>Busyness

>One weekend a month is super busy because I have a stall at Boscombe Vintage market on the Saturday and then I’m at Lyndhurst on the Sunday.  The market at Boscombe is in its infancy, yesterday was the third one ever.  They have recently set up a website, http://www.boscombevintagemarket.co.uk/, which is pretty cool and I get a mention on there in the run up to a market if I am there (which I should be).  If you’re in the area on the first Saturday of the month, pop on down and have a look.

I’m also going to get more organised at selling things online.  I have been recommended a shopfront for my  Facebook business page and am going to get that installed.

Lastly I have started a blog over at wordpress which for the time being, I will import what I write here over to there, thanks to Dom, who has told me how to do it lol.  So fingers crossed it is as easy as he says that it is…

>New Fabric

>Made it to the fabric shop today and as luck would have it, they had a sale on, yippee!  So I was able to buy a bit more than I would have done which was good.

Here are the fabrics I bought:

The last one is patterned with pawprints, which I thought I could use for bordering some of the cushions with (depends how far a fat quarter will stretch).

So tomorrow will be spent cutting the panels for the cushions and getting border material sorted out.  Quite looking forward to getting down to work 🙂

>Bit of a quiet one today

>Lyndhurst was a bit quiet today, some were just looking, I guess that’s January for you.  I did however manage to make enough to cover the table costs and a tiny bit of profit, so all was good.  Had one customer complain about the price of the glasses cases :-(, so I politely pointed out to her that my lovely Grannie makes them by hand (and to be honest, I think they are worth at least double what I sell them for, but I feel that with the pile it high, cheap mass produced tat that some are looking for, I wouldn’t sell them at that price, more’s the pity).

Here are some pictures of the stall today:

Both of the cat cushions went today to a new home 🙂  and we’re off to Hansons at Sturminster Newton tomorrow to see if they sell panels of animals so I can make more cushions aimed at children as they do seem to sell well.

A couple of the other stallholders were really helpful today too.  They advised me to go to the crafty stores in town with a selection of my things to see if they would be interested in selling them, so I will be thinking seriously about putting the plan into action and seeing what comes of it, whilst still having a regular stall at Lyndhurst to keep getting my name out there.  World domination will come my way one day lol.

>Back on the craft fair circuit again

>Tomorrow sees the start of craft fairing again.  So have been a busy bee for the past month, getting things together to sell.  I am taking a new direction in my products and have decided to make more cushions as they sold well over the Christmas period, and eveyone loves a new cushion, don’t they?!

So, here are a few that I will be taking with me to Lyndhurst tomorrow:

The two cat ones are the same, I had enough fabric to make two of them, so they could go as a pair or seperately.

Fingers crossed people have money to spend tomorrow…

>Its F-F-F-Freezing!

>Well, the weather has got colder and today I decided to book my table at the Boscombe Vintage Market again on 18th December.  So now I’m thinking I am going to have to acquire some thermal underwear and some of those heat thingies to put in my gloves and shoes.  Oh, and maybe bring a blanket or something to snuggle into.  Last month was cold when outdoors for several hours, so am envisioning that I will become a block of ice in two weeks time.  All in the name of a sale.

I have been making new things with my waterproof fabric, namely washbags, only made a few so far, jsut to see if they sell or not.  Here are some pictures:

I also put the make-up bags on Folksy for sale, here is the link:  Folksy Shop

>wow, how long has it been?!

>Eeek, long blog silence, don’t know where the time goes these days.  The past couple of months have been quite busy, with one thing and another.  I have embarked on the school christmas fayre circuit, with mixed results.  But keep doing it because the next one could be THE one 🙂  I am getting my name out there which can only be good and at each fayre, my business cards have gone to a few visitors, so fingers crossed I get some business from that avenue.

Last week my lovely friend and fab photographer, Nancy, took photos of all my stock so I will be slowly putting them on here and on facebook and the website.  I have been tinkering with the website a bit this week, finally happy with the colour scheme.  The link to it is www.daydreamandsewing.co.uk  It is still a work in progress, I will get there in the end 🙂

Here are a few of Nancy’s photos:

I have also branched into making make-up bags.  A couple of weeks ago I bought some waterproof fabric to put inside them and here are my new designs:

and this one, my favourite out of the three designs, sold this morning:

Well, off now, hopefully I won’t be so long next time coming back 🙂  Check out my facebook page as I update that more often – www.facebook.com/daydreamingandsewing

>Getting ready for tomorrow

>After the mix-up last week, due to my dozy brain, and not writing the date down when it was given to me – doh – I am ready a week early for my next craft fair 🙂 Today was spent feverishly finishing off three bags that needed handles and making 4 purses from scratch. I am getting pretty good at making purses now and they don’t take too long at all. I realise that I haven’t posted new makes for a while, I haven’t had the battery charged in the camera for ages, so photographed these from my mobile phone:

All is left is for me to pack them away with the rest of my wares ready for tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed it is a good selling day 🙂

>Two Craft Fairs Later…

>Well, since I last blogged (I know, far too long ago) I have attended two craft fairs, both at the same place, in Lyndhurst.  My first fair was not very good, it was extremely quiet :-(.   The other stallholders were lovely and reassured me that out of the worst days they had had, that day was THE worst, eeek.  Not so good for a newbie like me and the other three newbie stallholders that were there that day.  Here are a couple of pictures of my table:

 
My lovely son helped me put the items out on show.  It really was a baptism of fire.  I looked around at the other tables and they were set out lovely with things at different heights and standing out more.  There were little things that I had not even considered, like something to keep my money in – doh!  Such a steep learning curve, but the other ladies there were really helpful and kept the morale running high, it was a great feeling to be included from the outset.  So much so that I decided to persevere and book another date!

And boy, was I glad I did.  In the run-up to today, I did some serious thinking about how to lay out my table so it would be more appealing and decided that less was definitely more.  Whereas last time I tried to cram every little thing onto the table, this time, I chose a few of each item to showcase, and then if anyone showed interest, I could bring out other examples for them to look at.  Here is a photo of today’s table:

I am really proud of my presentation 🙂 because I wasn’t sure I would be able to make my table look like some of the others that I had seen.  Today was a lot busier and I had a lot more interest in my wares.  My first sale (within 15 minutes of opening) was of one of my handbags, which covered the table fee and put me in profit!  Should have seen my grin, I was beaming.  All in all, today I made enough money to cover the last table fee and this one and have a bit of profit too.  I am feeling a lot more confident about my products now and how they are presented.  I also treated myself to a cash box last week and am mighty glad that I did 🙂

I have booked to do another in two weeks time and am looking forward to it.  Its going to be busy, busy, busy, though, getting things made for sale, but I am relishing the opportunity to get my products out there in the public eye again.

>More Cushions and Two Craft Fairs

>Well, it has been a busy week, last week.  I finished off three more cushions, photos to follow, and checked out a craft fair in Lyndhurst.  This led me to send off two applications for tables at two craft fairs this morning, one is a one off and the other is ongoing and I am hoping to have a regular table there.  So feeling a bit apprehensive at putting my stuff out there for the general public, but I must progress and make some profit from my hard labours.

Here are pictures of the latest three cushions:

Here are the six so far together:

So tomorrow, I will be finishing off another cushion and making some more panels with the rest of the moda charm squares I found in a drawer under my workspace.  Going to be working like mad getting things made and ready for the craft fairs coming up.

>Finding Craft Fairs

>I have been looking online for craft fairs to exhibit and sell my work, as I have amassed quite a bit of stock now and getting wibbles that Glastonbury will charge too much money for me.  I have found a few hopefuls and look forward to hearing from them.

Apart from research today, I have also finished another cushion panel, ready for a back to be made for it, so that is now two that need backs cutting.  I also have made space on my work table and brought in the kitchen table to put the sewing machine on so I have more room now for cutting fabric and putting things together.  Also the kitchen table is a more stable surface for the sewing machine to sit on 🙂  and finally, put together another bag as far as the zip hand-sewing which I plan to do tomorrow in better light and more awake eyes (if you look closely, you can see it in the picture below).

Below are the two other cushions I have finished already, that now have pads in (thank you Tracy for the pad)