Sweet Yam Crafts reimagines textiles

“Being able to repurpose something and keep something out of the landfill but also out of the closet to be used, seen and enjoyed on an everyday basis was really compelling,” Poltorak said.

A highly-sought item is her “memory quilt” that repurposes treasured textiles — from childhood sports jerseys to a lost family member’s favorite articles — in a custom quilt.

The items Poltorak worked on originally began as T-shirt quilts made for graduations — something she did for herself — but that quickly evolved into making orders for people whose loved ones passed away and wanted a way to memorialize them through their clothing.

“I think the sentimentality part of it has been, not necessarily surprising, but more of a delight than I realized,” Poltorak said.

Poltorak narrows her clientele to those primarily in the larger Bay Area, and the decision to do so is critical to the work she does. For commission work, she will meet clients in person where she will identify what people have and what can be made from the available textiles.

Instead of shipping off precious clothes and fabrics to someone afar, meeting clients in person lets them know she values the materials she’s working with.

“Having that intimate face to face is really valuable,” Poltorak said. “Being able to do that for people is really special.”

Some of her favorite projects to work on are those that are intended to be generational gifts. Poltorak recently finished a baby quilt for a client’s grandchild reusing cross-stitches that her client made herself when she was pregnant with her daughter.

Another was commissioned by a former banker who had many work shirts he no longer needed. Poltorak reworked colorful button-ups made from nice materials into baby quilts for his sons.

“Most of my clients have never sewn, don’t know the first part of how to make that happen, and being able to say ‘I can do that for you’ and delivering not just a quilt, but a memory and keepsake for them has been really rewarding and satisfying,” Poltorak said.

Dedicating time to the craft, and making a business out of it, was in part because Poltorak realized that “sewing is a rare skill nowadays.” What once might have been taught in home economics classes in school is not as popular of a trade, and she found many people have never used a sewing machine.

“This is a way to preserve the skill and quilting specifically,” Poltorak said. “People meet me all the time — I’m in my 30s — and they’ll say ‘oh you’re so young, I was expecting gray hairs’ because when you think of a quilter that’s usually what a lot of people think.”

Her appreciation for sewing was born when she was quite young — Poltorak’s mother sewed Halloween costumes, and her grandmother was a quilter — and a job at a quilt shop in San Mateo while she was in high school solidified many of her skills in the craft.

After “college and adulthood happened,” it wasn’t until the pandemic that she was able to fall back into her craft. Starting out as a hobby again transformed into an established Etsy shop, and ultimately became Poltorak’s part-time job in the last two years.

Though she still maintains a part-time position in public relations, her craft work is “really fun and enjoyable.”

“I realized that there is a market for it, and there’s a way to use as many materials that are already in existence as much as possible. That’s really valuable in a lot of ways,” Poltorak said.

Sweet Yarn Crafts not only preserves textiles, but also the art of quilting.

“I think it’s been very cool to be a sewer, and really an artist, and have people appreciate and support an old art of quilting and sewing, but making it new and making it personal,” Poltorak said. “I’m grateful I get to do it.

Visit www.sweetyamcrafts.com to make a commission request or find more information.