Sew Cute! Saturday & Sunday

This weekend, I got a bit of quilting done - both for Sew Cute! and my own projects. I finally finished the wallet/coin purse duo for a custom order. t The coin purse took a bit of work, I made two and finally perfected it with this one.

I also decided that I want to make a Spring table runner with some pink lemonade fabrics that I picked out last year. I started this project this afternoon. I should be done sometime this week.

Here's the pic of what it will look like finished:


Among other things, I found out that I sold a few items at Lucy's...and was very excited about it. I realized that with Spring coming, I should try out another store to sell my bags at. Today, I headed down to Portsmouth and checked out another store. It looks promising...so we'll see!

lists

If you read my last entry, I am trying to expand my blogging abilities. It is important to not just blog about Sew Cute! and my business ideas. But, today is a day for organizing my thoughts!

This morning, I was reading my etsy email and all the wonderful tips and tricks they give you to promote your business. Of course, it would be wonderful if I had the time to actually implement all of these ideas - maybe I would increase my sales! Day by day, right? At least, while I am at work, I can do research and find cool ideas, document them here and then go back when I have time. That's the plan, anyway! One of the featured tips was from the curious pug, an etsy seller who blogs and posts helpful tutorials. If you get a chance, check it out - it is a great list of how to boost your etsy business. The five tips I liked the best were:
~4. Add your shop address and blog url to your email signature. - a great tip, why didn't I think of that?
~19. Make a slide-show quick and easy with Google Picasa and post it to YouTube. - she even includes a tutorial on how to do this! It's a creative way to get a new group of people looking at your stuff.
~23. Use your 14 tags wisely. You can also include your shop name as a tag in a few of your items so buyers can find you by searching for you on etsy. - I just recently realized you could type in your own tag at this point of adding an item on etsy and adding your shop name is super!
~17. Host a giveaway. - once I have some more followers and my shop has more inventory, this is top priority!
~26. Thinking about taking custom orders? It would be wise to take a non-refundable 50% deposit from the customer before you even begin. Then have them pay the rest after you set up a reserved listing with images. Don't just go through email with a custom order. Set up a listing on Etsy. - I think I need to look into this, I thought I set it up, but might need to revisit!
Thanks, Curious Pug, for all your helpful tips! Here is The Curious Pug's etsy page - the curious pug. Check it out!

#1 thing to do this week: set up a flickr account!

Sew Cute! Saturdays

I just came across a great blog when I was reading my weekly Etsy newsletter. CarzooCrittters is a fellow blogger who sells on etsy and blogs about their crafting experience. In this article, they posted a "Giant" list of blog ideas...something we could all use a lot of! So, from now on, I'm going to try to be a little more creative with my blogging.

First orde of business: Sew Cute! Saturdays ~ one suggestion was to have daily blogging topics that you follow through throughout the week. Another friend of mine does this. So, Saturdays will be Sew Cute! Saturdays. I usually do most of my sewing on the weekends. This way, I can take photos of my new creations and post them to the blog on Saturdays. I'm sure more ideas will come, but until then, check out my projects for the day and read that blog!

Saturday, February 27 - Today, I worked on finishing up some wallets for Lucy's Art Emporium and a custom order I have. Birds are very popular right now, so the two small wallets feature fun bird fabrics in blues and blacks. The black and yellow fabrics are some of my best sellers and the blues are perfect for Spring! The larger wallet is a custom order for a woman who purchased one of my bags at a craft fair this winter. She wants a matching wallet with divisions in it and a small change purse.
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Here is the wallet - I did have some trouble with it since this was the first time I made one. The clasp didn't want to work right at first with the divisions for the credit cards, but in the end with a little help from my seam ripper, the wallet is all ready! Now, I need to get cracking on the change purse!

whims and goals

I have a very interesting job. I work as a temp for an educational firm in the Quality Assurance department. Basically, I check data printouts with the web versions to make sure the data transferred correctly. I like it. I can listen to audio books while I work and there is absolutely no stress! Yay. Lately, we haven't had any work...maybe 15 minutes of small jobs here and there. While we wait for work, we can do basically anything at our desks. The past few weeks I've done the following:
-blog
-read Harry Potter (almost done the whole series for the millionth time)
-read other books
-listen to Pandora
-knit mittens and start a baby blanket
-learn how to crochet
-facebook stalking
-blog searching
-search for bag patterns and tutorials on the internet
-search for new recipes
-make my grocery lists
-embroider
-finish a few Sew Cute! projects that can be done by hand
You get the idea. If I could bring in my sewing machine, cutting mat, and rotary cutter, I would be the happiest gal alive! I am seriously thinking about it! With all this "free" time, I could be designing and making beautiful bags. But instead, I sit here and dream about how I am going to go home and create. Then, I go home and am tired! Probably from doing nothing all day...or it could be my 9 week secret =).

Today, I got the idea to remake a bag I have had since sophomore year in high school - so that's 1996 - it's a great bag - bought it from Aeropostale on clearance for like $7. Bright orange canvas, small messenger bag style. It was great for day trips and weekend trips where you are walking all around and need to carry the essentials - wallet, phone, water bottle, snacks, hand sanitizer (yes, I carried little hand wipes back then, too!). I always brought this particular bag with me to the Soul Fest, a Christian music festival in NH. If you are reading this and went to either high school or college with me, I am sure you remember this bag. Anyway, I realized the other day that it would be a perfect bag to take with me to the Museum of Science, though I didn't want to carry around a bright orange bag while wearing a bright red jacket! So, I thought, Meg, you make handbags, you can make this bag! Thinking about it now, I am going to find some fun decorator fabric (the heavier fabric at craft/fabric stores) and something to imitate the strap and make myself a bag. Maybe two. One for winter and one for summer. Then, I thought, as I was taking my walk at break time, I can sell some, too! Who doesn't need an all purpose bag? I'm so excited about the prospect of this now, at 3:30 pm, but I know when I get home, I will be sick and tired! Well, that is what weekends are for. Sewing! I'll try to find my orange bag and take a pic of it for you all (my two followers) to see!
Happy blogging.

a few new things

pink polka dot clutch
blue and green mini-tote with a darling matching button!

new happenings

My debut Sew Cute! at home party last Thursday was a success! I had about 8 guests and a great set of orders. One guest decided to host her own party in March and I have had three other friends contact me about hosting! This morning, I worked on cutting out some fabric for a few wallets that were ordered. My etsy site is pretty empty right now, so I need to post some new items that I made for the parties. I'm basically using it as an avenue for advertising, since the sales haven't picked up yet. Once these string of parties are done, I will look into more advertising. Maybe a blog giveaway...
Yesterday, while perusing the internet, I found a few great starter patterns for some new ideas. My brain is full of funky new items to sell - from wallets with zippers to clutches with metal frames. I found a great tutorial from the UK on how to make a clutch - clutch tutorial. Then, I found a seller on etsy.com that sells purse frames from the US for pretty inexpensive.

That's what I'm thinking about now. I will get some photos of my new projects up soon!

internet generation

Today, at work we had nothing to do. I work as a temp and when there is no work, we can do as we please at our desks. Generally, I will either knit or embroider and occasionally "surf the net." Today was no exception.

The first thing I decided to do was catch up on some current events - abc.com - and ended up reading an article about grocery shopping. I found a great website - grocerygame where you can search for coupons all in one place! The coupons can be stored in your online account (free) and then printed at your leisure. I found about 15 coupons for products that we commonly use. Pretty cool.

From there, I search for recipes on my two favorite recipe sites - allrecipes and eatingwell. Once I found some recipes, I made my grocery list. All in a day's work!

It gets better, though. I am heading to Colorado in a few days to visit my best friend who is having a baby - tomorrow! I wanted to relearn how to crochet so I can work on something on the plane. Google here I come....learn to crochet immediately brought me to lionbrand.com, which offers great tutorials accompanied by youtube videos! What an informative day!lionbrand