A small studio in Elgin, Scotland
Our story.
Embsupply began as a habit. Iona had been embroidering for fifteen years and kept being asked the same question by friends who wanted to start: where do I begin? Every answer involved a list — buy this, buy that, here is a tutorial. We made the list into a box.
We are three people — Iona, who designs the kits and writes the tutorials; Tom, who tests every repair technique against a worn jumper or a torn pocket; and Mhairi, who runs the studio and answers your emails.
We work in a small stone building above a stationer’s in Elgin, in the north of Scotland. The window faces east, so the morning light is good for photographs of pale fabric. We pack each kit by hand, on the same wooden bench where Iona drew most of the motifs.
We do not believe in fast craft. We design each kit so that the gap between curiosity and finished work is short enough to keep, and long enough to matter. Two evenings should be enough to finish a small first piece and to feel like you have made something.
Materials
From small mills.
Cotton from a long-established mill in Lancashire. Linen-cotton blend from a weaver in the Borders. Smooth-grain beech hoops turned in a small workshop near Birmingham. We name our suppliers in the PDF tutorial.
Packaging
Plastic-free, almost.
Every kit ships in a recycled-board kraft box with paper tape. The only plastic is a small grip-seal bag for needles — a safety requirement. We are working with our supplier on a paper-only alternative.
The patterns
Original or public-domain.
Every motif is drawn by Iona or sourced from out-of-copyright needlework manuals. We never include licensed characters or logos — and we never will.
A quiet workbench
Three people, one window, six hours a day.
We work six hours a day, Monday through Friday — slowly, because slow craft is the whole point. Iona designs the kits and writes the tutorials. Tom tests every repair technique. Mhairi runs the studio and answers your emails.
If you walk past the studio on a Tuesday morning you can see us at the long wooden table, three hoops in progress, the kettle on for the next round of tea.
The legal bit
EMB SUPPLIES LIMITED
We are a private limited company registered in Scotland (Company No. SC724902). Our registered office is 9 Maxwell Street, IV32 7DE, United Kingdom. Date of incorporation: 02 March 2022.
We pay our UK taxes. We declare the true value on customs forms. We answer customer emails ourselves — there is no offshore call centre.
Contact: support@embsupplyco.com
Phone: +44 7426 728792
Customer hours: Mon–Fri 09:00–17:00 GMT/BST