My Sewing Blog

I've been working on some more things for my shop. I've been a bit short of cash so I haven't been able to buy more snaps and wicking fabric to finish them all yet. I also need bamboo for a bunch of fitted nappies I've cut out. I've discovered that I have no clue how to run a business. I'm not sure how to budget. So far I've used all the money I've made to buy new fabrics or supplies. I haven't quite figured out how I'm supposed to make a profit yet. Surely there will be a point where you've built up enough supplies that you can actually keep some of the money you make? I'd like to have some spare cash so that my kids can go swimming and stuff during the summer. I have tons of scraps of PUL and hate throwing things away, so I thought I'd trim the scraps down into squares and sew them together to make some covers. I don't recommend doing this because it takes forever! I'm not too sure how well they'll work either because ...

I was talking to my mum earlier last week, she's just started making and selling baby hats, so we were talking about how business was going. My shop hadn't had a sale since the beginning of June. I think my mum has sold two of her baby hats. I said that I didn't expect to sell anything at the weekend as the weather was supposed to be nice (yes, we've actually been having summer here in Scotland!). I thought everyone would be outside enjoying the weather. I think I jinxed myself, in a nice way! On Friday two of my favourite nappies sold, then during the weekend I had two sales of the cloth pads I uploaded. I sold ten items altogether and now there's almost nothing left in my shop! I haven't been doing much shop related stuff lately, but actually selling stuff gave me a boost. I spent yesterday embroidering some nappies. I embroidered an owl which could have been amazing, but just didn't work out. For some reason the bobbin thread kept showing, especially on...

Things have been very busy here lately. E passed her driving test! We bought a new car (well, an old car, but new to us) and M started a job doing nightshift. The boys have all had man flu. I have done some sewing though. Mainly just finishing off the things I've started. I've had to remove all the Rocket Bottoms nappies from my shop because a customer who bought some contacted me to say that they were all leaking. Eek! I need to figure out what's wrong with them. It could be the design, or it could be the fabrics. Or maybe it's something I did wrong. I must have sewn around 200 nappies in my time, so I'd like to think I wouldn't have made some kind of stupid mistake. I'm sending one to someone else to check out and see if it leaks for her. I'm remaking the customer's order using the Opulent Monsters pattern, which is wider through the crotch so should work better with the inserts she has. Hopefully I'll be able to salvage the Rocket Bottoms napp...

Yesterday I had a terrible day with my embroidery machine. I embroidered an adorable little cat, but the fabric seemed to end up puckered. I think it was because it was a spaced out design and every time the thread jumped to a new section it pulled the fabric tight. The eyes had so many different colours layered over the top of each other that the fabric became solid and the thread kept breaking. At least the needle didn't break. Oh, I started off by embroidering it upside down and ended up unpicking around 1,000 stitches. I'll probably sew up the nappy and then give it away. After that I thought I'd try doing the 'wild' design again in more boy-ish colours. I managed to get it the right way up but I don't like the colours I picked. Sigh! I did make this though and I love the way it turned out. I think it had around 21,000 stitches and it took about an hour and a half to stitch out. But I think it was worth it. Okay, moths aren't exactly the first thing yo...

I finally finished the embroidered nappies! These are from the Opulent Monsters diaper pattern. Of course, I'm not happy with them! The designs are all too high up, and I messed up the PUL pocket for the embroidery. I layered it up wrong, but the backside of the embroidery is fully enclosed inside the PUL pocket, which is probably the most important thing. I'll sell them all at a discount though, since they're not perfect. After talking about how great the design for the pocket in this nappy was, I re-read the instructions and realised that I sewed it wrong. Here's how it's supposed to look. I'm not sure I like it this way. One of the advantages of sewing it wrong was that you could hold the nappy by the wing and the insert would just slide out. This way you actually have to open the pocket and rummage around to pull the insert out. I also think the PUL panel is a bit too large. The whole front section of the nappy is now waterproof, which isn't much good ...

I think I've had my shop open for about a week now. I've not had any sales. I'd read that a lot of people go several months before making their first sale, so I wasn't really expecting to sell anything. My shop has 49 views and 16 visits so far. I think half of those visits were from family though! A few of my nappies have been viewed 5 times now. Someone also marked my shop as a favourite which was really exciting! It's all quite nerve wracking really. I keep checking the stats and worrying I'll never sell anything, and at the same time I'm hoping that I don't sell anything in case people don't like my stuff and leave bad feedback. I found a site called Etsy Rank, which analyses your keywords etc. Apparently there is a low demand for pocket nappies. I kind of figured that. It says the competition is medium, although it includes the whole of Etsy, and I know there aren't as many UK sellers as American ones. I joined the dreaded f-word. That...