I've just returned home after a few days visiting family and after hearing such positive feedback on my handmade birthday gifts I am filled with new enthusiasm. This week I have been looking for new ideas and have produced some bookmarks as part of my recycled fabric range ....
So far I have made a dog, horse, dinosaur and a bear!
Next I'm going to give finger puppets a try but my husband has also tasked me with kitting out the interior of his recently renovated Volkswagen Camper so it looks like I'm going to be busy! This will involve working with vinyl which I haven't sewn much in the past.
My mother-in-law has also asked me to make her four huge roman blinds for her front room since she saw the one I made for our bathroom window ....
I made this a few months ago along with some matching wall panels out of the remnants ....
I was really pleased at how these turned out but am a little daunted at making four of them for windows 180cm wide!
Looks like I now have plenty of projects on the horizon .... will keep you posted!
Thought I would try and pull myself out of a hole by putting my troubles on paper, so to speak!
I know I have only spent a few weeks trying to develop my craft hobby as a bit of a small business venture but my lack of progress has started to get me down a bit this weekend.
Rather foolishly I thought that if I set up a website with a few preliminary photos of what I could make and the ideas I have for customised gifts then people would find me and buy, buy, buy! (Not sure how I thought they would find me out of the thousands upon thousands of sites out there but that's the enthusiasm I set out with anyway)
I also spent hours on the computer (one of my least favourite places) trawling the web to find forums and online sites for promoting handmade crafts and don't get me wrong, I think this has been time well spent but it hasn't generated the interest I hoped for.
Feedback for my crafty products has been positive and I'm developing new ones all the time but I can't help feeling disheartened that I haven't got a waiting list of people asking for my customised dolls. "Rag-a-mama" has been a great success with my own children and those of the people who have ordered them but maybe my marketing isn't right.
I'm going to try displaying some products in a couple of local shops if they'll have me but will this work for made-to-order customised items? .... I don't know.
I know I'm not alone and there are lots of keen crafters out there feverishly trying to promote their unique handmade goods so why not join me in a little bit of therapeutic screaming ..... 1 ..... 2 ..... 3 ..... aaaaaahhhhh!
There, that's much better!
If you're a keen crafter or hobbyist like myself then I'm sure you often find you have more ideas than you ever have the time to do anything with!
I find I'm always coming up with ideas inspired by the things I see when I'm out and about or surfing the web - the difficulty is deciding which ones to realise.
I'm trying to introduce myself to the buyers market as a producer of handmade, one-off customised and personalised gifts 'reborn' from recycled and reclaimed fabrics.
In an effort to promote myself I recently launched my new website www.tees2teds.com and opened pages on Etsy, Misi and ToSouk but I don't know that I'm clear enough about the customised/bespoke options available on many of my items. How can you sell these unique gifts if no-one knows they exist?
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| Tooth fairy pillow |
There are so many lovely handmade things out there - wonderful creations I'm coming across on the sites I mentioned and these forums are a really great way of getting in touch with fellow crafters, but how do we get our goodies in the public eye?
Being a small-time, home-based crafter I guess I have to accept that I am a very little fish in very very big pond - but I would like to make a ripple or two on the surface if I could!
I've bitten the bullet and done it - here goes with my first blog!
I make handcrafted soft toys and gifts out of reclaimed fabrics including second-hand clothes. As my creations unfold I will use this blog to show them to people and hopefully get some feedback.
I'll also be looking to promote projects from other like-minded craft addicts along with anything else that catches my eye while I trawl the neighbourhood and the net!
This is one of my newest products, I hope you like her! She was created as a mini version of me to pacify my unsettled child at night time and we fondly refer to her as Rag-a-mama!
She is 75cm tall and customised with hair colour, eye colour etc of the customers choice. I love personalising my products to make them even more special as gifts and its great to hear when my creations are loved by other people as I love making them!
