Alli-Kat adds custom embroidery and local flair to fabric
Alli Ruelle-Holwell has added another service to Alli-Kat Floral & Pets in downtown International Falls.
Last December, she sold her snow machine and purchased an embroidery machine. Since then, she has been adding names and logos to all sorts of fabric.
“I never dreamt in a million years that I’d ever be able to do this,” she said.
Ruelle-Holwell grew up with women who loved to sew, including her mother Kat Ruelle, who works with her at Alli-Kat and does the sewing for many of their items.
Never bonding with the sewing machine herself, she found a crafty outlet in embroidery.
“I’m enjoying it,” she said.
The mother-daughter pair have begun making reusable drink holders and pet clothes in addition to taking custom orders. Ruelle sews the fabric, while Ruelle-Holwell adds an embroidered design.
Last week, Ruelle-Holwell demonstrated the embroidery machine while adding a personalized touch to her camouflage jacket. In bright pink thread, she added “The Shack Ruelle’s” to the lower portion of the back of the jacket, playing off her family name and hunting shack. In smaller letters on the front of the jacket she added her name.
An only child, she joked that she never learned to share and was glad the once-generic jacket now could not be mistaken for anyone else’s.
Ruelle-Holwell designs the words and images using a computer program, loads the machine with thread and lets the machine take over from there.
She said business has begun coming in to personalize backpacks, school clothing, jackets, blankets and anything else made of fabric. What differentiates her business from others in town is that she specializes in one-item orders rather than mass producing the same product, she said.
Ruelle-Holwell said pet clothes have been fast sellers. Items in the shop window show some team spirit — orange for Littlefork-Big Falls and purple for Falls. The Vikings and Broncos logos are popular additions, she said.
Ruelle-Holwell and Ruelle work in the Alli-Kat building, where they also sell pets, flowers, edible arrangements and some home items.
For more information, contact Ruelle-Holwell at 283-6779.
