Our Story
After many many years talking about the lack of modern scout camp blankets and how there must be a business opportunity there, the button to launch Stuff It Outdoors was finally pushed in May 2020 by my eldest daughter reaching over my shoulder whilst I was dithering with nerves.
I was a girl guide in my local village of Bleadon in Somerset, with a guide leader who was all for traditions. We camped in bell tents, made washing up stands and boot racks fresh each year using pioneering skills and cooked every meal on open fires. I achieved my Queens Guide badge and was the only person in the district to get my Milk Maids badge - on our bad tempered goat, Bella! It's quite amazing how many of the skills I learnt during those years that I use today. And of course I had a traditional scratchy woollen camp blanket, full of badges I earnt, places I visited, campsites and jamborees, which unfortunately got lost in one of my parents house moves.
Not going on to Rangers, it was only when I met up with some friends and joined an active Scout Fellowship that I got involved in Scouting again. And it was through this group that I met my husband, Ali, at a county camp where we were running a cafe.
Ali was a Venture Scout Leader in Axe District so I started helping out with them, taking a break when we had our 3 daughters. Given the choice of joining Guides or Scouts, the girls, of course, chose Scouts and like most leaders, I found myself dropping the girls off, hanging around and eventually joined the Cub Pack. The rest is history really. I got asked to become the leader of another cub pack who had lost their leadership team, I became Group Scout Leader of that group a while later, and meantime my husband went from County Network Commissioner to Deputy District Commissioner to District Commissioner. It wasn't long until I took on 2 more Groups as GSL.
Whilst this was all going on I was a Regional Manager with The Body Shop At Home, helping and supporting self employed consultants build their businesses. I gain fantastic leadership and coaching skills during this time and when we parted ways I set up my own business as a small business coach.
With all 3 girls in scouting, (and sewing on endless badges!), I searched high and low for a modern version of a camp blanket that wasn't tiny and also had a hood. It was quite some time later though that I really had the courage to do serious research and contact suppliers, etc.
I took a couple of metres of fabric with me when I visited my sisters in New Zealand and we made up a couple of mini samples. (Esme has her own business too - www.littlelamb.com - making modern day versions of the Terry Nappy!) The plan was initially to get the blankets to stuff into the pocket so it could be also used as a pillow - hence the name Stuff It. It worked wonderfully as a mini version, but when we tried as a full size hooded blanket, the pocket would had have to be huge! My dogs enjoyed modelling the tiny prototypes though.
My mum had taught me and my sisters to sew and to use a sewing machine so whilst my skills were rusty, it wasn't long until I had the design and style I was happy with and the business was launched.
It has been amazing fun and extreme frustration since our launch, and I've loved every minute of it. My family have all been amazing support, from coping with the dining room completely being taken over, to listening to my thoughts, to modelling the blankets. I love finding fabulous new fabrics to try out, when I get feedback from customers who love their blanket, and always have the customer and great customer service at the heart of everything I do.