Krystle Merchant brings bright colors, bold prints, and a playful sense of surprise to her sewing. From zip pouches and quilts, her creative world is full of color, community, and plenty of room for happy accidents.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you first found your way to sewing and making.
I first learned to sew as a kid. My mom had been a make-your-best-friend’s-wedding-dress level seamstress in a past life and knew the importance of sewing as a life skill.
While I quickly gave up on the project of sewing clothes for my dolls (so small!), it was nice to fall back on it when a strap was too long or a button was too loose.
In 2015, I wanted to create a little space between my professional life and basic self-care, a space to be creative and get out of the house. I started making bags and pouches and came up with Zipped & Printed because of my love for bold prints for the various zip pouches.
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How did a creative outlet grow into Zipped & Printed, the business it is today?
For years, I mostly kept Z&P to weekends and evenings, sewing after work and finding events on the weekends. With a job change and a couple of moves, I had packed everything up in 2018 and I wasn’t sure when I’d return to it.
During the early part of the pandemic, however, I pulled my sewing machine back out to make masks during the shortage. After that, I taught myself the basic principles of quilting and then spent a couple of years just practicing those skills.
After the next move, the one that brought me to Philadelphia, I created a dedicated space for sewing, turned off vacation mode on the online shop, and got to work! It’s been really wonderful to spend so much time sewing, sourcing fabric, learning new skills, and connecting with folks through classes and local events.
Where do you find inspiration when you are not sitting at your sewing machine?
I’m lucky to work at Cut & Sew PHL, a modern quilt shop and sewing studio, and live in a city covered in murals. We’re also walking distance from a few yarn shops, great bakeries, several ceramics studios, and lots of other wonderful small businesses that blend creativity, productivity, and community.
There is so much to be inspired by in NW Philly! The color combinations, the bursts of new ideas, the trial and error of social media campaigns, the successes of connection – all of it is inspiring to me.
Take us into your creative space. What does your work area look like when you are in the middle of a project?
I wish I could say it is a perfectly organized and inviting space!
It is messy, colorful, and covered in scraps and offcuts. I have a few shelving units, some with bins of scraps and others with folded fabric. But every surface has fabric or notions or art I’ve purchased from other makers in the city.
I have items that I bought in 2015 and still use, and ones I picked up last week that are on their way out the door. It’s a wild and bright mix in here, which is only sometimes frustrating.
I tend to start new projects in the middle of other ones or stack fabric for a specific project long before I am going to actually work on it. Luckily, it all brings me joy, and I couldn’t imagine weeding it or downsizing the collection.
What have you learned about yourself from turning your creative work into a business?
I’m lucky that in many ways, I approached my life as a full-time teacher as a creative endeavor.
I was often copying new assignments right before class or changing up lessons during the day, before my next block came in. That ability to move quickly and make adjustments has been a blessing.
The curse of procrastination and needing the pressure of a deadline remains, too, though. I’d love to be ready for shows and events long before the weekend of, but there’s something about those last 20 hours before load-in that makes me feel like Bradley Cooper in Limitless.
How do you balance the business side of Zipped & Printed with the part that simply wants to sit down and make something?
I don’t! If there’s anything I learned over the years, it’s that balance is a bit of an illusion!
When I look back, or when I talk to fellow artists at local events, we’re all just making it work, taking it one day at a time. The ideas are swirling! The organizational systems sometimes work and sometimes fail. The deadlines come and go, the numbers add up or they accidentally don’t. We’re doing our best, and that just has to be okay.
I’m trying to bring my best work out of a brain that is processing tons of information, so much of it difficult and heart-wrenching. The conditions are not ideal! And yet, there is so much good – in what people do and make, in how they help others, in how we can change someone’s day or make their routines a little easier or brighter. That has to be good enough.
Where can people see your work?
I am online at www.shopzippedandprinted.com and on instagram at @zippedandprinted
Rapid-fire fun:
- Favorite color combination? Almost anything with the fabric color known as acid lime or electric lime…softer, lighter, deeper, darker….I love that color and have loved everything I’ve ever paired it with.
- Favorite thing you have ever made? Probably the items for the kids in my life – blankets, quilts, hats, wall hangings, appliqué upcycles – if it’s for a kid that I get to see grow up, I’m adding it to my all-time favorites list and counting my blessings.
- One word that describes your creative style? Unpredictable!
Interview posted September 2026
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