When your means are limited, the most valuable weapon to have in your creative arsenal is imagination – something Atlanta-based designer Sarah Watts has in spades. “We were always drawing to pass the time,” she says of her childhood. “Making things, inventing things like playhouses and creating things out of nothing. Art was a very welcome and encouraging thing for us. It was a steady passion that helped me get through the toughest times." As early as high school, Sarah’s entrepreneurial spirit drove her to sell artwork and find ways to make a living off of her creative wares. “I had to help my parents with the bills at a young age. I would sell custom posters for people, draw them as characters, and even did window painting for the holidays. That’s how I first realized, ‘Oh, this could be my career.’”

Sarah graduated with a major in illustration from Ringling College and landed her first design gig at a children’s brand designing baby clothes, but soon yearned for freedom and space to develop a style all her own. When she received an offer to design her own collection for Blend Fabrics, she took the leap into exploring her personal style and design process, and soon after, joined the team at Cotton+Steel as a founding designer. “When I got into the fabric industry, I fell in love with it – hard. And then when I met the Ruby Star ladies, the energy right off the bat was amazing… The undertone of the whole industry is togetherness and working.”