Market. She was also a vendor last year, the market’s first event.

“One of my good friends saw an advertisement for the market and said I should apply,” Marshall Graves said. She was accepted into the juried art show and sale, and this year, is helping with marketing the event.

“It was quite an honor. It was my very first show,” she said.

Some 800 guests showed up at Schumacher Farm County Park for the first Waunakee Artisan Market last year, and Marshall Graves expects more to arrive this year.

Her KMG Handmade will be among the 40 vendors. Among them are 10 students. Marshall Graves pointed out that it is not a craft show. It will feature painters, potters, textile artists like herself, jewelry makers, photographers, woodworkers and other artisans, with 40% of the vendors from marginalized groups. The artists set up on the park grounds for the show which opens at 9 a.m. and runs through 3 p.m. with music, food carts and beverages served by Octopi Brewing.

When Marshall Graves isn’t designing and sewing handbags, she works in IT at Spectrum. She’s lived in Waunakee for 16 years and has two children, ages 10 and 17.

A lifelong Wisconsin resident, Marshall Graves has chosen cheese as the theme for her 2022 designs, with one called Gouda and another Brie. Each takes time to sew and testers use the design themselves to ensure the patterns are ready to market. Her designs have become more advanced, requiring more skills, with some including zippers, small pockets, slots for credit cards and other details. Sewing the bags and having them tested by fellow sewists has become a passion, she said.

“It’s a lot of time and effort to be able to put one of these out there. But to be able to see the finished result is amazing,” she said.

The hobby and side business also introduced her to new people in Waunakee.

“The art community is fantastic and is so diverse,” she said, adding everyone involved in the Artisan Market has a different role in making it happen.

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