Well hello! It's been, um... seven years?? since I last posted here. It was fun for me to look back through old entries. Who is this darling baby I kept talking about?! I have a bunch of teenagers and a boy who will be 11 this year.
I haven't been sewing much at all over the last seven years, just a bit here and there. I did finish that quilt in the last post though! I have mainly been focused on writing. I thought maybe I'd try to get some of my work published and make money that way.
We moved house again in 2016. We actually own our own house now! Recently I got round to unpacking my sewing things and re-organising them. I found that I had a LOT of fabric. Much of it was nappy making supplies. I had always bought more than I needed with the intention of selling things, but when you never get a full nights sleep and can't even manage to get to the toilet alone, starting a business is pretty low on your list of priorities. I know some people manage it, but I'm not one of them.
I was looking at all this fabric, feeling a bit bad about all the money I'd spent on it over the years, then I thought, why not start a business now? I wasn't super onboard with that idea though. I felt like writing was my thing, not sewing, but once I started sewing a few items up, I fell back in love with it. Anyway, I'm sure I can do both sewing and write? Oh wait, this is me we're talking about...
I made a bunch of nappies.
Then I opened a shop on Etsy. It's called Firdal & Frost. Who is Firdal, and who is Frost? I have no idea. I'm rubbish at names, so I ran a bunch of words through a generator thing. One of the words was Fidra, which is a Scottish island. The program generated the word Firdal, and I was like, eh, that'll do. Apparently it's trendy to have names where it's like: Something & Something. Like Slug & Lettuce (which is a bar/restaurant) so I somewhat randomly tacked the word Frost on. So we have Firdal & Frost. I kind of like it. I knew I didn't want to have a name like Fluffy Bums or something because that limits you to selling baby/nappy items. I think Firdal & Frost has a bit of a boutique sound to it. It abbreviates to F&F too, which I thought was nice, but I'd probably get sued by Tesco if I used it.
I made a logo thingy though (and I was very proud!)
I think it might be a wee tad off centre. I should fix that.
I think I've come into this too late though. There aren't many UK nappy sellers on Etsy. Is this because UK mums don't buy WAHM nappies anymore, or because Etsy isn't the right place to sell them? And where is everyone? Back in the old days we used to hang out on forums and message boards. They seem to have died off. I suppose everyone is on Facebook now, which sucks because I despise Facebook.
My shop has only been open for 24 hours and it's had 5 views so far. Unfortunately, they were all from either me or my mother... Lol.
Cloth pads for women do seem to be selling on Etsy, so I've made some to list. This is why I wanted the non baby related name. Then I can sell what I like.
I haven't listed any yet. I'm sending them to a couple of people to try out before I list them, just to make sure the snaps are in the right place etc.
I'd like to sew some wet bags and cloth wipes, maybe some baby trousers that fit over cloth nappies. I have some embroidered nappies I need to finish off. I need to make some sales to get money to buy more supplies though. Although I have tons of fabric I don't have what I need to finish my projects. I need bamboo and Zorb and stuff.
Overall I'm feeling a bit meh about this and don't have much hope for it being successful. It's nice to be sewing again though.
You can find my shop here if you'd like to browse: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FirdalAndFrost
I haven't been sewing much at all over the last seven years, just a bit here and there. I did finish that quilt in the last post though! I have mainly been focused on writing. I thought maybe I'd try to get some of my work published and make money that way.
We moved house again in 2016. We actually own our own house now! Recently I got round to unpacking my sewing things and re-organising them. I found that I had a LOT of fabric. Much of it was nappy making supplies. I had always bought more than I needed with the intention of selling things, but when you never get a full nights sleep and can't even manage to get to the toilet alone, starting a business is pretty low on your list of priorities. I know some people manage it, but I'm not one of them.
I was looking at all this fabric, feeling a bit bad about all the money I'd spent on it over the years, then I thought, why not start a business now? I wasn't super onboard with that idea though. I felt like writing was my thing, not sewing, but once I started sewing a few items up, I fell back in love with it. Anyway, I'm sure I can do both sewing and write? Oh wait, this is me we're talking about...
I made a bunch of nappies.
Then I opened a shop on Etsy. It's called Firdal & Frost. Who is Firdal, and who is Frost? I have no idea. I'm rubbish at names, so I ran a bunch of words through a generator thing. One of the words was Fidra, which is a Scottish island. The program generated the word Firdal, and I was like, eh, that'll do. Apparently it's trendy to have names where it's like: Something & Something. Like Slug & Lettuce (which is a bar/restaurant) so I somewhat randomly tacked the word Frost on. So we have Firdal & Frost. I kind of like it. I knew I didn't want to have a name like Fluffy Bums or something because that limits you to selling baby/nappy items. I think Firdal & Frost has a bit of a boutique sound to it. It abbreviates to F&F too, which I thought was nice, but I'd probably get sued by Tesco if I used it.
I made a logo thingy though (and I was very proud!)
I think it might be a wee tad off centre. I should fix that.
I think I've come into this too late though. There aren't many UK nappy sellers on Etsy. Is this because UK mums don't buy WAHM nappies anymore, or because Etsy isn't the right place to sell them? And where is everyone? Back in the old days we used to hang out on forums and message boards. They seem to have died off. I suppose everyone is on Facebook now, which sucks because I despise Facebook.
My shop has only been open for 24 hours and it's had 5 views so far. Unfortunately, they were all from either me or my mother... Lol.
Cloth pads for women do seem to be selling on Etsy, so I've made some to list. This is why I wanted the non baby related name. Then I can sell what I like.
I haven't listed any yet. I'm sending them to a couple of people to try out before I list them, just to make sure the snaps are in the right place etc.
I'd like to sew some wet bags and cloth wipes, maybe some baby trousers that fit over cloth nappies. I have some embroidered nappies I need to finish off. I need to make some sales to get money to buy more supplies though. Although I have tons of fabric I don't have what I need to finish my projects. I need bamboo and Zorb and stuff.
Overall I'm feeling a bit meh about this and don't have much hope for it being successful. It's nice to be sewing again though.
You can find my shop here if you'd like to browse: www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FirdalAndFrost
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