Help Me Pick a New Product (and a Sale!)

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During my kid-free Saturday I made a huge pile of Little Blankies and finished the rest of the Changing Pad Clutches.  I also cut out and started stitching this giant stack of burp cloths, which should be done in the next few days.

 

 

 

 

So I’ve decided I’ve earned a reward – I’m going to make something brand new for the shop!  Making new stuff is my favorite part of running this business.  Truthfully, sometimes making stacks and stacks of the same thing gets a little old and I need something different to spice things up a bit.

 

I have something in mind that’s a sweet little baby toy, but I’ve also been tossing around the idea of a new personalized room decoration that works for both a nursery and a big kid’s room.  Also, my friend Shan suggested making some crowns for little boys after I begged for opinions on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

Since I’m bringing in some new things soon, I’m retiring a few products from my Etsy shop.  I’m going to set up a sale section this weekend with all of the prints and Barrette Organizers – once they’re gone, they’re sadly not coming back.  The prints are goners since they don’t fit in with my product mix.  The Barrette Organizers just haven’t been popular enough to keep around.

 

So what do you think the new product (or products!) should be?  Any other suggestions?  I’ve got all that new fabric to play with and I’m antsy to get sewing!

New Product: the Director’s Cut

Tweet The original bobaloo got an American Girl doll for Christmas.  I’m not gonna lie, I was excited about this.  How fun is making doll clothes?  You get to use little bits of fabric, they go quick, and the doll never outgrows them.  It was inevitable that I would end up with a new product for the shop thanks to that doll.





So Christmas day, I’m talking to my sister about doll clothes, and somehow one of us mentions little aprons.  Kate said I should make matching doll and girl aprons and my mind was off and running.

First, I was thinking I could make them out of Alexander Henry’s 2D Zoo, which is available in a regular size print and another that is the same print, only significantly smaller.  As much as I love that fabric I didn’t want that to be my only option.  I emailed my favorite fabric stores to see if any other manufacturers made the same print in two sizes.  No luck.

Now I know I could have just used the same fabric for both aprons, but I’m a stickler for the details.  Bridget got a matching doll and girl pajama set with her doll and I love the fact that the doll outfit is a miniature version of the girl outfit, right down to the pattern scale.



 

A lightbulb went off – Spoonflower!  I could design my own fabric for the aprons!  Photoshop and I spent some quality time together and before I knew it, I had four different apron set designs printed and shipped right to my door.  I sewed them up and I just have to say, the first two sets turned out ADORABLE!





The pink Glamour Girl set and the Green and Yellow Leaves set are both available in my Etsy store now.  I have a super-cute pink set with an elephant detail and a very French set coming in the next week or so.

I bribe Bridget with suckers to model for my little girl products.  I thought you guys might enjoy a few outtakes from the apron set photo shoot - my personal favorite is the bottom left.





It’s sad how many of my billions of ideas never see the light of day.  What triggers new ideas for you?  How many of your ideas actually get made?  Do share!

Spoonflower, Yet Another Way to Feed My Fabric Addiction

Tweet I’m working on some fun new stuff for the shop and I needed some pretty specific fabric.  I couldn’t really find what I was looking for (even after emailing a few of my fave online fabric shops) so I decided to print my own at Spoonflower.  Holy moly, so much fun!  And no, they didn't sponsor this - I was just really excited to share my VERY OWN fabric!



On Spoonflower you can upload your own designs and have them printed on a bunch of different base fabrics.  You can also shop other people’s designs – there are some AWESOME fabrics available!

I designed my fabric in Photoshop and uploaded it to Spoonflower, which was quick and easy.  My design is 42” wide and 16” tall, so I just set it up in Spoonflower as a basic repeat, checked the previews, and ordered my 3 yards (which came to a total of $54.60, in case you were wondering).



Shipping was lighting fast.  I ordered on December 25th and the fabric was in my hot little hands on the 30th.  I washed it in warm water, ran it through the dryer, and ironed it. 

I really am happy with the fabric.  It is noticeably stiffer than the quilting weight cottons I usually work with, but I’m guessing it will soften up after a few washes (plus the stiffness makes it super easy to sew).  I don’t think I’d use it for apparel because it does wrinkle pretty easily.  If you’re sewing apparel, try one of the other base fabrics.



The colors are really bright and crisp.  In a couple areas that are a solid color, like this pink, the color does look a little heathered.  However, some of the tiny tiny details are perfectly clear, which is really impressive.  And there’s a nice white margin around the entire printed area so you don’t have to worry about any of your design being trimmed off (which was really important for the future of this fabric).

Overall, I’ll for sure be a repeat Spoonflower customer.  I went with the quilting weight cotton because that’s what I typically use, but I think next time I’ll try another base fabric.  The ability to design fabrics for specific products has triggered a whole slew of new product ideas!



If you have any questions about the process, feel free to ask.  And if you’re going to order, definitely check out their FAQ for some good info about getting your file ready to upload.  Oh, and I’ll share what this fabric becomes soon – a big thanks to my sister Kate for planting the idea in my head!

Have any of you tried Spoonflower or any other fabric printing service?  What would you do with your very own fabric designs?

Holiday Madness and a Giveaway!

Tweet My very first blog giveaway is going on over at luvinthemommyhood!  Shannon contacted me a while back with some very sweet comments about my shop and I’m so happy to have my inaugural giveaway at her blog.  Go check it out – there’s even a special discount!



Speaking of giveaways, don’t forget my giveaway to celebrate 20 followers that’s coming up right here!  I have a special goody for you guys (and maybe a kiddo in your life) all planned out.  It will definitely help your holiday shopping!  So if you haven’t already, click “follow” over on the left side of the screen so you don’t miss it.

I’ve been sewing like mad to get my Etsy shop ready for the holidays.  I’m trying to make multiples of everything to make the best use of my limited amount of time.  I cut out 27 bibs the other day, people. 27!!  And last night I got to work on a whole mess of crayon aprons.  Those two tend to be my best sellers at shows, so I’m stocking up!  Doing a bunch of the same thing saves time in lots of ways – it’s quicker to pick fabrics, one photo shoot covers a stack of stuff, and clicking “relist” on Etsy when something sells is much easier than writing a whole new listing.



I’m also frantically trying to fill up the ol’ inventory wardrobe because I signed up for ANOTHER holiday show!  I was going to be part of a holiday show at our airport, but unfortunately it got cancelled.  The very next day Martha of Sunday Afternoon Housewife fame emailed me and invited me to be a part of the Handmade Promenade Last Minute Market.  Funny how things work out, right?  It’s going to be way cool – it’s a nighttime show at a restaurant and there’s even live music!  I have a family event about two hours away that morning, so it’s going to be a really hectic day, but I’m REALLY looking forward to it!

Here are a few new products that are coming to the shop this week.  I have so many listings all ready to go that I can hardly wait to share them!

Starting an Email Newsletter

Tweet At the Rocky Ripple Festival, I set out a sign-up sheet to gather customer’s email addresses.  I ended up with ten or so, and that page has been gathering dust in my stack of business stuff until last night, when I finally got around to setting up an email newsletter.  Go ahead, sign up – the signup box is on the left side of this page!
 
I decided to use Mail Chimp to manage my email newsletter.  It’s free for up to 1000 subscribers and 6000 total emails sent per month.  In my wildest dreams I’ll have 1000 subscribers anytime soon, but it never hurts to plan ahead!


The setup process is super simple.  After signing up for the free option, I manually entered all of the email addresses from my sign-up sheet into one list.  Next, I designed my first newsletter.  I just chose a pre-designed template, but you can make yours from scratch if you’d like.  I’m pretty crazy about having all of my stuff match, so I went with the simplest one and added my logo to make it coordinate with the blog and my shops.  There is an Etsy predesigned option that imports listings from your shop using Etsy API, but I wasn’t crazy about how mine turned out using that option.

Last, you send that bad boy out and wait for people to read!  Evidently I’ll get lots of stats once it goes out – who opens it, who clicks through, who subscribes and unsubscribes.  I also added that little sign up widget on the sidebar of the blog – you just copy and paste the html from Mail Chimp and add it through your blog editor (instructions are here to add it to Blogger, and here to add one to your Facebook page).

It looks like there are some really cool features.  You can split your campaign into two groups so you can see if you get a different response if you send it in the morning vs. the evening.  You can also just send your email to part of your subscriber list, or just send a text email to everyone.  You can also have Mail Chimp automatically send a tweet or post to Facebook when a new email campaign goes out.

Overall I’m pretty happy with it.  The site seems kind of sluggish sometimes, and the editing reminds me of Blogger’s image and text editing (not a fan, as we all know).  It will be interesting to see if it helps business at all.  I think it may be kind of like blogging – it takes a few times to get your flow.

I realized this weekend that I’ve been sharing a ton about how I’ve been running bobaloo!, but I haven’t been sharing what I’ve been making!  Here’s some pictures of some new stuff I’ve been stitching up.  See something you like?  Go grab it in my Etsy shop, or check out my brand-spankin’-new Cargoh shop!

Now go sign up for the newsletter!  Have a great day!

Cargoh.com and Windows Live Writer

Tweet After all that yammering about Artfire last week (I did sign up for the free option), I ended up going a completely different direction and opened up a shop on cargoh.com.  Never heard of it?  Don’t worry, neither had I until a week or so ago.



Cargoh is based in Vancouver and is a new marketplace still in beta.  They are evidently trying to cultivate a hip, indie vibe.  Now I’ve never categorized myself as the hipster type, but I was sucked in because the shops are juried – you have to apply and be approved to sell on Cargoh.  I can’t resist a challenge and I just HAD to know if my stuff was good enough to pass.  Right now Cargoh has no monthly fees; the only fee is 3.5% of sales.

I applied late Friday night and got my approval letter early this morning.  I set up my shop, which was easy enough – I used some of my information from Etsy and just redesigned my banner and avatar for Cargoh’s size specs (which includes MASSIVE shop banners, btw).  I have a few listings up now and I’ll probably add a few more this week.



For comparison’s sake, these are the front pages of my Cargoh shop and my Etsy shop.  The Twitter feed and Facebook widget on the right side of the shop on Cargoh are kinda nice, and I like the overall look of the site.  It’s way better than the slightly janky feel over at Artfire.  I guess Cargoh REALLY annoyed some Etsy sellers last month by closing down some established shops – if you want more on that story, check out this Etsy forum thread.

I’ll keep you updated on how things go at Cargoh.  If you’re interested in the listing process (which is pretty simple) or any other specifics about starting up a shop, leave me a comment and I’ll give you more details.
This is also my first post using Windows Live Writer, which is a free program you can find here.  It’s basically set up like a word processor.  You type up the post, add links and pics, and export it to Blogger.  I’ve been looking for a better blogging solution because adding pictures and links on Blogger sometimes makes me want to stab myself with a pencil. 

I’ve got loads of new stuff to work on this week.  The results are in for the Epi Pen case product testing, so I’ve got my redesign all sketched and ready to be sewn.  I’m also working on some reusable snack bags and a cute hanging hair stuff organizer for the bajillion barrettes Bridget has accumulated.  Have a great week everyone!