Craftiness turns a hobby into a business

By Irene van der Kloet

Who doesn’t dream of turning their hobby into a business? Katilynn and Alyson Makowichuk turned that dream into a reality.

It all started with being raised by a crafty mother who did baking, went to farmer’s markets with her daughters and taught her girls creative artwork. Katilynn made rock magnets and bracelets and sold them, which went well, and things went from there. After school, Katilynn went off to university while Alyson was still in school, but in September 2020, Katilynn moved home because of Covid and bought a Cricut machine.

“My sister and I have always been crafty; we made a little business out of it, it’s been just about two years now, and things have taken off on us. We ended up growing to the thing that we now have a vinyl plotter, and we have an industrial heat press, and we do sublimation and kind of everything, and the nice thing about it is that it’s more of a hobby to me rather than being a job.”

When masks became mandatory, they partnered up with another local home-based business, Naturally Northbank, where Naturally Northbank sewed the masks and Katilynn and Alyson put the logos on them.

“My sister and I get along very well; over the summer, last fall, we decided to start “North of the River,” so that’s my second business.” North of the River specializes in western apparel or small-town special items. 

MadebyK&A specializes in events and will often be present at Smoky Lake Farmer’s Market, at Christmas markets and the Vegreville Pysanka days. They have been swamped, particularly with Katilynn working full time as an agriculture underwriter with ATB and doing her home-based business on the side, with Alyson still in school.

Initially, they ran their business from their parent’s basement, but now Katilynn has a home in the Bellis area, where her whole loft is her business space. Alyson still works from her parent’s basement. They divide tasks and have expanded a lot: “We each have different things that we like, she likes doing the vinyl stuff, I like doing the sublimation, so we work well together.” Alyson didn’t have to do the part-time jobs like Katilynn did because she has this business and enjoys it.

“We like to embrace our Ukrainian culture in a lot of our stuff that we do; we have had much fun like that because you can’t find a doormat that says welcome to “Baba’s Little Perogie, “ so people just love that. It’s crazy, it has just taken off on us, and it’s so fun to do”.

Websites: www.madebyka.ca and www.northoftheriver.ca. MadeByK&A, Naturally Northbank and North of the River can also be found on Instagram and Facebook.