Karen Meyers' sewing career has homespun roots. She remembers that while she was growing up, her mom always had the sewing machine set up so she could sew clothes for her, as well as projects for the family home. "I have always loved fabric and was drawn to the sewing machine for as long as I can remember," says Karen. "I spent many hours standing by my mom when she sewed, watching fascinated over her shoulder as she worked.

Before she learned to sew, Karen tried her hands at knitting in the first grade. Driven by a desire to make a special gift to celebrate the birth of her teacher's new baby, she started knitting her first potholder. "I had started out on the potholder, but by the time I was done, I had skipped and missed so many stitches that it looked more like a hat, so I decided to go with it and use the starting and stopping strings to tie under the chin," says Karen. By the seventh grade, with many a successful Halloween costume under her belt (Chip and Dale costumes for herself and a friend were her first), she bought her first Singer with hard-earned babysitting money (and matching funds from her parents). "I sewed most of my own clothes through high school; I learned to make quilts and crocheted dolls for sale. I once crocheted a giant dog and sold it to one of my Dad's friends who insisted on paying me by the hour," remembers Karen. "I earned $110 for that dog and couldn't believe it!"

Karen went on to study graphic design at North Carolina State University and ultimately earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Textile Design at Indiana University, where she learned weaving, tapestry, felting, screen printing and papermaking. After college, she headed to Spain and eked out a living by dog walking, teaching English and making handcrafted cosmetic bags, which a friend took to sell to the lunch ladies at her children's school. She was honing her professional sewing techniques while also getting an intuitive knack for entrepreneurship. "I was always astounded and pleased by my own ability to make things that people wanted to buy," says Karen, who admits that her skills served her well in the lean starting-out years. "One time I made a quilt for my landlady to pay for two months' rent."

Karen considers herself fortunate to have worked with two talented professional designers over the last 17 years before launching Karen Meyers Handbags in 2007. Her fledgling brand garnered accolades from the Independent Handbag Designers Awards in its first year.

"I fancy myself an artist whose medium is fabric, I like to make beautiful, functional, durable accessories that I consider an art form. I fit somewhere in between the fashion, craft, and fine art realms, and I like not being defined by just one category."