Monday 29 November 2010

In for a Penny, In for a Pound!

I have this very annoying habit of giving myself extra stress when quite frankly life, especially heading towards Christmas, is hectic enough! What makes me do it I don't know, probably the lack of hindsight is partly to blame! So last week I found myself in a shop in my local town asking whether they would stock or even just display some of my Christmas baby bibs.


Now I've been thinking of approaching this shop for awhile but my nerves always get the better of me, so why last week was different I don't know. Of course starting a new "venture" just a few weeks before xmas is ridiculous, maybe the fact that I was half expecting them to say no has something to do with it. So when they said yes and then started talking of all the things I could make for them reality started to hit home. And I came away a little shell shocked! When do I think I will have the spare time to start doing all these very exciting new things?! And of course even just getting a few bibs ready to take in to the shop at the weekend meant spare minutes spent writing out labels and thinking of a way of displaying them.


I've been given quite a free rein at the shop, though they have suggested Cath Kidston's fabrics to possibly appear in some of the items. I have mixed feelings about this, from a business point of view it makes sense, especially when I look around the town, but I am hoping that once the owner sees the astonishing range of fabrics new and vintage that you can get these days that they will be convinced that other fabrics are just as saleable.


In exchange for the "freedom", the shop will only pay me if an item sells, so that way it doesn't seem like such a gamble for them and they have agreed to take a commission of 30% which I feel is very reasonable, but being new to this game I don't really know. So the last few days have been very exciting as well as rather daunting.


I delivered my first few bibs on Saturday and I am really pleased with the way they look. I bought the "Santa's little helpers" fabric earlier on this year and have had great fun teaming it up with other festive fabrics. I am hoping to take in a couple more made out of some different fabric this week. But I think my ideas for stockings and blankets are going to have to shelved for this year! I must soon start on some of my family sewing. I really can't believe its nearly the 1st of December, I must finish our Christmas shopping.


I have listed the patchwork bib above in my folksy shop and I am hoping to have another one listed in the next couple of days. I must look into last posting days as I think they will be upon us before I know it. I have had some feedback from a lady who brought some items from my folksy shop and she said that buying from the site was quite hard work, rather complicated, and thought the fact that she had to register quite annoying. I don't know if anyone else has any thoughts on the matter. I think it is a shame that you can't buy on the site without setting up an account and going through the registering process and do wonder if this puts people off? Anyway it is a thought I will continue to ponder over, but right now I must start preparing for Mr D's birthday which is tomorrow, and just seems to have crept up on me and bitten me on my bum! 
Ouch!

6 comments:

  1. Good luck with your new venture. I love your bibs - your use of fabrics is really fab. Very interesting what you say about Folksy and having to register...

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  2. Good luck with your new venture! I work in a gallery and often have people coming in asking us to stock their work.... you can tell that they have been building up to asking for ages! The bibs are lovely, I adore the fabric! x

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  3. How exciting - they look great, I wish you success with it.
    30% sounds very reasonable, most shops take 50% of the retail price, sometimes with VAT on top of that - which makes things very tough for the maker.

    Just need to magic up some extra hours now! x

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  4. I think they look wonderful, there is so many people that want original items and epsecially at xmas and birthdays, so good luck and i hope you sell some soon as you will get a huge buzz from it x

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  5. The bibs look lovely and the shop sounds really reasonable and accomodating - good luckw ith managing everything. I havenwondered about that with folksy too, but I'm not sure what the solution is?
    Islay's birthday is coming up too (19th)- such a pain having December birthdays! Juliex

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  6. They look great and it's brilliant news you've found a local shop who'll stock your work, fab news! I agree on the Folksy comment, I've heard it quite a few times and is one of the main problems I think, especially as people are paying using PayPal which contains all posting details. Shame really. Bethx

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