Nubbins by KiraArts

Kira Sinclair

I haven’t always had a passion for sewing. My mom taught me basic hand-stitching skills when I was a kid, but growing up I was always more interested in drawing, painting, and graphic design. My crafty career in plushmaking all started with a book called “Stupid Sock Creatures” by John Murphy. I saw the book in 2005 while shopping with my mom. I was drawn to it, since I almost exclusively wore colorful toesocks, but hated throwing them away when they wore out. I also loved monsters. I grew up watching the Muppets and Sesame Street, and later Monsters Inc., so the term “monster” conjures up thoughts of happy, funny creatures for me instead of scary ones. I held onto the “Stupid Sock Creatures” book for about a year before I actually made my first sock monster out of a pair of worn out rainbow toesocks. And then I was hooked. I would hand-sew sock monsters during church (something to keep my hands busy while I listened), and would often give the monsters away to the church kids. Soon, the kids’ moms started encouraging me to start selling them, and one friend in particular told me about the online handmade marketplace, Etsy. And I decided to try it. In 2008, my husband bought me a sewing machine for Valentine’s Day, knowing I couldn’t make a decent business out of selling these monsters if I had to hand-stitch them all! I was scared of the sewing machine at first. I was 26 years old and had never really used a sewing machine before! And a sharp, motorized needle moving very fast close to my fingers was slightly terrifying. But I took a class to learn some sewing machine basics and eventually gained confidence. I opened my Etsy shop, KiraArts, in May of 2008. In December of the same year, I did my first craft show. I’d grown up shopping at craft shows with my mom, but now I was on the other side of the table! Again…I was hooked! I love seeing the smiles on peoples’ faces as they look at my monsters. It’s almost impossible not to smile! Over the years, my work evolved and I started experimenting with other articles of clothing besides socks. I made monsters out of T-shirts, jeans, pants, and any fabric I could get my hands on! But I found making the monsters out of sweaters was particularly satisfying. I could get more usable fabric out of one sweater, and I could make the monsters bigger and more huggable. Eventually, I phased out making sock monsters altogether and moved on to exclusively using sweaters. In addition to the Sweater Monsters, I make a line of small, simple, fleece plushies, called Nubbins. The idea behind the original Nubbins was that they are baby monsters who haven't grown any arms yet. Since then, Nubbins have evolved into a KiraArts original design that can be applied to many different kinds of creatures! I look forward to many more years of making fun, whimsical creatures that make people smile!