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Let’s get organized!

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Posted on Apr 25, 2012 in Business Plan, Embroidery Tips & Techniques | 1 comment

After doing applique for awhile, you’ll probably accumulate a small….”stash”.

 The stash is a good thing–if you can see what you have, or have a photographic memory. Since I don’t have a photographic memory, I had to come up with a way to store the little (and some that are not-so-little) pieces.
 
What I came up with were plastic boxes in various sizes, but all by the same company, so they’d all stack together. The largest will hold about 20 gallons (think largish fish tank), while the smallest would hold about 2 cups of sugar. :-) The smaller ones will stack on the larger ones and sort of “lock” into place. It’s not really a lock, but it holds it in place so it doesn’t slide around.
 
The larger boxes hold larger amounts of fabrics, of course, so they usually have pinks, blues, and browns. I have smaller amounts of colors like yellow and orange so they are in the smaller boxes. The beauty of it is that if I begin to acquire more of a fabric color, I can just graduate it to a larger box. If I use almost all of my pinks, I can move them down a size if I need to.
 
I thought about labeling the boxes, but changed my mind once I started working with the fabrics. The boxes are see-through for the most part, so as long as the fabric is stacked neatly inside, I can see what’s in the box. Usually I’m looking for a certain color though, and will pull a box just to see what I have in that color family that might work.
 
I also have a large box that is just for satin, and one just for the fabrics I use for tooth fairy pillows.
 
The boxes are kept on metal shelves in the room where I do my embroidery. They’re out of the sunlight, which is good. The shelves are sturdy so there’s no danger of anything falling over.
 
What system do you use for storage? Do you like it? If you could have any type of storage system, what would it be?

Made in the USA?

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Posted on Apr 11, 2012 in Business Plan, Marketing | 2 comments

Are your products or supplies made in the U.S.A.? Does it matter to you? Does it matter to your customers?  I’ve been noticing that vendors are advertising their items as “Made in the U.S.A.”, or “Made here in Indiana”.   While I’ll almost always choose an item that’s been made here rather than in another country, I’ve been wondering if it matters to anyone else. 
What do you think? Do you advertise your products’ origin?

Anyone Started on an Easter outfit?

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Posted on Mar 1, 2012 in Embroidery Tips & Techniques | 9 comments

Ok, so I don’t do a lot of sewing from patterns. :-/ HOWEVER….I’m seriously thinking about making my daughter’s Easter dress this year. Am I crazy?
I’m thinking about using Simplicity 2683 or, perhaps Simplicity 4647. I also like McCalls 6062 (right).
Does anyone have any ideas for a novice seamstress who wants to make a simple dress that looks impressive? What should I look for in an easy pattern? Any fabrics I should totally avoid?
I’d love to hear if you’re making any Easter dresses this year! What patterns are you using?

Steps to Get your Items Ready to Sell

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Posted on Feb 2, 2012 in Business Plan | 6 comments

Now that your inventory has arrived, you need to get it ready to sell!
First, Price:  Determine your selling price. I take the net price of an item and double it. If there were shipping costs, I take the dollar amount for shipping and divide it by the number of items that were shipped. Add that to the doubled net price to get your selling price.  It’s a totally psychological thing, but I like for prices to end in .95 or .99. I will often round up or down to that number so that it ends in that amount. :-)  You can also go to websites like www.etsy.com to see what similar items are selling for. It may be a lot more than what you came up with!
Next, Describe: I struggle with writing descriptions for my website. Your descriptions need to let your customers “touch” your items. They need to be wordy enough to be engaging, and detailed enough to answer all of their questions.  I like to have very illustrative descriptions, but writing interesting, detailed copy can be overwhelming. I’ve found that I can go to the company’s website to find the dimensions and details without having to wrack my brain. www.thesaurus.com also helps when I can’t think of the word I want, but know what I want it to mean.
Do you have a different way to determine your selling price? How about your descriptions? Do your product descriptions tend to be bare-bones or chatty?

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