Redefining Rich

The Work of My Life: February 2022 Report

“My main aim in life, whether with sewing or through any other medium, is to try and inspire others to get making too.” – Eppie Thompson

By all typical and outward measures, Eppie Thompson had everything going for her in life. Fresh off a chemistry degree and working a good finance job in the City of London, Thompson was on the path to what most of us would consider success. Steady pay, upward mobility, respectable work – the kind of stuff that can be easily explained to relatives and high school friends at holiday gatherings. If she kept following the path she was on, she might have even ended up rich.

There was only one small problem. Thompson wasn’t doing what she was meant to be doing.

In early 2020, a mere month before Covid hit, Thompson quit her job to launch The Fabled Thread, a business spun from the lost art of embroidery. With a brand that radiates whimsy, color, warmth, and craftsmanship, Thompson is reinvigorating the art of needlework for a new generation, embracing them with a warm welcome into her community of creativity.

Eppie Thompson in her home | photo via The Fabled Thread

At first blush, you might think that profiling someone passionate about sewing for this month’s edition of The Work of My Life is a deep cut for the Doomberg team, but Thompson is at her very core an outstanding content creator. We admire her art, work ethic, spirit, and gumption. Arriving at her beautifully designed website, one is greeted with the following message:

“I'm Eppie Thompson. I've fallen in love with the pleasures of sewing and I'd love to help you do the same.”

Thompson launched the business from her East London flat and enjoyed enough early success that she moved into a dedicated studio within a year. A further year on, and she just expanded into yet another studio three times the size of the first. Business is booming. Thompson sells embroidery kits, filling a market niche she identified when she embarked on her own journey of connecting with the art. Every collection that The Fabled Thread offers is attentively designed “to make each kit feel like a real treat for the maker,” including effective video tutorials, thoughtfully sourced high-quality materials, and substantial packaging that feels like a gift unto itself.

And therein lies the magic in her inevitable success. Thompson is both pursuing her passion and focusing on how her products make her customers feel, which, as we’ve written previously, is the ultimate expression of a winning brand. Her business has expanded into framing, sewing supplies, and highly sought-after in-person workshops where Thompson authentically evangelizes the healing, nourishing lift that making art with your own hands gives to the soul.

But the true vindication of Thompson’s decision to free herself from the tortuous shackles of a good job can be found by following her progress on Instagram, where she unselfconsciously chronicles the journey for all her supporters to observe. Especially touching is the series of Instagram Stories labeled “Studio II,” where Thompson documents the essential role her father plays in converting her new studio into a functioning factory. After a long first day of moving and construction, the pair break out into a joyous and spontaneous dance, with her father using the end of a Shop-Vac hose as a makeshift microphone. May every parent reading this be as rich as Rollo Thompson.

As longtime readers of Doomberg know, we have openly shared our progress in these monthly Work of My Life pieces. Inspired by Eppie Thompson, this will be the final month that we track progress in this way. We long ago surpassed the critical mass of readers needed to make Doomberg the only thing we do, and it has become increasingly difficult to keep our existing business going – the “have to” parts of our lives – while simultaneously dedicating as much time toward this passion project as it deserves. It’s time for us to dance.

We will be converting Doomberg to a paid newsletter in two months, and we’ll describe the full details in next month’s Work of My Life. This should give readers more than enough time to decide whether we’ve earned their business, and we look forward to delighting as many of you as possible on the other side of this life-changing transition. Stay tuned for more details, but for now, here are our numbers through February:

Articles written: 91
Twitter followers: 45,510 (+22.3%)
Email subscribers: 34,249 (+23.5%)

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