NestingDoll Embroidery - Cool Story, Buffalo

One-of-a-kind treasures embroidered by hand, with a focus on repurposed and vintage materials. Celebrate classic femininity in fresh, whimsical ways.

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Kayleigh never knew a time without crafting — her mother and grandmother introduced her to fiber arts at age 4, and embroidery was always a fun hobby.

As she grew older and sought out her specific niche in the apparel industry, things weren’t quite clicking until about 8 years ago. Pregnant with her first child and experiencing *that* level of fatigue (#iykyk), she stepped away from the sewing machine and started to add hand-embroidered pieces to her makers market booth.

“There would be just a handful of embroideries that I would have on my booth or market, and then people would beeline it and want to touch it and ask questions and talk about the flowers and talk about the different things,” she says with a smile.

Turns out people loved the pieces as much as Kayleigh loved making them — and the rest is beautiful history.

hand-embroidered pill case

$32.00

On finding inspiration:

Her latest vintage material finds, seasonal flowers, the act of sketching on fabric folk art books – and color.

“I've been trying to do more to notice color combinations in the wild,” she says. “That can be when I’m grocery shopping, or it could be on a walk with the dog where I’m just like, ‘Man, that mustard shade of that door is just so good.’”

Feels happiest when:

“I love talking to people at markets, talking about embroidery, talking to other artists about their experience. That makes me feel really charged and happy and energized to create. And then I love creating, and I feel like I can get in that, you know, flow state. I will put on an audiobook and just really dig in and make.”

You can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been – and Kayleigh has the receipts from when she was a youngster learning to hand-sew and work with her Peter Rabbit (!!!!!!!!) sewing machine.

“I still have a lot of my early stuffed animals and stuff that I made – like weird little things … You know, they’re like hearts, but they’re poorly sewn hearts.”

🆒 FACT

Kayleigh is proud to honor the generations of fiber artists who came before her.

“I feel like there’s a lot around sewing and fiber arts, embroidery, crochet – all those things that are ‘women’s work’ and viewed by some as a ‘lesser’ art form,” she says. “That’s not been my experience, and I’m so happy to uplift them. And what they did, too. There’s beauty and I think a lot of people treasure it.”