Sherrer Durden began her embroidery business in Selma in October, and since then she’s been busy fulfilling orders and personalizing anything thrown her way.

Sewing and making items with fabric and thread wasn’t always something that she wanted to do, but after losing her grandmother, Barbara Grodsky who always practiced the art, Durden decided to give it a try.

With the help of her aunt, Kim Wood, Durden began learning the ins and outs of the process and quickly picked it up and started taking orders.

“My grandmother when I was growing up, always did … sewing and all kinds of stuff and she tried to teach me when I was little,” Durden said.

“She died when I was 16, [then] I get to be 18 and graduate high school and start crying to my aunt, ‘I want to learn how to do this.’”

When Durden first got in to embroidery, she had a much smaller, older machine, but after speaking with her husband, William “Dub,” they decided to go ahead and purchase a new machine for her to work with.

“My husband said if you really like it, and you think you want to do a business, we’ll go and get you a good [machine] that you don’t have to worry about,” Durden said.

“He said if you enjoy it and that’s really what you want to do, let’s see where it goes. So we prayed about it, I thought about it and I was like, God, if this is what you really want, I’ll do it. I enjoy it, and I love that I can just stop [and take care of the kids].”

Staying at home with her two children is very important to her, and doing the embroidery allowed her to do that and to still earn money for her family.

Durden said she is thankful for the opportunity to stay at home and take care of her children while working from one order to the next, pausing to play a game or change a diaper.

“I think there’s nothing better than childhood,” she said.

Durden said she is close with her cousins and their children, and said she enjoys making them all personalized items, like shirts she made her nieces for Disney World recently.

“I just get so happy,” Durden said. “I love bringing smiles to peoples faces.”

In her office workspace, Durden has a wall of love with pictures of her kids, family and some of her favorite items she’s made.

At the bottom, in blue sparkly letters it reads, Sew Much Love, the name of her business.

Durden said she loves seeing people’s reactions when she hands over a personalized item to them, especially if it’s when she was able to bring someone’s vision to life.

“I love when I have a design and a lot of people order it, but what I really love is when someone says I like this, but I don’t like the material or I do like something else. It’s their creation that I get to make and I know that they’re happy,” she said.

“I love bringing smiles to peoples faces and I love making things.”

Durden said she is very thankful for everyone that orders something from her.

“Everybody gets a thank you card, and I hand write them, because I really do appreciate it. Each and every piece is so important,” Durden said. “I think everybody deserves a thank you.”

Durden said she’s definitely a perfectionist, trying to get everything just right for her customers, even if that means reordering an item or ordering more than one just to be sure she gives them the best results she can.

“I just enjoy it. I want [the customer] to be happy. I want to be happy. If it’s not right, I’ll scrap it and get another one,” she said.

“I want it to be perfect. I know we’re human and you can’t get everything perfect, … but I have to make sure it is absolutely perfect because I don’t want to send somebody [something that’s not].”

Durden said it’s important that everyone gets the best possible service they can.

“I want to make it right,” she said. “I want you to know when you pay for something, I want it to be perfect.”

Overall, Durden said it’s the smile on the customers’ faces that makes her want to continue.

“I love when everything turns out and I can look at it and go, I’m really proud of that, I hope they love it, and I hope they smile, because I smile making it,” she said.