Selling on Etsy: Starting out

My first Etsy store was a Japanese inspired baby clothing and accessory store called Utsukushiiya. A few people bought baby kimono sets and dolls, but it wasn't until I started listing my Toddler Quiet Books (totally not Japanese related) that I started to make more regular sales. So then I needed a new store name. I played around with the first and middle names of my two children until I settled on Riches and Roses, which I really like.

And so that's how my store came about. Now the Toddler Quiet Books and newborn baby hats make up most of my sales on Etsy and MadeIt. For a while I also made some sales at a child-friendly cafe near my house and I do a few through friends and by word of mouth. Sometimes I think I'd like the shop to grow and provide a proper income. Other times I'm happy for the sales to come and go and for it to remain a hobby. I know that to grow it, I need to take bigger risks - sell at markets, advertise, commit more time and money - and I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

Works in progress: newborn baby hats, baby in a pouch, dinosaur softie, quiet books

As always, I've got a bunch of projects on the go at the moment. I've been busy adding to my stock of newborn baby hats as these have been selling really well as the warmer weather starts to arrive on the east coast of Australia. I added this dinosaur design to my hat range this week - cute no?

I'm also working on this baby in a pouch. I found the idea here: http://www.colouredbuttons.com/2010/02/inout-or-how-monstery-triplets-can.html and thought it was just too cute. Since her little brother came along at the end of 2012, Miss almost 3 loves wrapping her babies and I thought this would be a cute and portable little surprise for her when she goes into hospital for surgery in a couple of weeks.

The dinosaur softie is still not finished for Mr 9 months. I'm still at the feet and have been struggling to sew these tiny little circles to the base so that it can stand up. I'd been very tempted to just sew straight across the feet to close them until my mother (to whom I owe all of my sewing ability) suggested running a gathering stitch around the circles and pulling them in to fit.

I've now put together all the designs for all four quiet book versions that I'm planning to make. I'm waiting for some supplies to arrive so got a bit carried away and planned them all out. I'm waiting for a few things to arrive, but the biggie is the Heat n Bond iron on transfer paper - it's central to the whole process as it's what I use to attach the layers of felt onto each page. I still always sew around each piece just to be sure that it won't budge (can't be too careful with kids' stuff), but it really helps finish things off nicely.

Lesley :)

Works in progress: quiet books, hats

This week I started on the new Quiet Books. The idea is to make four different kinds, each following a different theme.

I'm starting out on the colours and alphabet books, and will later add a numbers book and a shape book.

The colours book is turning out as also an animal book, as it will feature a yellow baby chicken, orange goldfish, green frog, red crab, pink pig and a blue whale. I'm planning on making each page interactive with either zippers, magnets, buttons, velcro, finger puppets or some kind of movement.

The alphabet book will go from A to F: Apple, Balloon, Cat, Dog, Egg and Fish, and in a similar way will also have interactive pages with velcro, buttons, bow tying, buckles, zippers and magnets.

So many little pieces go into making these books that the first thing I've had to do is order a few more supplies (such as magnets and buckles). I've also cut out all of the pages in cotton calico, using a cute three little pigs fabric for the front and back covers.

I'm in the process of drawing up the pattern pages at the moment and will make some of these available here soon.

With the weather warming up here on the east coast of Australia, my newborn baby hats have been selling quickly from my etsy and madeit shops, so I'll also be cutting out and making up some more of these in the next few days.

Lesley :)