The Speech Source

S3E7: Sewing a Life You Love with Sarah Calk

• Mary and Kim

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In this episode of the Speech Source Podcast, hosts Kim and Mary sit down with Sarah Calk, the creative mind behind Sadl's Designs. Sarah shares how her need to a creative outlet sparked a business that has grown alongside her journey as a mom, wife, and full-time professional. From learning to sew with her mom to creating custom pillows for designers and homes in Fort Worth, Sarah’s story beautifully illustrates the balance between creativity and life’s changing seasons.

Sarah began sewing as a creative outlet during the newborn phase with her first son. Wanting to break the monotony of caring for a baby, she called her mom for a sewing lesson, sparking a passion that quickly grew into a business. With no sewing machine or storefront of her own, Sarah started small, using her mom’s machine and selling her first creations at a local market. She emphasizes the importance of beginning where you are and reinvesting profits to grow steadily.

Throughout the episode, Sarah discusses the power of collaboration and community. Partnering with interior designers, artists, and monogrammers has allowed her to expand her business while learning from others. She explains how working with people who share her creative vision makes the process more rewarding. Sarah also touches on setting boundaries, explaining that managing a side hustle while raising a family requires intentional choices. Success, for her, isn’t about doing everything but focusing on what truly matters and staying aligned with personal values.

Sarah’s business journey is a reminder that success isn’t always measured by growth or profit. For her, joy comes from contributing creatively to her family’s life, whether by paying for a vacation or adding beauty to someone’s home. She encourages entrepreneurs to focus on what they can do instead of being overwhelmed by limitations. Staying in her own lane and avoiding unnecessary comparisons has helped her maintain balance and fulfillment.

Sarah reflects on how she loves having her creative outlet as a side hustle rather than a full-time commitment. She explains that not every business needs to grow endlessly and that scaling back has allowed her to rediscover joy in her work. 

Make sure to follow Sarah Calk and Sadl's Designs on Instagram to see her beautiful, custom-made pillows!

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sarah:

I wish I would have told myself is that, instead of focusing energy on what you can't do whether that's because of money, what you can't afford, or time, what you don't have time to do like instead of focusing energy on what you can't do, focus on what you can do, because I think sometimes people think that if they don't have enough to do everything, they just don't do anything and they never get started just don't do anything and they never get started.

kim:

Welcome to season three of the Speech Source podcast with your hosts Kim and Mary. This season, our title is Changing the Game.

Mary:

We are highlighting small business owners and entrepreneurs who have unwritten all the rules to starting a business and use their talents and their creativity to be able to build a business that is a lifestyle designed just for them and is making incredible impact in our community of Fort Worth, Texas.

kim:

So don't forget to subscribe to this season so you don't miss an episode. Today on the podcast we have Sarah Koch. Sarah is a mom, she's a wife, she is a very talented pillow maker. She makes beautiful pillows and she has a company called Saddle Designs. And we wanted to have her on the podcast today because she has started this business out of her love for sewing and as a creative outlet when she became a new mom. And she is also balancing being a mom of three boys at the same time as being a wife and as at the same time as working another job. So we just have so much that we want to talk to Sarah about today and we know that we can learn from her. So welcome Sarah. Thanks for joining us today, thank you.

sarah:

I'm so glad to be here Hi everyone.

kim:

So if you'll just tell us a little bit about how you got started with sewing in the first place I think your mom did have something to do with- this.

sarah:

So tell us a little bit about that with this, so tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so I've got three boys and when my oldest was born in 2014, I just really wanted a creative outlet when I was home. I have this friend that referenced the newborn phase, as it's like this pet rock. So when they're a newborn, you got to water the rock, you got to feed the rock, but you just move the rock wherever you are and it just stays there. So when we're in that phase and the baby's napping a lot, I'm that like structured type A person. So I just felt like I had this time and I wanted to do something creative and get that break from some of the just repetitive stuff that is raising a newborn, some of the just repetitive stuff that is raising a newborn.

sarah:

And so I just called my mom one day. She has always loved to sew. She made us clothes when we were little, loves to quilt and her mom sewed. I said, would you give me a sewing lesson? And so I came over there with baby Noah in the car seat, put him beside us on the floor and her sewing room is in her basement and she gave me my first sewing lesson and for my first sewing lesson we made a little envelope pillow case and I was addicted immediately. It was so fun, and so the way my business got started.

sarah:

I didn't have a sewing machine, I didn't have a brick and mortar. I would go to my mom's house, I would use her machine. My first investment was spending $50 on some little thin cotton quilting fabric at a local fabric shop over off of Vickery, and I made these little envelope pillow covers and decided to set up a booth at the very first shop, small Fort Worth market. My husband helped me bring this day bed there and I just filled it with pillows that I had sewn within the last month maybe, and I sold a ton and so things got going from there.

kim:

It was amazing, I know, just listening to you tell that story and know it was a baby and like where you were right then, when you were able to complete that first pillow. It was probably the sense of I just did something, because when you're raising a newborn there really isn't a lot of that kind of completion feeling because you're doing it again and again and again, over and over. So I'm sure there was a lot of that sense of okay, I did this, I just completed this task, in a sense.

sarah:

Yeah, it was very gratifying. Yeah, definitely.

Mary:

I cannot believe that you did all of this on your own. You had your mom with you to be able to learn how to sew and then use her machine. Learn how to sew and then use her machine. But how did you source the fabrics and how did you decide how to finish them and what might sell? Or did you have something that was inspiring you at the time?

sarah:

My mom of course helped me a lot in the beginning in terms of just learning about sewing. But I watched a Google video on how to put on an invisible zipper, so that was taught to me on watching Google videos. I dove into the video world on Google with sewing of how to make cording, where you take piping or cording and you actually wrap fabric around it and sew it, and then there's ruffles and there's wilts and just all different kinds of edging to learn. And so I just went down this whole YouTube route when Noah would be napping and I'd watch and then I'd practice on my mom's machine and learn.

sarah:

And for the longest time I was just sewing with fabrics from Joann's. It's still an excellent place to get like some solid linens that I often use for like the backside of pillows. And then I just began researching further and exploring where to source fabric and it's just, it's everywhere you can Google it and just never ending places. And then there's the design district in Dallas and you can walk in these little hole in the wall, warehouses and there's just rows and rows of these big bolts of fabric. And it was just so fun. I think it would be like a kid being in a candy shop, big bolts of fabric, and it was just so fun.

Mary:

I think it would be like a kid being in a candy shop. Do you have a design background, or did you just walk in and be able to go into those markets?

sarah:

Or were they to the trade. Only. I don't have a design background, but I think I've always had an eye for it. I enjoy putting things together, so to speak, like in my own home, and decorating and that sort of thing.

kim:

And this is what you did for me, sarah, because I have several of your pillows, but you will have someone show you their space where they're wanting pillows. And I remember you gave me all these different fabric choices to choose from, because you are able to see what goes in a space. And I think that's another element to your business is that you can help customers figure out what they want, because I didn't know what I wanted and when I had choices then I knew from that what I liked, but then I felt confident that it was going to look good in that space, because I just didn't go pick something out, not knowing if it went there or not. So I think that's one more element that you have that shows your design and your artful eye.

sarah:

Yeah, the custom work is interesting because my husband and I we're a family of five and we're in a 1300 square foot home and we make it work and it's more than what a lot of people have and we're very grateful for it. But it's tight and our budget is tight in terms of decorating and making this little small dwelling something that we love, and you can't always replace your rug and your furniture and those aren't things that people switch out seasonally, and so to me, pillows became this like they're fun to switch out seasonally and they're much more budget friendly to create pillows and spruce up a space that way, because they do in place of replacing furniture or rug, and you can take someone's existing space. They could send me photographs of their drapes or their rug or art on the wall even, and then I'll take those photographs and I'll create a design board with those things and some swatch options and we just go from there, and so it's a fun way to really customize and personalize pillows for people without having to redo a whole space.

Mary:

How did you get from the shop small market to what you do today, which is a lot of that custom work in homes? What happened after the market and getting your name out there for the first time?

sarah:

I followed a bunch of interior designers on social media, predominantly Instagram, and I started messaging them, started reaching out to them saying I'd love to sew you polos, and I just started with one interior designer and that took off. And then, just by word of mouth, I landed several interior designers. I think I might've had, but one time maybe six pretty large accounts, and at that time I was sewing full-time.

kim:

And at what point in that process did you decide, okay, this is going to be a business. Was that right after that first shop?

sarah:

So I started this in 2014 and just got a website this year. I don't think I realized that, yes, just got a website this year. I was always fearful of getting a website, worried that maybe the business would turn into something that I couldn't sustain, so I just held off and relied heavily on social media. I feel like my biggest takeaway early on in the beginning, and now, like that I wished I would have told myself is that instead of focusing energy on what you can't do whether that's because of money, what you can't afford, or time, what you don't have time to do like instead of focusing energy on what you can't do, focus on what you can do, because I think sometimes people think that if they don't have enough to do everything, they just don't do. Focus on what you can do, because I think sometimes people think that if they don't have enough to do everything, they just don't do anything and they never get started. And, like I said, I didn't have the machine, I didn't have a brick and mortar, I didn't have money in this bank account to just go buy all these textiles, so it was a very small process, and then I would take that money that I would get and keep putting it back into the business to build it that way, and I had to shut out a lot of noise. Just because I'm not cutting a cake with confetti when I hit a thousand followers does not determine whether or not I'm successful.

sarah:

I remember reading some business article about how if your business doesn't hit X, y and Z or do X, y and Z by year five, your business won't make it. And I remember looking back after I had hit a five-year mark. I didn't do or hit X, y and Z and business was still going. And so I think it's important to While the cutting cake on social media etc. That's just a silly example of things that we see and things that we're exposed to, and those things aren't bad. But the lie is that when we see those things, that doesn't define our success just because we don't do that or because we don't have X amount of likes. The success is that you're being successful and doing something that you love and people are responding and it's bringing them joy, and I think that's really what matters in our day-to-day in the workplace, whether your work is raising babies or working outside of the house or whatever we're doing.

Mary:

Sarah, you and I first met a very long time ago actually, and you were working as a bar instructor. You are my favorite smart bar instructor. I remember going on and seeing the lineup of okay, which classes and which teachers do in which class. I'd always try to get your classes because they were so good. Now, looking ahead like fast forwarding to today, it totally makes sense to me that you would do this business, because how you treated, the way that you approached teaching a SMART bar class was so detail-oriented. You had an awesome playlist that was really very thoughtfully created for each part of the workout, with the tempo and the music and the loudness and everything was just really well thought out. So I can totally see how a pillow business you would bring the same kind of attention and detail to that as well.

sarah:

Oh, thank you. That's a neat thing to hear. That's a cool connection to make. I think our gifts can translate into many different things.

Mary:

Tell us more about what you did before Pillows and more about what you have done that led you to this business and to be able to be successful at it.

sarah:

Before Pillows, I was just teaching Smart smart bar. I got a degree from TCU in advertising and public relations. I didn't really do anything with that directly. I feel like I have used my degree a lot indirectly. But when I first got married in 2012, I was a smart bar instructor and we moved down to San Antonio for my husband's job and it just so happened that San Antonio was the only other branch of SmartBar was there because SmartBar started in Fort Worth, and so I started teaching there and became the master trainer there and was doing that full time. And then we moved back to Fort Worth 14 months later and I was just doing Bar and I loved it.

sarah:

I love to teach. I love to create. That's another form of creating. You're creating a playlist, like you mentioned. You're creating choreography, so I've always enjoyed creating. I have a dance background and that's very fun for me, and the sewing was honestly really random. I think it was with me, maybe in my mind, because I had seen my mom do it, but it wasn't like this dream of mine. It wasn't this long. I've been wanting to do this forever. It wasn't like that. It was like I had a kid and it was just what I want to do with some of this time because I needed something different. I think the monotony of some of the little baby phase was just challenging for me.

kim:

Sarah, I get the opportunity to know you personally. Our kids go to school together and I know your family really well. And another fun fact about Sarah you are born and raised in Fort Worth.

sarah:

Yes, I've spent all my life in a five mile radius, minus that little San Antonio time With all of your family too, your sisters and your mom and dad.

kim:

everybody is right here. You have also had to figure out how to make this business work in different seasons of your life. So newborn stages, two kids, three kids, busy times, less busy times. How do you feel like you have just navigated those seasons with still trying to have this business going?

sarah:

Yeah, I touched on silencing the noise and I think, as business owners, as moms, as wives, as friends, whatever we're doing, you wake up in the morning and there's so much stuff fighting for your attention. You can just get overwhelmed and look for different ways to escape that feeling of being overwhelmed, whether that's TV, whether that's fill in the blank, and so everybody has the same amount of time and to a large extent, we get to control what we do with that time. I get up in the morning before my kids to get some of my personal needs met before I needed and then take care of them, and then they get off to school and I'm just very intentional with my time, very intentional with what I say yes to and what I say no to. It's good to be selective with what you say yes to so you can do more of the things for yourself, for your family, for your business that matter.

kim:

I feel like that goes really well with my question, because I do know you personally and I know you are so great about creating boundaries and how you want your life to be, and I really admire that about you. Do you feel like that has helped you in knowing when you need to push more with your business or when it's time to? Okay, I'm going to focus on this right now and I can come back to the pillows.

sarah:

When you're able to step back and not compete and look at it like we're all running a different race and they're not meant to be compared and we can stay in our own lane. It really helps me just make my business what I want it to be. I let people know this is a side hustle. I have a full-time job. I'm a mom. Family is first for me. If you're needing something done in five business days, I'm not your girl and, like me, being at peace with knowing that my meeting, I don't get X amount of orders, and just being okay with what works for me and the people will come. There will be people that will be okay with those boundaries and you can meet their expectations, and there's always people whose expectations you can't meet and you have to be okay with letting people down and knowing that you're not the right fit for everyone and that's okay.

Mary:

I think of the concept of time. That was the commodity that you had the most of when you had one kid, during the newborn phase, when he was napping all the time and then, like Kim said quickly, time is probably not your largest commodity anymore with your family. How do you find time to make pillows in between? The other things that you've said are priority, like family, sure.

sarah:

So sometimes it's long days, Sometimes it's after the kids go to bed. My dad and my husband converted a shed that was used for lawn equipment and stuff. They converted that in our backyard for me. So it's got a little AC unit and a little Murphy table, a big table that comes down from the wall that I can lower down to cut fabric on so I can go out there after the kids go to sleep and no one's hearing the sewing machine and I can do that. Or I can sew some on the weekends when my husband's home and he's able to pitch in with the kids. So he needs some credit too for my sewing business, because he definitely plays a part in helping me pursue that. He knows that I love it.

sarah:

At first it was just about being a creative outlet and then, after I started making a little bit of money, it was like how cool if I could pay a utility bill. And then it was like how cool if I could pay a few utility bills. And then it became what if this business paid for our family's vacation this year? It's just neat to see it evolve. And just because it pays for the family vacation one year doesn't mean it will every year. It's nice to not operate under that pressure when you're your own business owner, but it's also a luxury that my family is not depending on this side hustle to make our ends meet.

kim:

We've talked some about how you reached out to interior designers in the beginning to get some of those accounts, and one of the themes that keeps coming up as we've been doing these interviews this season is how people in the community or networking or just other businesses have played a part in someone's own business, and I know that you have done several collaborations. Whenever you're making pillows whether that be with, I know, with Emily you did her artwork on some fabric that went into pillows you use monogrammers and do some embroidery. So how has collaborating with other people played a part in your business embroidery? So how?

sarah:

has collaborating with other people played a part in your business made it wonderful. I one of the best pieces of advice I got very early on from a fellow seamstress was do as much as you can with as little as you can for as long as you can, and it was great advice and I took it to heart and I would say in a lot of ways I'm still doing that, but the team is so much better anytime you can have people that you can collaborate with and at the end of the day, you just can't do it all. I've thought about monogramming my own things and learning how to do that, but time we're limited. There's only so much time, and so getting to work with Molly and her daughter Katie at Miss Molly's monogramming they're fabulous. I highly recommend them. That's been really fun collaborating with them on projects, and other interior designers have just been so gracious. I've even learned some sewing tips from some interior designers I'll never forget.

sarah:

One of my first interior designers that I sewed for was Emily Gilbert. She does beautiful work and I don't know who she used beforehand, but she was telling me something specifically that she liked on corners. I spent time exploring how to do this thing on corners of pillows and that never would have came about. When you reach out and ask for help, there's a lot of fruit that comes from that, much better than being completely solo. You're not limited to your own wisdom and your own ideas. You inspire one another, you feed off of one another and cheer each other on, so to speak.

Mary:

So how did you get to Instagramming these interior designers and creating pillows, dropping off pillows for their creations and designs, to what you do now, which is that custom element where you can go and do a whole consult with you and have you come over and look at your space and give you swatches and design? Did you start that because someone asked you to do that initially or did you start that because you saw it was a need? I think it started.

sarah:

I told you I bought some really thin cotton quilting material the first time I set up for shop small for Fort Worth and then people bought the stuff. But that was me making what I wanted to make, what I deemed beautiful or cute. That was me making the decisions. But then when I started thinking about the financial aspect like when I saw some money coming in, and that was when I was like I'm going to reach out to some of these interior designers and that was pretty much with the financial side of it in mind but then it was like, okay, I'm getting to sew for people what they want, what they're envisioning for projects, and I was having fun with that and it felt rewarding for someone to have this desire and then me be able to deliver it.

sarah:

Not all the time but a lot of the time. So that felt really nice. And then I made a customized nursery pillow for my own son and I had it monogrammed. I didn't do the monogramming and I posted it and got so many messages that one little post took off. That's kind of how that all turned into more of custom work.

kim:

Do you still feel like you get to have that creative outlet when it is someone else's ideas or design?

sarah:

I do. Yeah, I still think it's fun. I'm still doing math and I'm still cutting and I'm still wrapping fabric on cord or making ruffles or whatever. So it's still creating, even though it may not have been my concept from start to finish. So it's really fun to take someone's vision and work and see that come into fruition. It's a really fun thing, whether it was my idea or their idea, and other people have wonderful ideas and then it's a domino effect right, their ideas make me think of something else. So that's been really fun.

sarah:

One of three girls there's three of us, and Emily and Caroline are my older sisters. I'm the baby and Caroline was getting rid of this rug. She has incredible taste, she has an eye, she has a gift. She should probably be an interior designer, but she was putting this rug on her curb and I don't want to tell this story wrong I think my mom took the rug and then my mom was like hey, sarah, I tried to make some pillows out of this. Didn't really work. Do you want to give it a try? And I was like, yeah, I want to give it a try. And so I gave it a try and stripped the backing off of this rug.

sarah:

I was super sore the next day. It was really hard, and we was able to make one pillow for myself, for my house, and I loved it, and so I made another one, so for my house, and I loved it, and so I made another one. So I had one on each quarter of the sofa. And then I was like I'm going to chop this whole thing up and put some of these on Instagram and see if I can sell them. And Heather Essien, another fabulous local artist in town, invited me to do a little set up a little booth at a I'm blanking on what it was, but it was a little arts night and a bunch of people came to see different little vendors and I set them up there. And that was my first time to set up rug pillows at an in-person event and they just sold. It was awesome. So then I made some more and ordered some more rugs and put them on Instagram, and those were pretty popular for a while. I still have a few.

kim:

I love that pillow.

sarah:

Yeah, I was inspired from a sister putting a rug on a curb. You just never know where the inspo is going to come from. It's awesome.

Mary:

One of my favorite pillows that you've done actually is a repurposed Ikea duvet that you turned into pillows and there are these cool animals on it.

kim:

Yes, and.

Mary:

I'd say yes, I believe you. It looks so cool.

sarah:

Thank you. Yeah, it's fun to repurpose things blankets, curtains. It's just fun to reuse things and be resourceful with what you have when you have it.

kim:

Pillows are such a unique way to keep things that are sentimental too. I've seen a lot of that I don't know if people ever have you do that custom for them. I'll see like the t-shirt quotes or different things.

Mary:

You started off your business out of this spark that you had to create things and you got really into it and it filled this creative need that you had and you're really excited about it. It filled this creative need that you had and you're really excited about it and then you really ramped up, ended up doing it full time and then you scaled back and decided not to continue doing it full time. Tell us a little bit about like. Does it work in like in a business? It's so different when you own your own business and it's a creative business because there is this factor, this element of like, your own spark and creativity in it. That is not there when you are someone else's employee doing their job. So how did that kind of love of what you're doing, the excitement or having it, fade? Tell us about how that goes in a creative business.

sarah:

Yeah, it's so. It adds and flows. I had another kid so I felt more overwhelmed and felt less time and felt we were just talking about pressure a little bit. And I think that was increasing because my plate felt more full and I didn't feel like I had as much energy and time and headspace to be creative and to think about new things. And so I started to feel overwhelmed and I had a friend tell me that it's a good thing to be able to put a good thing down and I thought that was really neat.

sarah:

And when feeling like you're overwhelmed, it's good to sit back and reevaluate. And with owning your own business, you're responsible for creating this product, delivering this product and then also making money. And I learned about myself that maybe with my personality I'd rather have someone else pay me and it'd be this consistent source of income that I get and then just create. See what happens financially on the side. Maybe that would just relieve some pressure. And yeah, I just switched gears and, who knows, I could switch gears again. You know, it's one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time.

sarah:

I don't know if I'll do pillows again full time. I don't see the side'll do pillows again full-time. I don't see the side hustle going away because it's something that I love. I do feel like I love it more with it being a side hustle than I did when it was a full-time job. Right now is all I can speak to Right now. I don't foresee it becoming a full-time thing again. I'm loving my current full-time job and I think it's nice when your creative outlet doesn't consume most of your time.

Mary:

This is such a great testament that success does not equal growth in a business. The whole goal of your business is not to scale it as big as you possibly can and to make as much gross profits as you absolutely can, but success in a business, and what I'm hearing from you is that this serves you in your life. It serves a creative outlet. It is connection and community and it's financial reward for your family to pay for a vacation, like you said.

Mary:

That is success, that's hugely successful, and that doesn't mean it has to have seven zeros behind. Whatever you're bringing in Exactly, it doesn't.

kim:

I know you personally, sarah. I know you are so smart in the decisions that you make just in your life and with your family, and also with your business, and you're very inspiring. So thank you for all that you shared with us today.

sarah:

Yeah, absolutely. It was a joy getting to be here with you guys, and for anyone thinking about starting a business and you're afraid to start that one thing, and it's not about what you can't do. I think it's about what he can do, and I'm not in a video, I just point into the heavens, but it's about what the Lord can do. So it opens up a whole new world when you put it that way and don't just rely on yourself and go for it and try it. It's better to fail trying than it is to fail sitting back and observing. Very true.

Mary:

Thank you, Sarah, so much for coming on today.

kim:

Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode.

Mary:

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Mary Brezik and Kim Dillon

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