About Us

About Us

Santa's Stitches was started over 12 years ago by a couple who lived in the city of North Pole, Alaska, who wanted to expand their sewing hobby by starting a business. After a few years, a few machines, a few locations, digitizing software, and a lot of long hours, an embroidery business was born.

In 1997 I purchased this business. My name is Lisa Boswell, the present owner of Santa's Stitches. I was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska and a third generation Alaskan. At this time, I had just moved back home from California where I had been living and wanted to own my own business. My dad and his business partner had just gotten their logo digitized and embroidered on some Carhartt jackets and thought that was the coolest thing. They found out that the business where they had the jackets embroidered was up for sale.

After moving back from California we did some research into the embroidery business and I thought, "Yeah, I can do that, let's go for it." Not knowing anything about embroidery or even how to sew, this was quite an undertaking. However, this particular business purchase did not pan out, as the equipment was very old, but low and behold, we discovered that Santa's Stitches was also for sale. They had two new machines and new digitizing software. In May 1997, we purhased Santa's Stitches with a contract for a lot of training and phone support for one year.

The first year was tough! Within a few long frustrating months, I figured out that I could not operate the machines, digitize and help customers at the same time! I must have thought I was Superwomen or something (WRONG). In July 1998, Santa's Stitches was lucky enough to bring on board, a real-live cowgirl from Texas. Her name is Julie Mercer. She had considerable ad specialty and screenprinting experience, with some digitizing as well. Oh, how lucky I was to have her.

Between the two of us we were off and running full-speed ahead. Our next move was to literally move the business. North Pole is a very small town 15 miles from Fairbanks and could not suppport the walk-in traffic needed to survive in the embroidery business. Therefore, we moved Santa's Stitches to Fairbanks and since then our business has grown tremendously. We have been in the same location for 6 years and have now outgrown our current space, making it necessary for us to move to a larger location in 2004.

We receive outstanding local support and have made certain that all our customers both large and small, receive the best customer service we can provide. We are proud of the reputation we have for excellent customer service, quick turnaround time and quality embroidery. In addition to embroidery and digitizing, we have added an Ad Specialty line of items.

Julie and I would also like to introduce you to the rest of our staff pictured below.