Open

Well, for what it's worth I re-opened my Etsy shop.

How much do I (heart) these birds? A lot.

I want to move away from the ready-to-ship model to the sell-it-then-sew-it model. So I listed my two new dresses and a few of the (MANY) things I have hanging around from last year's craft fair season. I still need a lot of work on photos, but it's a start.

Modeled dresses

Rylee has croup. It's the sickest she's ever been and what's really crummy is her birthday party was supposed to be tomorrow. Postponing is the pits!

We got to the doctor yesterday and the steroids they gave her are making her feel much better. Before she was struck down with fever and wheezing I was able to persuade her to model the two dresses I made to sell.

The monkey is my favorite. The kind of print I would buy five times before I bought ladybugs. I have a bunch of it. But I already sold a ladybug one just from my blog post and I predict it will sell much better.

Monkeys, and dots and bugs

Oh, my!

I made two dresses for Rylee, both sample dresses of items I intend to post to Etsy. It's a simple contrast yoke dress, but I made the back a little wider and sewed in some elastic. Buttons and the way stupid CPSIA don't mix. So this goes over a little round head and still fits nicely in the back.

Between you and me, the elastic looks a little wonky on the monkey dress (first attempt) and better on the ladybug dress (second attempt). I sewed clear elastic inside the yoke as I was finishing it and I like the result. I need to practice to get it even so the ones I sell are PERFECT.

I sewed one with elastic sleeves.

And one with flutter sleeves.

And I *really* need to re-take pictures of the ladybug dress in the morning light. Cause even with Photoshop...yeesh. And yellow is pretty unforgiving.

I'm also going to really try to get my favorite model to cooperate, too.

Start. Stop. Start again.

Last fall I started dabbling in making things to sell. I bought WAY too much fabric, so much of it the wrong kind, in a ridiculous variety. I had one disastrous fair, one good fair and a few friends/family and two stranger sales in an Etsy shop that I let sputter to a halt right after Christmas.

I've been trying to decide whether or not to get back into it. I have no delusions that I will ever make a major going concern out of ANYTHING I do with my hands. I'm just not that talented. It would be more of a hobby that generated a little cash if everything went well.

So I've decided to make another go of it. Ideally I will learn from my mistakes and put a little more thought and planning into deciding what fabrics to buy and what types of things to make. I'm going to try a few more fairs with my good friend Hazelmoonfly who is MUCH more talented and creative. We'll see how that goes.

Etsy is tougher because there you either make things ready-to-ship (necessitating taking a billion photos and using up fabric on things people might not buy) or listing custom items (necessitating larger fabric purchases and one sample in Rylee's size). I'm going to try the 2nd route for now.

Here's the starting line-up. I have enough to make 2-5 items in each of these. Monkeys sold really well the first go round...