I haven't blogged in ages and I'm a bit late with my plans for 2019 considering it's March now but I thought I'd write about it anyway. I'm sure this will be a long and rambling post (as usual!). Starting a sewing business definitely didn't turn out like I had hoped. The market has changed a lot in the last 10ish years. WAHM nappies don't sell like they used to, however, cloth pads seem to be quite popular.
I went into this with the goal of making around £100 a month. Like, £100 profit, after materials and fees etc. I know it doesn't sound much but that would make a difference in my life. I didn't make that goal. In fact, I've ended up around £600 in debt...
I don't often hear WAHMs/makers discuss how much they're making, so it's hard to know what would be a realistic income to expect. I thought I'd write about earnings, in case anyone reading was considering starting up a sewing business. My best month was September, when I sold £162.44 worth of stuff and my worst months were August and December. I sold £15.44 on each of those months. That's the total sales, so I'd need to minus the fees, postage and how much it cost me to make all the items to get my actual profit. It looks like my monthly average sales are £67.71, again that's before fees and costs are taken into account, so I'm making maybe an average of £40 a month. If I paid myself an hourly wage for the time I spent on sewing and Etsy admin, I wouldn't be making anything at all. Sales aren't consistent either so you cant really count on having an income from them. I often get a bunch of sales together, and then nothing for weeks.
But I *have* sold things. I think I sold 48 or 49 items since I started in May. Someone pointed out that for Etsy, that’s actually pretty good. According to Etsy Rank, my shop has sold more than 71% of shops there. At first glance that seems kind of impressive, till you realise that it means that 70% of shops on Etsy have sold less than 49 items (and that's overall, not just per year).
I was thinking about winding this chapter up. I need to pay off what I owe so I thought I'd try to sew up what I could with what materials I had lying around, but then January started off pretty well and I had 6 orders, taking me over 50 sales and on the way to 60. Then I saw a 50% off sale on some flannel and since I'd made a little bit from sales I decided to buy some so I could make new cloth pads. After that I ended up putting another £100 on my credit card with the plan that I'd try my best to make a go of this.
I was just ironing all my new pre-washed flannels, gearing up to start a sewing marathon, when my shop received a bad review. Well, not a bad one. A three star one. Actually I don't mind about the three stars. I hate how people act like anything less than 5 stars is negative. To me three stars is 'okay' or 'average'. If we're only allowed to rate five stars then the whole rating system becomes meaningless. Yeah, so I don't mind about the stars, but the comment says that the pads are pretty much useless because they leak. As a customer that would definitely put me off buying. If I'm buying a cloth pad then I expect it to be able to do the job I bought it for.
So then I was like... ack, I just put another £100 on my credit card for fabric to make things no one is going to buy...
When I first bought the pattern I had wondered if the way the pads were constructed would cause leaking, but I read through all the reviews and didn't see anyone mention this. I know that sometimes people can be quick to leave reviews without properly trying things out, but I've been using the batch I made myself since about April and haven't had this problem myself. I do sometimes have leaking at the wings but this is a problem I also have with disposable pads. I usually leave my pads in a dry container until I'm ready to wash them and occasionally I'll see a small amount of blood has seeped through the stitches to the underside, so it's definitely something that can happen. But this is after them sitting there for days, and it's just a tiny amount, usually leaked around three or four stitches (mostly closer to the ends rather than at the middle where you'd expect most of the blood to be sitting. I have no explanation for that!).
I wondered if I did something wrong with those pads specifically. Like used the wrong size needle? Maybe even something crazy like forgot to put the PUL layer in? I wondered if maybe it was something to do with the red flannel. It's a thicker flannel than the flannel used for my own pads, but you'd think thicker flannel would perform better. I had bought a new pattern a few months back and I wondered if I should switch to that. I made one to test out. This is it before I put the snaps on.
It's made of flannel with a hidden layer of PUL and one layer of Zorb. Normally I hate trying to centre cores in these type of pads but I figured out a way to make sure it stayed centred, so I was pleased about that. I left the turning hole too small so it ended up getting kind of distorted when I turned the pad, so that part doesn't look great. Oh yeah, I also got a bit trim happy and trimmed too close to the turning section, so that also messed it up. I'm used to being able to trim all the way round with my current pattern. I did like the way it looked in the end though, even with the jacked up turning hole.
This is the back, which is actually a nice shade of pink, not like it looks in the photo. Obviously the top stitching goes through all the layers so there's still the potential for it to leak. It's much, much thinner than my usual type of pads. You'd think that would be a positive, but I didn't really like it because I couldn’t feel where it was and I worried about it moving around and me not noticing. Without the stitch down the centre there was nothing to channel the blood and it all spread out, making it look like there was a lot more. It spilled off the edges where the wings meet the body and soaked my underwear (again that's a problem I have with disposables and my other pads, but it's never this bad). It had also soaked onto the back at the edges. I wondered if it was because I backed it with flannel, so it caused wicking?
This is a little bunch I made. Red makes the most awful background, sorry! I think the tiny one is a 6 inch pad and the others are 8 inches, 9 inches, 10 inches and 12 inches. I used two layers of Zorb in the 12 inch one. These are all some of my new flannels, except for the kitties in Paris one, and the black flannel.
I used the 6 inch size to make myself a bunch of liners, which is something I've been meaning to do for a while. Well, I meant them to be liners, but they've actually got a full layer of PUL and they have one layer of Zorb for the core, so they're really just the same as my moderate pads, just much smaller. They're made from my thicker flannel, so they don't seem very flexible but they were okay to wear. They all need their threads cut in this photo.
I thought I'd do a rainbow thing with the snaps. I think I also cut out a bunch of 7 inch liners... or maybe I imagined that. I've cut so many things out lately!
While I was sewing these up, I had an order from a previous customer for more pads, and thinking about it, I've actually had about 3 or 4 repeat customers, so they're obviously happy with them and don't have any problems. I *do* have plenty of good feedback for them. Maybe they just don't work well for everyone. So I decided to carry on with my plans and started cutting and sewing more exposed core pads. These guys are almost finished. They're all 8 inch ones. I can't wait to sew with the rest of the fabrics! I have some chevron pattern, stripes, tartan, camo, spots and dots, fox print, bear print, owls. I even bought a tiny amount of plush fabric to try.
I went into this with the goal of making around £100 a month. Like, £100 profit, after materials and fees etc. I know it doesn't sound much but that would make a difference in my life. I didn't make that goal. In fact, I've ended up around £600 in debt...
I don't often hear WAHMs/makers discuss how much they're making, so it's hard to know what would be a realistic income to expect. I thought I'd write about earnings, in case anyone reading was considering starting up a sewing business. My best month was September, when I sold £162.44 worth of stuff and my worst months were August and December. I sold £15.44 on each of those months. That's the total sales, so I'd need to minus the fees, postage and how much it cost me to make all the items to get my actual profit. It looks like my monthly average sales are £67.71, again that's before fees and costs are taken into account, so I'm making maybe an average of £40 a month. If I paid myself an hourly wage for the time I spent on sewing and Etsy admin, I wouldn't be making anything at all. Sales aren't consistent either so you cant really count on having an income from them. I often get a bunch of sales together, and then nothing for weeks.
But I *have* sold things. I think I sold 48 or 49 items since I started in May. Someone pointed out that for Etsy, that’s actually pretty good. According to Etsy Rank, my shop has sold more than 71% of shops there. At first glance that seems kind of impressive, till you realise that it means that 70% of shops on Etsy have sold less than 49 items (and that's overall, not just per year).
I was thinking about winding this chapter up. I need to pay off what I owe so I thought I'd try to sew up what I could with what materials I had lying around, but then January started off pretty well and I had 6 orders, taking me over 50 sales and on the way to 60. Then I saw a 50% off sale on some flannel and since I'd made a little bit from sales I decided to buy some so I could make new cloth pads. After that I ended up putting another £100 on my credit card with the plan that I'd try my best to make a go of this.
I was just ironing all my new pre-washed flannels, gearing up to start a sewing marathon, when my shop received a bad review. Well, not a bad one. A three star one. Actually I don't mind about the three stars. I hate how people act like anything less than 5 stars is negative. To me three stars is 'okay' or 'average'. If we're only allowed to rate five stars then the whole rating system becomes meaningless. Yeah, so I don't mind about the stars, but the comment says that the pads are pretty much useless because they leak. As a customer that would definitely put me off buying. If I'm buying a cloth pad then I expect it to be able to do the job I bought it for.
So then I was like... ack, I just put another £100 on my credit card for fabric to make things no one is going to buy...
When I first bought the pattern I had wondered if the way the pads were constructed would cause leaking, but I read through all the reviews and didn't see anyone mention this. I know that sometimes people can be quick to leave reviews without properly trying things out, but I've been using the batch I made myself since about April and haven't had this problem myself. I do sometimes have leaking at the wings but this is a problem I also have with disposable pads. I usually leave my pads in a dry container until I'm ready to wash them and occasionally I'll see a small amount of blood has seeped through the stitches to the underside, so it's definitely something that can happen. But this is after them sitting there for days, and it's just a tiny amount, usually leaked around three or four stitches (mostly closer to the ends rather than at the middle where you'd expect most of the blood to be sitting. I have no explanation for that!).
I wondered if I did something wrong with those pads specifically. Like used the wrong size needle? Maybe even something crazy like forgot to put the PUL layer in? I wondered if maybe it was something to do with the red flannel. It's a thicker flannel than the flannel used for my own pads, but you'd think thicker flannel would perform better. I had bought a new pattern a few months back and I wondered if I should switch to that. I made one to test out. This is it before I put the snaps on.
It's made of flannel with a hidden layer of PUL and one layer of Zorb. Normally I hate trying to centre cores in these type of pads but I figured out a way to make sure it stayed centred, so I was pleased about that. I left the turning hole too small so it ended up getting kind of distorted when I turned the pad, so that part doesn't look great. Oh yeah, I also got a bit trim happy and trimmed too close to the turning section, so that also messed it up. I'm used to being able to trim all the way round with my current pattern. I did like the way it looked in the end though, even with the jacked up turning hole.
This is the back, which is actually a nice shade of pink, not like it looks in the photo. Obviously the top stitching goes through all the layers so there's still the potential for it to leak. It's much, much thinner than my usual type of pads. You'd think that would be a positive, but I didn't really like it because I couldn’t feel where it was and I worried about it moving around and me not noticing. Without the stitch down the centre there was nothing to channel the blood and it all spread out, making it look like there was a lot more. It spilled off the edges where the wings meet the body and soaked my underwear (again that's a problem I have with disposables and my other pads, but it's never this bad). It had also soaked onto the back at the edges. I wondered if it was because I backed it with flannel, so it caused wicking?
This is a little bunch I made. Red makes the most awful background, sorry! I think the tiny one is a 6 inch pad and the others are 8 inches, 9 inches, 10 inches and 12 inches. I used two layers of Zorb in the 12 inch one. These are all some of my new flannels, except for the kitties in Paris one, and the black flannel.
These are the backs. They've all got a hidden layer of PUL.
I used the 6 inch size to make myself a bunch of liners, which is something I've been meaning to do for a while. Well, I meant them to be liners, but they've actually got a full layer of PUL and they have one layer of Zorb for the core, so they're really just the same as my moderate pads, just much smaller. They're made from my thicker flannel, so they don't seem very flexible but they were okay to wear. They all need their threads cut in this photo.
I thought I'd do a rainbow thing with the snaps. I think I also cut out a bunch of 7 inch liners... or maybe I imagined that. I've cut so many things out lately!
While I was sewing these up, I had an order from a previous customer for more pads, and thinking about it, I've actually had about 3 or 4 repeat customers, so they're obviously happy with them and don't have any problems. I *do* have plenty of good feedback for them. Maybe they just don't work well for everyone. So I decided to carry on with my plans and started cutting and sewing more exposed core pads. These guys are almost finished. They're all 8 inch ones. I can't wait to sew with the rest of the fabrics! I have some chevron pattern, stripes, tartan, camo, spots and dots, fox print, bear print, owls. I even bought a tiny amount of plush fabric to try.
So after that blip, my plans for this year are to make and sell enough stuff to pay back my credit card. Actually making a profit would be great too, but I'd be happy just to break even. I plan to focus on cloth pads more than cloth nappies since they sell better, although I do have a few nappies to sew up still and I think I might make some more wolf design nappies because they've always sold quite quickly.
I thought I'd add a picture of my own stash, which is almost a year old now. Flannel can look pilly very quickly but I think it's held up pretty well. I did recently wash them all with some paint covered clothes and the jersey pads seem to have come out discoloured. Maybe they'll look better after another wash. The cat print pads and some of the marble dyed ones I made specifically for myself. The rest are rejects from my shop. I wasn't very happy with the windpro backed jersey pads I made because the snaps felt like they might pull through. So far that hasn't happened, but that's how they ended up in my stash. A few of the others were in sets that I ended up splitting up, so I tossed them into my stash. I didn't realise that I only had two 8 inch pads. Maybe I'll add a few more to my stash later. This seems like a decent amount to have though, especially with the addition of the new 6 inch mini pads.
I've been cutting and sewing very slowly over the last few weeks and I finally have about 20 pads made. I have lots more cut out to sew but I've run out of Zorb and there seems to be a world wide shortage right now! None of the usual places have it. White PUL is out of stock everywhere too. I ended up using black PUL in most of my pads. Most of the darker colours anyway. I'm not sure what I'm going to use if they no longer make the Zorb. I know there are other kinds of Zorb. There are also microfibre fabrics and different bamboo/cotton/hemp fleeces. I need to photograph everything I've made so far and get it uploaded. Maybe by the time I sell a few things the Zorb will be back in stock and I'll be able to afford some without having to use my credit card. Hopefully this will be a good year!
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