Hooked: Miss JJ and Her Crocheting Success


Written by: Daphne Sagun | 6 months ago

Beautiful, young, and thriving! No better words can describe Julius John De Chavez (affectionately called Miss JJ by her peers), the woman behind the Threadsetter.ph, a trendy and rapidly growing crocheting business.

Hanging by a thread and pulling through

Like everyone else in the pandemic, Miss JJ’s family struggled financially. It was then that she saw crocheted crop tops on Facebook, which sparked the idea of starting a small crochet business. Starting with a Php 1,000, she began to crochet a variety of products to provide for her family. On June 30, 2020, Threadsetter.ph began to offer high-quality and unique items that ranged from cute accessories to baby shoes and clothes. In just three years, Threadsetter.ph managed to expand from being a one-person operation to a business with several distributors, ambassadors, and international clients.


 

Her passion for crocheting began in 2012 when she learned it in elementary school. In high school, she continued to learn and her talent was further nurtured by her mother.

“I can say that my most memorable memory while crocheting is when I was doing it with my late mother. Aside from enjoying the process, we were able to collaborate with the projects we were making, and we were able to see flaws and fix them by helping each other,” she shares.

It is her love for her family that inspires her to do more. As an adopted daughter, Miss JJ says that she owes her life to her foster parents. She talks of them fondly: “They treat me like I’m their own, sent me to big universities, and provided the best quality of life. So, I am dedicating all my success to them, especially with my mother who I consider now as my guardian angel, and I hope that she’s a proud mother in heaven.”

 

Giving back to her community

As her business expanded, Miss JJ has not only been able to provide for her family but for others as well. She is already running a total of four businesses: Threadsetter.ph, BJ’s Food Hub, Pasta Business, and Crochet Workshop.

With her meal business, she is able to continuously give free meals to vendors, riders, the homeless, and UPLB students. Together with their donors, they are able to provide meals almost every day! “It’s a two-way benefit, we are able to earn since donors are ordering from us. Then as part of it, we deliver quality food to those who are in need. We are very thankful that finally, we have a chance to extend our helping hand,” she happily shares.

Through her expansion, she’s been able to provide a livelihood for several people as well. When asked about her feelings on this, she answered “Very satisfying and happy since I have observed that a lot of our fellow Filipinos were still unemployed most especially with an incompetent government administration right now. It puts a lot of honor and pleasure that I can give our workers the salary they deserve, which follows the minimum wage in Los Baños.”

At present, she has been working hard to launch an advocacy group called, “Elbiyaya”. An original idea of UPLB alumni, the group aims to help students and business establishments around the campus.

Her kindness and generosity don’t end there. Out of passion for the craft, she chose to start teaching it! On September 3, 2022, the crochet artist began to teach people the craft through a series of workshops. Every Saturday, she holds three different crocheting classes in Los Baños, Laguna. The demand for the workshops was bigger than what she anticipated, so much so that had another batch!
 

Aside from her workshops, she has been inspiring crochet artists and aspiring entrepreneurs through various speaking engagements at the University of the Philippines - Los Baños.


 

Her secret to success

To this day, she is still overwhelmed by the continuous flow of opportunities. When asked what’s her secret, she answers that “there’s no such thing as a secret to success.”

“All we have to do is dedicate our time, effort, passion, and also we should be collaborative and have consistency,” she shares.

She also advises aspiring entrepreneurs to be uniquely themselves:

“Just be yourself, you don’t have to copy someone to become a well-known business owner, artist, et cetera. Have your own sense of branding that people may remember, be open to suggestions and new ideas to keep up with trends, and have a great sense of purpose in life and business. Always put passion on top, because without it we might fail since it’s the most important ingredient to success that we are all aiming for.”

Be on-trend and keep up with Miss JJ’s crochet products on Threadsetter.ph’s Facebook and Instagram.