Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Madsen.
Lindsey, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in a house full of DIYers, creators, and makers. My Mom was always working on something, baking something, or behind her sewing machine. My dad could be found in his workshop, remodeling something in our house, or building amazing furniture. If he was fixing something… then my siblings and I were right there with him. I didn’t realize till I was in middle school that most kids didn’t lay tile, hang drywall or help put on a new roof with their dads. So it’s no surprise that I grew up with a deep love of creating, crafting, fixing, and making things with my own two hands.
Looking back, I realize that there were a lot of – slim years – during my childhood but we were always taken care of and the skills I learned by being raised by frugal, thrifty, DIYer parents are precious to me and I will always be grateful to them. My high school schedule was always filled with art classes as well as pottery and silversmithing. I worked for an outdoor nursery for a while and loved it but when I was a Junior I got a job working for a florist. I was hooked!
Creating visual art with living things was unlike anything I had ever done. Fast forward 5 years, I was a newlywed working a desk job that paid well but made me feel dead inside ha! So I applied at a high-end floral shop and was hired as a cashier. 5 months later, I started their designer training program and loved every minute of it. We moved to St. George when my children were tiny. My brother-in-law was getting married and asked if I would be willing to do his flowers. During the reception I had several people inquire about doing flowers for their upcoming events and that is how Orchids & Company was born. I only took on weddings and events which meant I could work from home. 3 years and almost 300 events later I was busier than I wanted to be. Working nights and every weekend meant I was missing out on a lot of things with my family. I knew that was time I wouldn’t get back so I decided to sell my business and spend more time at home.
Financially, we were doing ok – not great, but being thrifty and frugal was built into my DNA so I knew there were things I could do to tighten our belts so to speak. At that time, we needed to be a two-income household, but I wanted to find a way to be at home with my kids, and still make money. So I went back to my roots. Shopping thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales – hunting for the best vintage decor and clothing then fixing it up, making any needed repairs, and then selling it online or at Vintage Markets. When I added flipping furniture into the mix, it quickly became one of my favorite things to do. We didn’t have any extra money to buy new or high-end furniture, but the secondhand items were boring or in need of some major updating.
During that time I felt a spark, deep in my soul, and knew I wanted to combine my love of old furniture, sewing, and woodworking and learn everything I could about traditional upholstery techniques. I scoured thrift shops and libraries for books about upholstery. Watched an embarrassing amount of online tutorials and started asking for upholstery books and tools for my Birthday and Christmas. Once I started taking apart furniture and putting it back together again I knew I had found something that itched every creative scratch in my body.
To be completely honest, it wasn’t an easy thing to learn on my own. Most upholsterers have apprenticed under a master for years. I couldn’t find a lot of information or instructions that were geared to a self-taught DIYer or beginner, but I have always been a hands-on learner so I just kept taking pieces apart and putting them back together again. After a while, I had several friends and family that hired me to reupholster their pieces, which taught me even more about the craft of upholstery. My favorite pieces of furniture to work on were pieces that had sentimental value to the owner. Pieces that had been in the family for years or pieces they bought in college that had years of wear and tear but were too special to throw out.
After 3 or 4 years, and dozens of projects, I started getting requests on social media for more information about what I was doing and how I was doing it. People loved seeing the before and after pictures but were interested in learning how to reupholster their own furniture. At first, I was really nervous to share any kind of upholstery tutorial, because who was I to be teaching anyone anything? I got braver and the response to the little bits I was sharing was surprising.
People loved that I was teaching how to do it from the perspective of a self-taught beginner and DIYer and not as an apprentice or master or professional. They would send messages telling me how refreshing and helpful it was that I broke things way down and explained things in a way that was geared to those weekend makers and beginners that were just starting out but wanted to learn more.
During 2020 was when I really shifted everything I was doing toward teaching others. I was still taking on a lot of client work but started to change how I was filming and documenting it. In 2021, I decided to go big or go home, and purchased a ticket, flight, and hotel to attend Haven Conference in Atlanta. It is a huge conference created by makers for makers. 3 days of classes, insights, networking sessions, and opportunities to talk with representatives from companies that love working with creators.
It was mind-blowing, and I came away with so much to think about. My biggest takeaway though was the conversations I had with all of these incredible women, many of who I have been following for years on social media. As we talked about our different businesses at least of dozen of them commented that they would love to know more about upholstery and sewing. Many had sewing machines but were afraid of them or thought that they had to know how to use them in order to do upholstery. By the time I got home, I knew that the thing I was passionate about and loved doing definitely had an audience that was hungry to learn more.
In 2022, I went back to Haven Conference, but this time I was going as a speaker and teacher for one of their hands-on classes. I was terrified, to say the least. Six months before the conference, I started creating a PowerPoint with notes and helpful diagrams, and terminology and laid out a couple of worksheets for the class. That quickly spiraled out of control and 20 pages turned into 30, and 30 into 40 and by the time I was ready to leave, I had written a 60-page workbook filled with page after page of solid information written with a beginner in mind.
I printed physical workbooks and gave them to the people that attended my class and their response was overwhelming. My hour-and-a-half class went over by 30 minutes and they wanted to stay even longer, my heart was so happy. Seeing people grasp something that they had been struggling with for years was all the proof I needed that I should keep pushing in this direction.
I’ve spent the last 8 years expanding my knowledge of upholstery & sewing and have fallen deeply in love with teaching basic sewing, crafting, and upholstery skills to others that have that same spark.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Being self-taught has created a lot of challenges. Dealing with feedback from professionals saying that you can only call yourself an upholsterer if you have been through an apprenticeship. Finding ways to finance my business and grow it before it starts making any money has been difficult.
Working with companies and brands as a content creator is a great way to make money while teaching, but you have to have a lot of followers in your online community as well as a constant stream of projects being shared in order for those companies to even give you a second look. What I do doesn’t really fit into any one niche market, so growth has been really really slow.
I knew it would take time, and I’m grateful for all of the opportunities that have come my way over the last few years. I’ve been very lucky to find friends and others in the content creator industry that have helped shortcut a lot of the trial and error involved with growing an online business and community.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work changes drastically from month to month. Some months, I’m doing a lot of upholstery or sewing or alterations. Some months, I’m flipping furniture or renovating a house. Some months, I’m neck-deep in craft projects and content for creativity-based companies. In the fall, I spend a lot of time creating clothing and costumes for Renaissance fairs, festivals, parties, and of course for myself and my family to wear to Comic-con. We have been doing that for almost 10 years and It’s something I look forward to every year.
My mind is constantly running, I have no chill and rarely sit still. There isn’t a craft or medium that I won’t try at least once. I am always looking for ways to learn more, get better at it, and be more efficient all while being extremely cheap (or frugal if you are fancy). I hate seeing good things go to waste and have the gift of seeing past the surface of its current state and can envision the possibilities of what it could become.
I’ve learned that there are thousands of people just like me. Hungry for creative outlets but are also on tight budgets. Like me, they want to have things and live in spaces that reflect their personalities but can’t always afford to go buy them. I’ve learned that I have a very unique approach to HOW I learn and that once that’s translated into HOW I teach it is done in a way that someone without knowledge or training can begin learning and understanding right out of the gate.
I am proud of the community I’ve built. Many of my online friends have become real-life friends and I’ve been able to connect with people that I would have no way or opportunity to without social media. There is nothing that is more precious to me than opening my inbox and seeing a picture of the project along with a message saying “Look what I was able to do all by myself thanks to you” from someone I’ve taught or helped. Even if I never make another dollar I would continue doing what I’m doing if it means helping people feel that sense of accomplishment.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I’m going to go with bad luck on this one. Financial ups and downs have always been a big part of my life. At times, it has felt like I was being punished or just couldn’t catch a break, but looking at what I’ve learned, the skills I’ve gained, and the experience that those hard times kinda forced upon me has given me so much more than just a steady paycheck.
I can look at things the same way that a huge percentage of the population does and look for ways to make, create, repair, or even reimagine things through the same filter as so many others. It’s that knowledge, commonality, and experience that drives me and is the connecting thread that I’m trying to build my business around.
Contact Info:
- Website: Madamofmaking.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madamofmaking/
- Youtube: YouTube.com/channel/@madamofmaking
- Other: amazon.com/shop/madamofmaking
Image Credits
Else Kerkmann and Nicole Burt
