Dragon's Den star and Strictly contestant Sara Davies shares her Christmas crafting tips in her new show

The idea came about totally by chance, she says. Following her run in Strictly last year, she was invited to take part in the arena tour that followed.

“I just loved every minute of it,” she recalls of travelling the country dancing with her Strictly partner Aljaz Skorjanec.

“The people that ran the Strictly tour said that I just came alive when I was on stage and wanted to know if they could work with me. I told them that I did crafting and Wasn’t sure how that translated onto the stage, but they said it would work perfectly. And showed me examples of similar things, including James Martin, who toured his own show which involved him cooking on stage and sharing with the audience anecdotes about his back-story.

“I went to see James’s show with a couple of girlfriends. We had a few drinks first – we were all a bit giddy – and we had the best time.”

Davies said she felt really inspired.“It made me realise I could do the equivalent with crafting as my theme. But I thought the tour should be in the run-up to Christmas because that’s peak season for decorating your home.” Organisers were sceptical of the tight time frame but Davies was adamant.

“I’m the biggest fan of Christmas and overflowing with tips on how you can do it yourself. People really want to get crafty at Christmas whether its making your own cards or decorations or wreaths and I have plenty of hacks to help people.”

Davies believes people’s attitudes towards crafting have changed.

“Twenty years ago if you gave a handmade card people might think you were a cheap scape but not any more. I think lockdown really changed people’s attitudes to crafting. We had more time and also it was so good for people’s mental well being. Statistics say two in three women do some crafting and with the cost of living crisis I think more people will be turning to making their own things.

“ I’ll show how simple it is to upcycle gift bags and turn them into beautiful snowflakes you can hang around your home in only five minutes.”

She’s also a great advocate for making personalised Christmas presents for friends and family. “That way, you’re dedicating love and time, creating something homemade and giving a little part of you to loved ones. Anyone can go and buy something but not everyone makes time to create something.”

And, throughout it all, she’ll be sharing her personal story of how she became the UK’s undisputed crafting queen.

Davies’s journey starts – and remains – in the north-east growing up in what she calls an entrepreneurial environment. Her parents, Frank and Susan, ran their own decorating shop, in a village outside Durham, subsequently taken over by Sara’s sister, Helen, and her husband.

As part of her management degree at York University, Davies did a placement with a craft company.

“I just loved it,” she says. “The crafting community are amazing and I’d go to numerous consumer shows and make it my business to talk to the public.”

She quickly identified a gap in the market. People enjoyed creating original cards but were then faced with the problem of finding an envelope to fit their handiwork. “It quickly occurred to me that, if I could come up with a device that made envelopes of any shape and size, I’d be on to a winner.”

And so The Enveloper was born. “My dad’s an engineer by training and, between us, we created a simple plastic scoring board with grooves in it. You place a piece of paper on the board and run a tool along whichever groove is going to give you the custom-made envelope for your uniquely designed card.”

She then applied for a patent – “and that was the start of my career in the craft industry”. Davies was barely 21 when she launched The Enveloper on the TV shopping channel Ideal World, selling 30,000 units within six months. By the time she graduated from the University of York, the business was turning over £500,000.

By this stage, in her final year back at university, she’d already launched her company, Crafter’s Companion, running the business from her student bedroom. On graduation, she began pitching crafting products to TV shopping channels as well as building a website for selling her wares. More than two-thirds of her workforce of some 200 employees are based in the north-east. But her empire also takes in major stores in America which accounts for at least half her total business, the products distributed from warehousing in California. Last year, the worldwide turnover of Crafter’s Companion topped an astonishing £38 million. And still Sara’s only 38.

In 2019, the producers of Dragon’s Den approached her to become one of their regular panel of potential investors. “I always maintain that, if you can do fast-paced, high-energy shopping TV, and you can do it live, you can do any type of television. Pre-recorded TV, by contrast, is a walk in the park.”

Crafter’s Companion remains the only enterprise she wants to be involved with full-time. “But, by investing in other businesses, I can share with people the benefit of my experience. And what I can give people is so much more than the money I invest in them.”

Davies and husband Simon have two boys: Charlie is six; Oliver will be nine in December. It’s not every man who can stand by and watch his wife’s vertical success. “Listen,” she says, “I could not do what I do without Simon’s support.”

He’d worked as an accountant for a large Dutch pharmaceutical company as his wife’s crafting business went through the roof. Then the day dawned when he returned home, announced that he’d handed in his notice and that, in three months’ time, he’d be joining Sara: she’d remain the figurehead of Crafter’s Companion; he’d look after the finances.

So, what is Simon’s view of the upcoming crafting tour that will take his wife all over the UK? “He knows how excited I am about it. But then, my aim is to get more people into crafting which is a good in so many ways, although I’m not sure he’ll want to come and watch, I don’t want alien men but I see it more as people who want to meet up with friends or Mum or your Auntie, treat yourselves to a Prosecco or two and have a fabulous night out and hopefully learn a thing or two. What better way better way to kick off the Christmas season.”

Sara Davies Craft Your Christmas Yorkshire dates: Thursday, November 24 St George’s Hotel, Bradford, Wednesday, November 30 Victoria Theatre, Halifax, Saturday, December 3 York Barbican

https://sara-davies.com/