If you’re  in the alteration business, the “Animal pals” back packs and sleeping bags would be EXCELLENT items to add to your customer waiting area – those could be some great sellers, and later this fall you’ll probably be swamped with orders for making them for Christmas gifts.

It’s amazing how you can look through craft patterns and something just jumps out at you!  We have had super good luck with the childs’ portable playhouse.  As a matter of fact a few years back (before knee problems set in for me), we did a “circuit” of festivals and sold only the portable playhouses.  Kids absolutely love those, so even having one set up in your customer waiting area could bring extra sales to you.

So, be sure to check out Patterns That Fit You and see what you can find.  Oh, you might want to bookmark the site as we are constantly adding new patterns.

Regardless of the temperatures, it’s very much time for all of us to begin our regular “new season” sewing.  I’d like to recommend you check out our recently re-vamped PatternsThatFitYou site for dozens of great patterns.

Sewing for plus size children can be the hardest thing to do as there can rarely be anything found that will fit the overweight children.  PatternsThatFitYou has pattern making classes and regular packaged patterns for those hard to fit children.

If you’re looking for something for yourself, whether a regular size or full figure, PatternsThatFitYou has pattern classes designed just for you.  There are classes for slacks/shorts, blouses, dresses, sport bra and many others.

I’m so excited about getting my spring/summer wardrobe made and already have fabrics lined up for myself as well as for my grandchldren.

Let us know what YOUR sewing projects are!  Happy Sewing!

If you make and sell teenage type pillows, try adding some toddler pillows or additional “girly” type heart pillows.  A variety of additional items added to your current selection can be a great money maker for you.

As an additional example, we originally started selling a basic book on pattern making for women.  Then a few years later, because of a granddaughter that was very overweight, our plus size children pattern making classes and patterns was started.  The addition and popularity of the plus size children pattern making classes and patterns led to questions from customers if we had anything like that for plus size / full figure women.  TA DA!  The next thing in line for us was exactly what the customers were asking for, which began a whole new area of pattern making classes, which we set up as BigBeautifulPeople.

Listen to your customers talk when you’re at the craft fairs —- is there something specific that they’re looking for that you could add to your inventory?  Expanding your market with additional products can add more than you think to your profit margin.  Since you’re doing the craft fairs or Etsy selling, you’re already doing the motions of making items, so think “outside the box” and see what else you can add.

We encourage all of you who are in the sewing, crafting and art businesses to proudly proclaim that your items are INDEED made in America.  There are many folks who have made a decision to buy American made items if at all possible, so be sure to spread the word about your items.  If you have an on-line presence, be sure to make known in your website that you sell “made in America” products!

Happy New Year to all of our sewing/crafting friends.  We hope this will be a really great year for you!!!

Last night, Wednesday 11/30, she had a very informative segment on “Made In America” — and how there is a very big PUSH now on folks buying American made items for Christmas gifts.  She made a comment that if EVERY family would just buy $64 worth of “Made In America” products for Christmas gifts, that alone would help put thousands of people back to work.  They showed a variety of “made in America” businesses – from hot sauce, to toys and games, to clothing items – indicating that if MORE Americans would buy American made products, how much benefit there would be to our economy!

Do YOU have signs that you can hang on your craft fair/bazaar booth that proudly state that your items are MADE IN AMERICA?  Put some signs in your customer waiting area indicating that you’re all about the “made in America” push!

All of our items that we sell, from coupon clutches, to Plus Size childrens patterns, to Full Figure men/women’s books and patterns,  to Sewing Machine Repair books are ALL made right HERE in America!!  Check your Christmas gift list to see if any of these “Made in America” products would be a great idea for you.

Let your customers know that what you offer are also “Made in America” products —then remember the final words on the segment by Diane Sawyer — “Are YOU in?”    We certainly are and we are doing our best to spend, not just $64, but all we can on made in America products for under our Christmas tree this year!!

** Make a list of every person you’ll be giving a gift to — friends, relatives, teachers, children’s friends, office mates, etc.

** Try to think about something each person enjoys — a special hobby, their favorite sports team, color schemes in friends’ homes — and write that next to each name.

** Decide which people on the list you can “make” something for and those that will require you to “buy” something.  For those on the “buy” list, you can be on the look-out for sales that will certainly be starting very soon.  If a camera is at the top of somebody’s want list — you can be scouring the sale papers for the best deal — getting the best deal for the person and probably saving you a bundle at the same time.

** For those you can “make” something for — would it be a sewing project, a knitted item, kitchen aprons?  There are many tutorials all over the internet, as well as patterns available for just about anything you’d want to make.  Check out Patterns2Go for dozens of items you can make.  Many times there are certain craft/sewing books that those on your list would be very happy to receive.  You might check out the SewMachineRepair website for books for those on your list that do a lot of sewing or crafting.  Do you have family/friends that are major couponers?  I’m sure the gift they’d love above all things is the “designer tote” coupon clutch for carrying/organizing their coupon stash.

** I like to personalize each gift according to the receivers’ own tastes — this takes a little bit of thinking in order to get the perfect gift, but the time you spend in getting the list organized is well worth the time, and in the end actually SAVES you time during the shopping or “making” process.

** By making your holiday gift list EARLY, there’s much less chance that you’ll forget anyone!  Have you ever started wrapping gifts a couple days before Christmas and somebody’s name flashed through your head — one of the MAIN ones you wanted to get a gift for and because you’d gotten in a “last minute hurry” forgot to get them a gift?  To tell you the truth, I don’t know how I’d survive without my list!!

Do you have any other hints or tips you’d like to pass along?  We always like to share the tips our readers have.

Photo Credit: Reading Eagle, Lauren A. Little

Fabric store owners see increase in sewing as hobby – Some say when economy is bad, more people take it up!

Robert Richin, owner of Fabric Mart, has been in the business for more than 34 years, and said that when he started out, women sewed to save money. But today, his customers sew as a hobby. Fabric Mart, which has a retail store, does most of its Read the article

In the past we have used all three of the major shipping services, then we decided to do some comparisons — now OUR comparisons may not work with what you ship, but perhaps just get you thinking and checking — as you know, every dollar saved in this department is an extra dollar in YOUR pocket!

Many many moons ago we shipped larger packages with UPS —- UNTIL one day a product got broken during the shipping process and they had to pay the claim.  They said we hadn’t properly packaged the item (even though we’d shipped hundreds of the same item – knew HOW to pack it for shipping) and the very next package I took to them to ship they opened it in front of the crowded lobby to check it for proper packaging.  I was told that I was now in their system so that every package I shipped would have to be opened for inspection.  Needless to say, after being publicly embarrassed that day I have NOT stepped foot into a UPS office.

We have used Fed Ex and a year or so ago we tried to get better rates for shipping because of the quantity of packages we ship.  Because of the Sewing Machine Repair book sales and Coupon clutch sales we can easily have several dozen packages every couple of days.  They agreed to give us a 3 month “trial” period with a 5% discount on their shipping rates so they could monitor how many packages we were shipping on a daily basis.  Well, that WOULD have been a pretty good deal until we noticed that if a package was being shipped within a 100 mile radius, they hit us with “next day” shipping rates, and even with the more distant ones we got hit with “home delivery”, “gas surcharge” and some other surcharge that their representative couldn’t explain what it was for but it added an additional 50-75 cents per package.   PLUS, we had to provide our own packaging materials – boxes, envelopes, etc. 

And the winner for us………. the U.S. Postal Service!!!  We have a variety of sizes of FLAT RATE boxes — no matter where we ship in the U.S., Hawaii or APO addresses, the cost is the same.  We also have their flat rate envelopes for small items and the larger priority tyvek envelopes for other items.  No longer do we have the added expense of buying boxes and envelopes – they are provided by the Postal Service.   The flat rate fees and even priority envelope fees are less than what Fed Ex charges were.

If you do a lot of shipping, it might just be worth your time to weigh the costs/benefits of the various shipping services and see what difference it might make for you.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing a major sewing project like making cheerleader outfits, sewing up a bunch of new items for the next craft fair or just simply trying to get all the fall school sewing done, it’s very easy to get yourself 100% into a sewing mode and hope the dishes will wash themselves (ok put them in the dishwasher), laundry gets folded somehow just so you can stay on track with the time frame you’ve alloted yourself to get the sewing done.  This is the way I’ve been the last several months, and a week or so ago a friend told me I REALLY need to just stop long enough to smell the roses!  Well, she was absolutely right!

I have now been sidetracked from my sewing rut to do a few other things — and I want to tell you that we have some GREAT things coming up!  I’ve started working on a super cool (and EASY) sewing project tutorial that we’ll be featuring probably the first of next week.   We’re planning some great fall giveaways that we know you’ll love.  I LOVE fall and this season really gets me motivated so I’m ready to roll!!

We have several fall craft festivals coming up in October/November so I’m trying a few new project ideas and I’ll be sharing them with you as well.

What craft fairs / festivals are going to be in YOUR part of the world?  We’d like to hear how you’re doing — how is the crowd (larger or smaller than last year) and how about the dollars leaving customers’ pockets to buy from the vendors at the shows?  Good luck to all of you attending these shows and keep your fingers crossed for us as well.

At the end of last year when Denise saw the “end of year” postage paid figure, she about hit the ceiling.  She insisted that we could get a better deal from fed Ex because of the volume we were mailing.  She made me get out of my rut and get with Fed Ex to see what we could do.  I have a Fed Ex account that I rarely use, so decided I’d give them a call and see what kind of a deal they’d do for us.  Well, the deal is this — they would take my “last years” shipping total, then see how many packages we ship through them during the following 3 months, and if the volume is considerably higher, they’d give us a 5% discount.  Here’s the breakdown of a few of our shipping fees with Fed Ex (and needless to say, when I got to the point of clicking “ship”, I backed out and started over with a U.S. Postal Service label):

A package going to Tennessee (from Florida) via FedEx — ground and home delivery

$7.27 base fee

$3.00 DAS extended Residential fee (I have no clue what that means)

$2.45 Residential fee

$  .91 Fuel surcharge

$13.63 final charge

A package going to Washington State (5 business days) – ground and home delivery

$9.10 base fee

$2.45 Residential fee

$  .81 Fuel surcharge

$12.36 final cost

The priority mail flat rate box says 2-3 day delivery – anywhere in the country for the same $10.50 and they also have a delivery confirmation (tracking number) in case that’s needed.  We do charge our customers $10.00 for shipping the coupon clutch, then just “eat” the remaining amount — but the point here is that you need to check out all the alternatives and see what is the best deal for you and for your customers.  I’m sorry, Denise, but I’m back in my “U.S. Postal Service rut”, and looks like that’s where we’re going to stay.