Sewing Business Blog

Sweetheart Pin Cushion Tutorial

Posted By Sarah J. Doyle on February 6, 2010

Two days in a row we’ve gleaned super Valentine’s Day tutorials from Jessica at HappyTogether blog. Today we’re going to show off her Sweetheart Pin Cushion tutorial. As you probably already know, I love pin cushions, and really need to start a pin cushion collection! One of those small shadow boxes that people use to show off little decorator bells or thimbles, etc would be just perfect for pin cushions.

At any rate, check out these sweetheart pincushions that are really little sweethearts!

SweetheartPincushion

I LOVE the looks of these cute pin cushions! Thanks again Jessica for a great tutorial!

Gooey Hearts Toddler Shirt

Posted By Sarah J. Doyle on February 5, 2010

We’ve had the pleasure of using wonderful tutorials from Jessica at HappyTogether previously, and we found another one for you. This one is just in time for Valentine’s Day — and I believe every little girl should have one of these Gooey Hearts Shirts!!!

HeartTShirt

Isn’t that just the prettiest little girl and cutest little shirt! Thanks Jessica for the great tutorial.

Attaching And Sewing A Flat Collar

Posted By Sarah J. Doyle on February 3, 2010

Attaching and sewing a flat collar is not a difficult thing to do. There are certain procedures to follow, and if you follow these steps with each collar you do, you’ll have perfect looking collars every time.

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Before applying the collar, staystitch the neckline to prevent it from stretching, and sew all darts, seam lines, etc that intersect the neck seam (A). If the collar consists of two units, as shown above, align and join the two where their neck seam lines meet (sometimes the collars may overlap, depending on the style).

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Match notches, pin and baste the collar to the garment (C) along the neck seam line. Make sure the point where the two collar units are joined is at the garment center. Place the neckline facing on top of the collar (D), with the right side of the facing toward the collar. Match the notches and pin or baste the facing to the collar and garment. The ends of the facing will extend past the garment as illustrated above. Machine stitch through all layers being careful to keep the collar/facing/garment in the proper position as has been pinned and basted.

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Press the entire seam open, running the tip of the iron between the facing and collar seam allowances (E). Next press the facing to the inside of the garment (F). Tack the facing edge in place at the shoulder seam lines. Turn the facing ends under at the zipper (G), and slipstitch in place. The last item it to attach a hook and eye fastener at the top of the zipper to close the opening.

Next week we’ll cover the construction of a two piece rolled collar. These “how to” tutorials are an excerpt from our book “Basic Clothing Construction”. This book is a handy addition to have in your sewing room, so you can refer to the various sewing tips and tutorials at any time.

Winner of the Gingher Pinking Shears & Snips is……

Posted By S. Denise Hoyle on February 2, 2010

gingherg-giveaway

The winner of our giveaway for these beautiful 7 1/2″ Gingher pinking shears and Gingher 4″ featherweight thread snips ($89 value) is Sally, who said,

I am a subscriber. I am just taking quilting classes

Please get in touch Sally and give us your mailing address! Thanks so much to all who entered – keep an eye out for our next giveaway!

giveaway_winner020210

Are You Retired, But Need Extra Money?

Posted By Sarah J. Doyle on February 1, 2010

We realize that not all of our readers are currently active in the sewing / crafting / alteration businesses. Some of you are doing other jobs, or have NO job, and are looking for information about starting your own business. In addition, there are some who are retired, but thanks to the economy their retirement nest eggs have disappeared, so are now looking for ways to supplement their loss of retirement income.

The internet is a great place to start looking for extra income. If you DO have your own business you can begin to promote it online with a blog or your own website. For those just looking for extra income, a blog can be a perfect way to begin. We’ve previously had posts relating to blogging and some of the places you can set up a blog. You don’t even have to have anything immediately to sell on your new blog. Do some searches for things you’ve always enjoyed and find affiliates for items you can put along the sidebar of your blog. Many companies have affiliate programs for items they sell, such as the affiliate program for CouponClutch.com — you can find items all related to sewing for example, or if you’re a dog lover, you can find affiliate programs for pet related items.

As you write your own posts on the blog, your readers will also be looking at what else you have available, and perhaps be clicking on those affiliate links, and when they purchase the item, you’ve just made some money. All affiliate programs pay differently – some pay a few cents per click, some pay a dollar or more per sale, and some, such as CouponClutch.com pay a certain percentage of the total sale (Coupon Clutch pays 7% of every sale to you).

If you are a writer, you could write your own booklet on information you’ve accumulated over the years – make that information into a downloadable ebook, then offer your own information for sale.

If you are a retired teacher you could check out the schools that are offering online classes, and perhaps become affiliated with them as an instructor.

Regular full-time and part-time jobs in most towns and cities are pretty slim, and not too many businesses are hiring right now, so perhaps the internet could be the answer for you extra income needs.

I would like to make one thing clear about affiliate and internet marketing, whether you’re marketing your own items, or those from somebody else — there is never a guarantee as to how much money you’ll be making. That part time job may pay $8 / hour and you may work 15 hours a week to equal a certain amount of net income. Online marketing usually starts out slowly as word gets out about your products, your blog and/or your website, then starts to grow over time. All things considered, the time spent with your online marketing could generate a very nice amount of extra income for you.

Enter to Win the Sew Warm Contest

Posted By S. Denise Hoyle on January 29, 2010

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Instructables and Singer have teamed up to bring you the Sew Warm Contest and it’s super easy to enter! Just make a new instructable showing how to make something that will warm you up and submit it before March 6, 2010. There is no limitation on the materials you use or the function of the item, the only requirement is that it be sewn, either by hand or by machine. The fantastic prizes include a Singer Futura SES-2000 All-In-One Sew, Embroider and Serge Machine for the grand prize winner, Singer dress forms for three first prize winners, and Singer sewing baskets for five third prize winners. Click here for the official rules. Good luck and let us know if you enter!

How to Sell Your Own Downloadable Products

Posted By S. Denise Hoyle on January 28, 2010

Gloria, one of our fave readers, wrote in with a question that inspired today’s post.

When I buy one of your patterns, I am directed to a page for instant download. How do you do that? Is there a website that sets that up for you? I have some patterns that I would like to sell but I don’t know how to set that up. Would you please tell me how this is done?

We thought some of you might also be interested in learning how to sell your creative works as downloadables online so here is a quick and easy breakdown of the steps.

If you have a pattern design, instruction booklet, project tutorial or ebook that you’d like to sell online, the first step is turn your product into a downloadable format that can be easily accessed by your potential customers. Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is the current industry standard and can be easily read by most every computer and the required reader is a free download.

If you don’t already own Adobe Acrobat, which will allow you to create PDF documents, you can use a free PDF converter like Primo PDF or Cute PDF. You can even create PDFs of full size pattern pieces by tiling the images in Acrobat if you have them available in a digital format on your computer.

The next step is to determine what method to use for delivering your downloadables. If your customers must wait for you to email them download instructions they may become irritated at having to wait, and you’re actually creating more work for yourself (and customer support issues) than necessary. Online customers these days demand immediate satisfaction, especially if they’re purchasing downloadable products, so make it easier on them (and on you!) by automating the process.

We’ve used many different methods of automating the download process over the years, and in fact use more than one method right now, but by far the easiest and cheapest that we’ve found for small businesses is PayLoadz. After testing lots of different techniques, we’ve been with PayLoadz for years and highly recommend them because you can get started for free (premium accounts start at $5/month), their fees are based on your sales so your bill doesn’t go up unless your sales do, and they handle the whole download process on the back end for you.

Once you’ve setup an account all you have to do is upload your product file, type in the description and price, and put up the links on your website or send them out via email. You can sell your downloadable products on eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon too, plus they’ll let you choose whether to allow affiliates to help market your products and it’s as simple as clicking a button. When a customer purchases your downloadable product PayLoadz immediately sends them an email with a personalized link and download instructions, plus any additional information that you specify. All you have to do is check your email for sale notifications!

PayLoadz can be used with PayPal, Google Checkout, 2Checkout and other payment systems, and has support for six currencies so you can even make international sales. The best part is that PayLoadz protects your files and limits downloads through encrypted links to reduce abuse and unapproved file sharing.

This is a great way to get started selling your downloadable products very inexpensively and with limited need for technical knowledge on your part. Good luck and please let us know how PayLoadz works out for you!

Tutorial – Construction Of A Flat Collar

Posted By Sarah J. Doyle on January 27, 2010

Awhile back I did a post entitled “Types Of Collars”, with those types being flat, standing and rolled. I said I’d do a tutorial on how to construct and attach each of those collar types, then got sidetracked onto other topics. Today, and for the next several weeks, I will pass along the tutorials for you.

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After cutting out the pattern pieces and interfacing as indicated in the pattern package, you will first apply the interfacing to the wrong side of each under collar. With the right sides together, match, pin and baste each upper collar to each under collar, leaving the neck edges open (A).

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Stitch each unit along the outer seam line (B), again leaving the neck edges open. Use short stitches at the corners for reinforcement. Stitch across the corners to “blunt” them (as shown in the SEAMS section). Trim and grade the seam allowances (C), trim across the corners and clip the curved seam allowances, being careful not to clip through the seam line.

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Press all of the seams open over a tailor’s ham (D). Next press the seam allowances toward the under collar (E). The last step in preparing the collar for sewing is to turn the collar units right side out. An easy way to pull out the corners is to thread a needle with a short length of thread, and make a large “knot” at the end. Push the needle through from the inside of the corner to the outside as indicated above; pull the needle through and the knot will pull the corner through where it needs to be. You can then just reach inside the collar the pull the knot back far enough to cut it off and pull the rest of the threaded needle on out.

Next week we’ll cover how to attach and sew the flat collar. These “how to” tutorials are an excerpt from our book “Basic Clothing Construction”. This book is a handy addition to have in your sewing room, so you can refer to the various sewing tips and tutorials at any time.

Project Tutorial: Grocery Bag from a Pillowcase

Posted By S. Denise Hoyle on January 26, 2010

pillowcase_grocery

Creative Kismet has a great tutorial on how to make a grocery tote from a pillowcase. I think the design is super cute and I can’t wait to have my four year old girls “help” me make a few. The directions call for a thrifted pillowcase, thread, and about an hour of good music – sounds like a plan to me!

How Many Times Have You Changed The Direction of Your Sewing Career?

Posted By Sarah J. Doyle on January 25, 2010

A few weeks ago I had a call from a lady who wanted information about our Profitable Clothing Alteration Business book. She told me she had been doing garment sewing, but that the sewing had been really slow so she was wanting to start taking in alterations. She said she needed more information about alterations in order to start that aspect of her sewing business.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my own sewing “life”, and how many directions my sewing has gone. I started out doing alterations, then as customers asked if I’d make them some pants, a dress or skirt, my sewing business shifted that direction. Then when my military husband was transferred to Taiwan, I once again shifted my interest to pattern making, as there was no opportunity to do either sewing or alterations in Taiwan. Pattern making became my love, and I became involved in teaching pattern making classes, then expanded to writing the information in book and class form and putting it on the internet so those living across the country or around the world could participate in the classes. PatternsThatFitYou became the avenue to get my pattern making classes out to the public.

My daughter and business partner, Denise, seems to have a real knack for figuring out what people need and want (in many cases it’s because of HER need for the items). In high school her first job was doing alterations at home for dry cleaners because her busy school schedule wouldn’t allow her to have a job with set hours. In college her interest changed somewhat to scarves – she loved the way scarves could dress up and change her minimal wardrobe. The result of her interest in scarves resulted in her writing her best selling book to this day – 101 Ways To Tie A Scarf. Later, when her first born son came along, she couldn’t find any patterns or garments that would allow her to breast feed the baby comfortably. Once again, the direction of her sewing interest changed – this time was to create fashionable nursing clothing, not only for herself, but for others who were also in need of nursing garments. And now, because of the economy and job losses in her family, she has once again been put to the test – and this time a major change of direction was required. In order to help feed her five children under the age of 5 (4 year old quadruplets and their big brother who is 5), she started cutting every coupon she could get her hands on. She started using coupons upon coupons to cut the dollars being spent on food and necessities. With mountains of coupons growing, she needed a way to catagorize and file them so they could be easily seen and used. This time her “need” was filled by the Coupon Clutch coupon carrier she designed and hand made. It appears that there are many others doing the same couponing from the amount of orders she has for the coupon clutch, and interest in her ShopperStrategy blog that gives all the ins and outs of using coupons effectively, as well as giving links to freebies and good deals.

I believe Denise just about takes the prize for the number of times she’s changed the direction of her sewing career!

How about you? How many times have you made changes in your sewing career? We’d love to hear about it and see if you can top Denise’s list of “changes”.

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Sweetheart Pin Cushion Tutorial

Related Posts:

Gooey Hearts Toddler Shirt

Related Posts:

Attaching And Sewing A Flat Collar

Related Posts:

Winner of the Gingher Pinking Shears & Snips is……

Related Posts:

Are You Retired, But Need Extra Money?

Related Posts:

Enter to Win the Sew Warm Contest

Related Posts:

How to Sell Your Own Downloadable Products

Related Posts:

Tutorial – Construction Of A Flat Collar

Related Posts:

Project Tutorial: Grocery Bag from a Pillowcase

Related Posts:

How Many Times Have You Changed The Direction of Your Sewing Career?

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