Quilting Tee
Grandma never sewed like this.
It was time to toss out the piles of T-shirts spilling from bags
in her attic, but 26-year-old Kayli Pearsall balked. "I
wasn't wearing all of them, but I couldn't get myself to
throw them out,'' she says. That's when Pearsall came
up with an idea, with help from her mother, Peggy Whitley, 57, and
her sister, Kendra Chandler, 29, to transform old shirts into
quilts. The trio launched Orange, California-based Shirtquilts.com
in 1996. The part-time business made about $15,000 in 2000, and
Pearsall plans to take it full time.
The cost: $2,000 for basic
equipment, office supplies and the Web site.
The market: Fraternities,
sororities and other community organizations-Pearsall also recently
began attracting customers looking to create unique family
heirlooms.
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Why you could've thought of it
yourself: "I don't know how to sew,''
Pearsall says. "I'm just creative and know how to
delegate.''