An economist from Sibiu opened her business with an initial investment of 100 lei. “Since I was little, my mother taught me to crochet”

Mihaela Fleacă is 30 years old and lives in Sibiu. An economist by profession, the young woman has always been passionate about handmade and decided, more than a month and a half ago, to open a business to deal with in her spare time. Mihaela makes toys that she crochets from a special thread called plush.

Basically, Mihaela is an economist and works as an accounting team leader in the Sibiu Business Center. He wanted to create a universe of toys in his spare time, which he called Stonyland.

“I wanted to find a passion, a hobby in my free time. As a child I was passionate about handmade work. At first we made maps out of paper, it was a kind of fashion back then where you took paper, rolled it up and made handmade bags. The dolls I make are made of special yarn called plush. For example, they can be made from wool and cotton, from several materials. I crochet them with a needle and fill them with special stuffing for toys,” she said.

How did the business idea come about?

Mihaela made her first toy a month and a half ago. The idea of ​​creating these dolls came during the holiday she had last year in Ibiza.

“We arrived at a hand-made fair. Among all the products that were there, a stall that had crocheted dolls caught my attention. I walked around the fair and every time I stopped at them and admired how beautiful they were. Since I was little, my mother taught me to crochet and it only took a few tutorials for me to remember,” she said.

Initial investment of 100 lei

The working time, on average, for a doll is around 8-9 hours, and Mihaela believes that the dolls are aimed at all ages.

“When I started crocheting, I was interested in buying quality materials, the filling is hypoallergenic, which does not affect children. The goggles are plastic and have a safety that is attached to the back so they cannot be removed. It relaxes me a lot, when my friends saw that I started crocheting, they came over and they thought the idea was very interesting because at the same time you can do something else on the side, watch a movie, listen to music”.

The young woman’s business started with an investment of 100 lei in materials, filling, threads and the boxes in which she sent the parcels.

“I initially made a smaller stock and then reinvested the money I was making from the orders. The first time I made a toy for myself, friends saw it and I got nice feedback. Then I made a toy for my father, it was his birthday and I was thinking of a more special gift. As he rarely sees me, I wanted to give him a special gift, and he still keeps the toy. Then my friends started telling me they wanted toys to give as gifts, I posted the pictures on Instagram and the orders started coming in,” she added.

Future plans

At the moment, Mihaela works on the basis of orders, and the most ordered toys are bears and bunnies. In the future, he wants to diversify his product range.

“I want to make more and more models, I also want to make cartoon characters because I saw that the little ones are passionate about Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, I want to make including sets, baby blankets with pillows and baby accessories like pacifier chains,” she concluded.

You can find Mihaela’s business on the Stonyland Facebook page and on the Instagram page with the same name.

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