Nikki Schreiner, an Army wife and homeschooling mother, built a six-figure business from her love of sewing. Over seven years, she grew her enterprise from a small sewing room in her home, reaching her first $100,000+ year in 2024.
Schreiner's success largely comes from selling sewing patterns. She earns $6,000 to $9,000 from pattern sales during summer months, with earnings often doubling or tripling in the last quarter. Her business spans multiple platforms, including a blog, an Etsy store, and a YouTube channel with 106,000 subscribers and over 5 million views. Her website draws 414,000 visitors annually, demonstrating the broad appeal of her sewing content.
Schreiner's business model allows her to balance entrepreneurship with family life. By working approximately 20 hours per week, she continues to homeschool her children while growing her sewing empire. This article explores Schreiner's journey, examining her strategic decisions, the challenges she encountered, and the key factors that contributed to her success.
The following sections will detail Schreiner's approach to identifying her niche in the sewing market, her tactics for audience growth across platforms, her product development and pricing strategies, and her methods for effective time management. We'll also highlight the key moments that led to massive revenue increases in her business.
Who is Nikki Schreiner?
Nikki Schreiner's life has been full of movement and responsibility. As the wife of an Army soldier, she's lived in seven different states. She's also a mother to three teenagers, whom she's taught at home their whole lives. One of her children has finished school, so she's still teaching the other two.
Louisville, Kentucky is where Nikki and her family live now. They like it so much that they hope to stay there, if the Army allows it. While sewing is Nikki's main hobby and now her job, she enjoys many other activities too. She loves taking photos, reading books, working on her house, visiting interesting cities in the United States, enjoying art and nature, playing tennis, and doing crossword puzzles from the New York Times. Nikki is always eager to try new hobbies, which she sees as both a blessing and a challenge.
The story behind her website
Nikki's journey into blogging started in the early 2000s when it was just becoming popular. At first, she wrote about her family and home life, occasionally mentioning sewing. For several years, she kept blogging casually like this. She didn't try to make money from it because she was busy teaching her kids at home and moving around a lot.
When her children got older, Nikki tried working for a multi-level marketing company. She found out that she was motivated by the chance to earn money, but even as she built a large team, her income didn't grow much. The company was set up in a way that kept her working hard without giving her real control over her business growth. This experience, while not entirely positive, was important because it led to the creation of Pin Cut Sew.
Nikki learned a lot from her time with the multi-level marketing company. It showed her what she was capable of and helped her realize that she had business skills. She also discovered that she enjoyed teaching and the business aspects of the work.
While still trying to succeed in multi-level marketing, Nikki needed a new laptop. She decided to teach sewing camps for kids that summer, thinking that four weeks of camp would earn her enough to buy a new MacBook. After those four weeks, Nikki not only had enough for a new laptop but also a whole new business plan. She quit the multi-level marketing company and started working on her new idea.
Nikki continued to schedule and teach sewing camps and classes for kids from her home. At the same time, she started a new sewing blog and, with her husband's encouragement, a YouTube channel. She called all of these efforts Pin Cut Sew Studio.
Her business didn't take off immediately, but the steady income from sewing classes was a great way to add some extra money to her family's budget. Meanwhile, she kept working on her blog and YouTube channel, growing an audience while learning to balance all of this with more moves, homeschooling, her husband's deployment, and then the Covid pandemic. She stopped teaching in-person classes when her husband was deployed and has focused only on creating online content since 2019.
Three years ago, Nikki started creating PDF printable versions of the tutorials she'd been posting on her blog and YouTube channel. She opened an Etsy shop to sell these. For a long time, she had avoided selling anything because she thought people wouldn't pay for what was already available for free on the internet. She was surprised to find out she was wrong. She made sales on the very first day and has sold tens of thousands of her printable patterns since then.
How much money she's earning
Nikki describes herself as an example of slow and steady progress over time. It's been 7 years since she first started her blog and YouTube channel. She no longer teaches sewing classes in person but has grown her online business to the point where it provides a good second income for her family.
Since opening her pattern shop three years ago, Nikki's income has more than doubled each year. In 2024, she expects to earn six figures for the first time. Her largest source of income is pattern sales, which she sells on both Etsy and her own website. She has two physical pattern booklets that she mails out, but otherwise, her entire shop consists of digital items. Between her two shops, she earns between $6,000 and $9,000 in the summer months. These earnings easily double or even triple in the last three months of the year when people are buying patterns to make holiday gifts.
Nikki also earns money from YouTube ads and blog ads. Her YouTube ad income varies throughout the year but has been steady at around $2,000 each month so far this year. This number increases to $3,000 to $4,000 in the last three months of the year. Her blog ads earn between $400 and $700 per month. This amount is lower compared to many bloggers, but Nikki has chosen to focus more on YouTube and her pattern shop, using her website mainly as a central hub for her content, sales pages, shop, and to grow her email list.
In addition to these main income sources, Nikki earns a small amount from affiliate sales and a few carefully chosen sponsorships. She's decided to limit sponsorships because she doesn't like working with deadlines. She believes it's important to know yourself and not accept every income opportunity if it will make you unhappy.
In terms of website traffic, Nikki's site has had 414,000 visitors in the last 12 months. However, she doesn't focus much on this number. She's more interested in actual sales and loyal fans than just high traffic numbers. Her YouTube channel is very successful, with 106,000 subscribers and over 5,000,000 views. She's proud of the community she's built there, and it's been very effective at bringing people to her website to buy patterns and join her email list.
Nikki works about 20 hours a week, split between sewing projects, pattern making, filming, and computer work. She knows this because when she set up an LLC this year, her accountant had her calculate all the time she spends on her business.
Nikki's key marketing approach
Nikki strongly encourages bloggers to include video content in their strategy. She believes that adding videos to her work early on, even though it took a few years to get serious about it, has been a big reason for her success. Video content is important because it's given priority in Google search results, and YouTube is the second most visited website in the world, right after Google.
But there's more to it than just visibility. Video allows Nikki to show her personality and tell stories better. People who watch her videos often feel like they've found a friend. This creates loyal followers who are more likely to support her business. Nikki understands that many bloggers feel nervous about showing their faces to the world, but she encourages them to try it anyway. She had her own struggles at first, but now making videos is the part of her business that makes her feel most connected to her audience.
What Nikki thinks about search engine optimization (SEO)
For Nikki, SEO has always been a secondary concern. Given the recent changes to Google search, she thinks this approach has worked in her favor. While she tries to write blog articles in a way that they can be found in search results, she prioritizes writing content that her audience will want and enjoy over strict SEO rules.
Because Nikki's blog contains articles and tutorials with accompanying videos and unique ideas, her site wasn't negatively affected by Google's recent helpful content update. However, Nikki sees her website more as a central hub for her entire business, and doesn't focus too much on site traffic. She puts most of her energy into YouTube viewership and shop sales.
Nikki believes that understanding SEO is important, but doesn't think it should be a blogger's entire business plan. She suggests diversifying where your traffic comes from and where you post your content, as well as understanding what your audience wants. This, she feels, is a more reliable strategy.
Nikki also points out that Google isn't the only site with an algorithm. YouTube, Etsy, Pinterest, and others all have their own SEO guidelines. She recommends learning the best practices for each platform you're using.
How Nikki finds the right keywords
Nikki's approach to keywords is different from many bloggers. Instead of searching for popular topics to write about using keyword tools, she first decides what her audience wants to read or watch. Then, she finds keywords related to what she's created to make sure her content performs well in search results.
She believes that in creative fields, you need to find a balance between what you want to create and what inspires others or meets their needs. One of Nikki's favorite ways to find topics is by paying attention to comments on her videos and noticing what problems people are having. If she sees the same question being asked several times, or if people keep requesting a specific tutorial, she knows it's time to create content about that topic.
Nikki also suggests simply asking your audience what they'd like to see or what they find most difficult about a particular task. This can be a great way to gather ideas for new content.
How Nikki builds links to her site
Nikki doesn't have a complicated strategy for building links to her site. She believes it's better to let these things happen naturally by building relationships with other people in her field. She finds Instagram particularly useful for this.
Instead of seeing others in her niche as competition, Nikki likes to share their content in her Instagram stories and give them shout-outs when they have something new to offer. On YouTube, she mentions and links to other channels she's gotten ideas from. This often leads to others doing the same for her, which brings her links, traffic, and sales. As an added bonus, she's made friends along the way.
How Nikki creates her content
Nikki thinks of each new video as the start of a circle of content. For example, when she creates a video tutorial for YouTube, she mentions and links to the printable version of the pattern for that project in her shop. On her shop page, she makes sure to say that there's a video tutorial available. She also creates a blog post about the tutorial, putting the video in the post, writing some information about it, including materials and extra tips, and linking to the pattern there as well.
This way, her YouTube channel, blog, and pattern shop all cover the same project, and they all link to each other in a circle. Finally, she sends an email newsletter linking to the new project video, post, and pattern. Ideally, she also creates social media posts for various platforms, but since these don't usually drive sales for her, she doesn't worry too much if she doesn't get to it.
Nikki believes this strategy covers all her bases and serves people who like to consume content in different ways. Some people prefer to watch videos, some like to read, some like to get information in their email, and some want a printable version. She tries to cover the content so that everyone can access it in the way they prefer.
Nikki's email list
Like many bloggers, Nikki didn't initially grasp the importance of an email list. She hesitated at first but eventually started one before she felt she had much to offer. Now, she's glad she did. Her list has grown to over 10,000 subscribers, and she uses several methods to expand it.
Nikki has a pop-up on her website that works well in attracting subscribers. She also gives people the option to join her email list when they buy from her Squarespace shop. This is one of the main reasons she likes having her own shop in addition to Etsy, where it's harder to direct people to her site and email list.
Occasionally, Nikki creates a project on YouTube and offers free printable instructions for it. To get the free material, people need to visit her shop through a link in the video description. When they download the freebie from her shop, they usually opt to join her email list too.
Nikki values her email list because it allows her to quickly inform her followers about new patterns or announcements, leading to immediate sales. She understands that some bloggers shy away from email marketing because they don't want to seem pushy, but she reminds herself that these people chose to be on her list. They expect her emails and understand they might be sold to through email - it's what they signed up for.
Of course, Nikki varies her emails and doesn't try to sell something in every one. She's learned that if she's having a slow week and needs to boost her income quickly, sending a simple email is her best option.
Nikki's biggest challenges
Nikki faced two main challenges in her journey. The first was managing her limited time. Balancing her business with her other life commitments was often difficult, especially in the early years when her business wasn't earning much. She had to learn to prioritize effectively and use small pockets of time productively.
For instance, Nikki discovered she could use the time spent waiting in the car during her children's activities to write blog content or edit YouTube videos. She also found ways to work while homeschooling, like doing her computer work at coffee shops while her teens did their schoolwork. By fitting her work into her life, rather than the other way around, Nikki kept her business sustainable.
The second major challenge was dealing with comparison. Nikki couldn't invest money in her business initially, so she didn't take blogging courses or buy extra tools that many considered essential for success. She also couldn't fully dedicate herself to the business due to her family and community commitments.
These limitations made Nikki's path to success feel much slower than others'. While some bloggers were achieving significant milestones within 12-18 months, it took Nikki 5 years to earn a part-time income online, and 6 years before her income reached full-time levels. Despite setbacks, she persevered, encouraged by her husband to continue as long as she enjoyed it and not to fixate on the numbers.
Nikki's proudest achievement
Nikki's greatest accomplishment is reaching her current level of success while maintaining her integrity and work-life balance. She strives to counteract the prevalent "buy-this-now" influencer culture, instead promoting frugality, creativity, and making what you love through her videos and content.
After accepting only one sponsored video offer, Nikki quickly decided that kind of content wasn't for her. She feels strongly about not contributing to what she sees as excessive consumerism in the US.
Nikki takes pride in building a business that earns income from something she created herself, in a way that feels honest to her. As a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, being able to contribute a second full-time income to her family while working only in the margins of her life is significant to her. The fact that she's working at something she loves is an added bonus, and she's deeply grateful for what this business has provided for her family.
Lessons Nikki wishes she'd known earlier
Looking back, Nikki wishes she had known it was okay to filter out advice from self-proclaimed gurus and do things her own way. While she acknowledges that SEO and certain other strategies are important, she believes they're not as crucial as one's uniqueness.
Nikki has found that storytelling, personality, and genuinely caring about your content can be just as effective as technical strategies. By focusing on these aspects first, she was able to build a community of loyal fans who then became customers.
There was a period when Nikki tried to blog in a very structured way, focusing solely on keywords and perfect SEO. Not only did this feel inauthentic and boring to her, but it also didn't result in the growth she experienced when she found a better balance between creating content she wanted to make and ensuring it reached her audience through SEO and marketing.
Nikki's mistakes and guidance for aspiring entrepreneurs
Nikki's biggest regret is not selling digital patterns earlier. As a frugal person herself, she underestimated people's willingness to spend money. For too long, she assumed people wouldn't buy what she could make, or that they'd think she was only interested in making money, or that her pattern-making skills weren't professional enough.
Fear of what people might think held Nikki back for a long time. Once she finally took the plunge, she immediately regretted not starting this part of her business years earlier.
Based on her experience, Nikki advises other entrepreneurs to be aware that online content creation is constantly evolving. She cautions against relying solely on ad revenue or affiliate income, especially for those just starting out. Nikki points out that earning a full-time income from ads alone is no longer feasible for most people, and affiliate programs aren't as lucrative as they once were.
Bloggers have learned over the past year that they have no control over Google and other algorithms. If your entire business depends on these platforms, you could lose everything with one small algorithm update.
Instead, Nikki recommends figuring out what you can sell. She advises building an audience of loyal fans through your personality, learning about storytelling, creating unique and appealing content, becoming your own brand, paying attention to your audience's needs, and then making them an offer. She suggests creating a great digital product for them, noting that your audience doesn't need to be very large before you can start earning an income.
Hand in hand with this advice, Nikki stresses the importance of building an email list as early as possible. Even if you don't have much to say to your subscribers in the early days, she recommends starting to build your list anyway, as you'll be grateful for it later.
Nikki emphasizes that your products and your email list are two things you have control over. So if everything else changes tomorrow, your business will still be in a strong position.
Conclusion
Nikki Schreiner's sewing blog evolved into a six-figure business through a combination of digital pattern sales, YouTube content, and strategic blogging. Her approach balances SEO strategies with audience-focused content creation. Schreiner's success largely came from experimenting with different income streams, particularly the introduction of digital patterns as her primary revenue source.
Schreiner's experience highlights the risks of relying solely on ad revenue or affiliate marketing. She instead focused on building a loyal audience through personalized content and leveraging an email list for business growth. Her ability to adapt to changing market conditions and platform algorithms while managing her work-life balance has contributed to her sustained success.
The key takeaways from Schreiner's journey include the importance of creating and selling unique products, understanding one's audience, and maintaining control over core business assets like product offerings and email lists. Her experience provides practical insights for entrepreneurs in creative niches, demonstrating effective strategies for building a sustainable online business in the current digital space.
