Sewing Business Blog

How To Market Your Products

by 2 Comments

We have repeatedly talked about finding / making / coming up with products to sell.  If you can make the best kitchen decor items in your town, maybe it’s time to start making them to sell!  Same thing applies if your holiday decorations get “oohs” and “aahs” from all your friends, relatives and neighbors, perhaps you have the beginning of a business at your fingertips.

Well, now you have a table full of stuff to sell, how do you know what to price the items at?  Let me give you just a couple of pointers that will get you started.

** Research the market — go online and do some google searches (or yahoo or whatever search box you use) for the items that you want to sell.  See what comes up — how many different resources are there selling the same thing or something similar?  What are the pricing differences between the resources you’ve found?  Compare what you have to what is available – see what you can pinpoint about yours that makes it better than whatever competition there may be.  Don’t spend tons of time doing the research – just enough so you get the idea of what’s out there and what people are charging.

** Don’t under estimate the actual value of your item.  Many times those in the sewing / crafting areas grossly undervalue their time as well as the value of their completed products.  Never try to be the bottom of the list in your pricing — you are doing yourself a great injustice as well as not bringing in the dollars you should.  Sometimes the customer thinks that because your price is the lowest, the quality must also be poor, so your items get overlooked for more expensive ones.   Perhaps you could start your pricing at mid range of those similar products you find, but also be sure to see what you could put in your write up about your product that makes it look and seem just a little better than the rest.  For example, do you do “custom” work?  Perhaps embroider initials on the purses you sell?  Do you “double stitch” some areas that could be considered a “stress” area of your completed product?  (On the coupon clutches we make, because the binder will most likely be stuffed with coupons and a little extra heavy, we do quadruple stitching on the handles when putting them together, then double topstitch them as a finishing touch).  Any extra fancy touches you add to your product should certainly be mentioned in your writeup.

** Outsource the work you really don’t know how to do.  While you may be the best seamstress or crafter in town, you may be like me and know very little about getting all your stuff online, or even in getting a website or blog going.    Back in the days when “Front Page” was the going thing for making websites I was determined to do one of my own.  While my daughter and son-in-law were doing that as a business, I figured they were way too busy for me to ask them to do one for me.  Well, very long story short, I worked for WEEKS – every spare minute I had trying to get one done.   I eventually did get a very basic one done, but for a few others that I thought I needed, I was quick to ask them to put mine on their list to do.  In the end I realized that I COULD have done a whole lot more of the stuff that I KNEW how to do instead of doing the very difficult “learning curve” on how to put together my own website.  Nowdays there are tons of easier blog formats and website formats available (wordpress for example) to make it easier for those of us who are really non-techy.  The point of this is for you to spend your time doing what you do best, and ask for help on those things you really don’t know how to do.  There are professional looking graphics available that you can use if your talent is not being an artist, and there are places like elance that you can go to for help in setting up a blog or website.

** If you don’t want the hassle of your own blog or website – there are other places you can add your products to sell.  For example, Etsy is a super place for custom and handmade products.  You can list your products, open your own etsy “store” and get involved with this “handmade” community.  Of course there is always ebay where you can simply list your items individually and keep a running list of auctions going.

The main thing to keep in mind is that there are millions of people out there selling “their” things, and you can certainly be one of them and be able to make some extra money for yourself and your family.

How To Sew A Separating Zipper

by Leave a Comment

Sewing A Separating Zipper

          The separating zipper is best sewn in before any facings or hems are in place.

          To begin (A), machine baste the opening closed, then press the seam open.  Finish the seam if necessary with a zig zag stitch.  With the wrong side up, position the closed zipper face down on the seam allowances, centering the chain over the seam.  Extend the seam allowance and zipper tape.  

            Next (B), working on the right side of the garment, hand baste the seam allowances and zipper to the garment, 1/2” on either side of the seamline (5/8” from the seamline for heavy large-toothed jacket zippers).  Do not stitch across the bottom.

          Topstitch each side of the zipper (C), stitching slightly inside the hand basting.  Keep the stitching straight and the same distance from the center seam the entire length of the seam.  Pull the thread ends to the wrong side of the garment and tie.  Remove the hand bastings, then carefully open the center seam.

          Attach the facings (D) per instructions previously given, being careful to turn the facings under at a slight slant so they won’t be caught in the teeth.  When doing the hem, you will also need to turn the hem at a slight slant so it won’t get caught in the teeth and stitch in place.

          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

How To Choose The RIGHT Guest Blogger

by Leave a Comment

Last week we did a discussion on why guest bloggers could be important to your blog, as well as why YOU could be important to other bloggers in the role of “guest blogger”.  Today I’d like to go over a few pointers on how to choose the RIGHT guest blogger.

** The first thing you want to make very clear to your potential guest blogger is that they MUST be reliable.  After all, if you’re counting on them to do a guest post in your absence, you certainly don’t want that spot to be empty because the guest blogger fell down on the job!  You could do an initial guest post spot with that person while you’re still in town and available – then give them a deadline to get the post to you (the initial “trial” post) just to be sure they actually follow through with what was agreed upon.

** Ask for a “sample” post from the potential guest blogger.  By asking for a sample post, you can evaluate their style of writing as well as being able to check for grammer issues.  If their style of writing is similar to yours, or is something you wouldn’t mind adding to your blog, then this part of the screening process has passed.

** Keep in mind that just because you “speak” in a certain way (or write in a specific way), doesn’t mean that guest bloggers can’t be a little “different” in what they write.  That little bit of “difference” in writing style or verbage can actually help keep your blog interesting and will be considered “fresh” content.

** There are many blogs that have several contributing writers, so if you’re feeling like you’re being pressured by “needing” to do several posts a day, or several more per week than you can keep up on, perhaps a friend would like to join in with you and do two or more posts per week.  By “sharing” the post writing, you can each “do your own thing” for the blog and it could end up being easier on you, the owner of the blog, and something your “guest” can look forward to doing.

Tips For Sewing Zippers

by Leave a Comment

While we’re on the topic of installing various types of zippers, I thought this would be a great time to give some extra tips, hints, pointers and “did you know” information about zippers.  You may already be aware of some of these little tidbits, but hopefully you’ll see something that you didn’t already know, or that you can pass along to your other sewing friends.

** Did you know that sewing a zipper into a garment is faster than making buttonholes and sewing on buttons?  (NOW I know why I seem to always gravitate to the patterns with zippers instead of buttons/buttonholes!)

** If you have a nylon-coil or polyester-coil zipper that is the right color, but too long for the sewing project, simply cut it to the necessary size and “bar tack” across the coil 3/4″ from the bottom for the “stopper”.  The bar tack can be machine sewn or hand sewn.  NOTE:  for me, it is easier to MEASURE the size I need, then do the new bar tack in the right place, THEN cut the zipper — this way I can be sure the zipper won’t separate while I’m in the middle of doing the bar tack.

** If you have zippers in jackets or pants that won’t “zip” — rub up and down the zipper with a pencil lead, and the zipper is good as new!  YAY!  If you thought you’d have to replace that “broken” zipper, try the pencil lead procedure FIRST, and most likely you’ll save yourself some work!

** If you can’t find a zipper in the exact shade of your fabric, choose a slightly darker zipper.

** Short decorative zippers that have the wide teeth can be sewn on the front of a child’s play shirt and you’ll find this will fascinate him for a long period of time.  Kids love to play with zippers and when sewn on a play shirt it will be much easier for him/her to zip it up and down.

These sewing tips are an excerpt from our  “500 Kwik And Easy Sewing Tips” book.  If you have additional tips and hints for working with zippers, please let us know so we can pass them along to our readers.