Helen Bristol
The founder of ‘Made by Thimble’
Hello. I’m Helen the founder of ‘Thimble’. My journey is a meandering thread (see what I did there…) of sewing based jobs. I left school, armed with my needlework O-Level and embarked on dressmaking, which stood me in good stead for all things fine and detailed. I went on to work and learn the skills of bespoke bed-linen, followed by handmade soft furnishings.
After having dribbly babies I noticed a gap in the market for dribble bibs. I went on to invent, make and commercially sell dribble bibs. I named them ‘Skibz’ as they are half scarf, half bib! I started making these at home in my dining room and the result was in selling 100’s of thousands of these multi award winning products, all over the world. I am incredibly proud to have started the dribble bib revolution, still going strong today throughout the world.
As we scaled up, ‘Skibz’ were made overseas and this never sat quite right with me, so I decided to open my own sewing factory and make textile products here in the UK, specifically Somerset. We still produce dribble bibs for Skibz but as people heard about the textile factory we have taken on more and more work for companies who sell gifts. Textiles are a real passion of mine and to be able to work on beautiful designs with the most gorgeous, sumptuous velvets, cottons and silks is something of a sheer pleasure.
Over time our Somerset based textile sewing factory became too big to be tagged alongside Skibz, so it was given its own name Made by Thimble. Therefore you are now here on Made by Thimbles’ own web-site – Thank you!
Thimble’s value are people
People, people, people they will always come first. Whether the person is a customer or a member of staff, they are what makes the business what it is and are my biggest and best investment.
We ensure each and every product is made beautifully and to the highest quality on a commercial basis. We try and keep MOQ’s low to enable customers to test fabric styles, however volume really is our thing and I ensure you, we are damn good at sewing in volume.
If you require any further information, please do get in touch via our contact page.
I look forward to hearing from you.
With best wishes from Somerset, Helen
