If you are thinking that sewing projects are limited to sun dresses and weddings during the summer you are mistaken. Just think of all the kids that need special clothing for their summertime activities. I am not talking about swimming suits but clothes needed for classes and clubs. Take for example dancewear, I am not suggesting you sew leotards but how about the accessories for the dancewear? Flowing light weight wrap-around skirts or even fancy dance class tote bags.

Contact a local dance studio and find out if they have a dance wear supplier for those things, if not then maybe you can become that supplier.

June is here next week. Did you have any bridal gown business? Here is a video on bridal gown do's and dont's for those of you that need that kind of information. The woman in the video is a world famous wedding gown designer.

Here are some tips from the video below on getting the clutter out of that sewing and hobby room.

If you were just an average person looking to have your suit or dress altered where would you go? Since we sew we would either suggest that average person find someone they know or look for someone in the yellow pages.

Do you realize that most dry cleaners do alterations? If you are talented at tailoring you could approach your local dry cleaner and ask if they have an in house person that does alterations or if they send out their work. There will always be a time that your talents might come in handy to that dry cleaner. Give them your business card and let them know if they are back logged and need some alterations done on short notice to give you a call. Don't be surprised one day to get a call from them. If calling you helps them keep a customer then they will do it. If your work is good then you will have forged a professional ally.

Many of you design or sew for the medical industry. From designing or fitting those stylish scrubs to embroidering clinic names on the lab coats, the medical industry needs us. If you happen to get a job that requires you to supply scrubs with embroidery on them there are a few things you ought to know first. Number one is find out if there is a particular color that they must wear. For example in some hospitals hunter green is reserved for physical therapists while baby blue might be reserved for respiratory therapists. Next is to go over the actual scrub designs and fit. Certain professionals require different pockets for their instruments so you need to know the differences between the different styles of scrubs. There are so many styles of scrubs nowadays and you don't want to pick the wrong style for your client.

There is a wonderful online magazine called Scrubs that gives you an inside view of the medical industry from the people that live it day to day. One of their articles deals with fashion and style while working in scrubs, you can read it here.

Keep in mind that you want to stay way from those cheap type of scrubs for your client that are full of static cling. Medical personnel work around lots of electronic devices and you don't want the actual scrub to cause a static discharge that might affect the equipment.

If you are not catering to the medical industry with your sewing maybe you should think about it

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This idea comes from a good friend of mine. I was over her house the other day and happen to mention about my new business cards and flyers. She reminded me that we have a big summer fair and parade coming up next month in our town. She said why don't I pass out my business cards on the parade route? Many of the area businesses do that very thing each year. They walk up and down the parade route and hand out flyers to the parade spectators. If you have any large public gatherings you can do that for your business in your area. Add a coupon to the flyer and you might see an increase in first time customers. Summer is an excellent time for that kind of free publicity for your business so take advantage of it.

You have been working hard at your business. It is nearing the time when you should be taking a break. Here is an opportunity to win a vacation in Florida - Kissimmee, Florida to be exact. It is home to water parks, a major theme park as well as a host of other fun activities.

Kissimmee has already given away several vacations already. They have one drawing left to be held on June 1, 2009. They have weekend vacations for 2 as well as vacations for 4 for the whole week. The grand prize not only includes all meals and airfare but a rental car and tickets to 6 major attractions in the area including Disney and Sea World. There is not much time left to win a vacation for a well deserved reward for doing such a great job of running your business. Just go to the link I have provided and click on the "Freedom to Enjoy" sweepstakes button on the lower right hand side of the page. You have to do a few things to enter but for a free trip isn't it worth trying?

I also know that no matter where you going on vacation this year you will be looking out for ideas to improve your product line or new ways to do things. A vacation out of your own region is often a way to open your eyes to different ideas and ways to do things.

Everyone I know wants to save money on advertising their business. Heck we shop around for the best price to place magazine and newspaper ads. My own shopping around paid off big time last week. I got a bundle of advertising items for free.

I normally get those Vista Print emails and I have always ignored them. The few times that I clicked on them they wanted to give me the business cards for free but charge me an arm and a leg for "handling and shipping" charges. This time it was different. I found a selection of business cards on there that just spoke to me. They had top quality photos of sewing and tailoring. I also found out that they sold magnetic signs that you put on your car. I use to use one of those years ago for another business and they were very successful in getting me more business. Back then I paid $25.00 for 2 signs that were just black and white. Vista had one in full color with a photo for $4.99!

So I bought 250 premium business cards and a magnetic sign for my car. Total cost including shipping was $19.99. A few days later I get another email from Vista, this time with loads of FREE offers. My eyes just about popped when I saw all those free items. So I ordered a free t-shirt with custom artwork and wording and a baseball cap with artwork and wording and one item that I thought would work out great as flyers - extra large photo invitations.

My printer needs a new color ink cartridge and they cost close to $50. I needed to put up some full color flyers at some local businesses. At first I was going to go to the local Staples store but then I saw the Vista 6" X 9" invitations and thought that they would have a much better impact. I uploaded a photo layout of what I wanted (it cost $2.99 extra which is cheaper than have Staples run some copies for me) and they will be printing out color photo invitations that I will use as flyers.




So for the cost of postage (I ordered the 21 day delivery, but they are sending it fed ex, go figure) of $5.95 plus the $2.99 I have a t-shirt, cap and photo flyers that will help advertise my business.

So for a grand total of $28 I am set for business cards and 4 different ways of advertising. I am still getting FREE offers of more stuff like pens, key chains and even the magnetic car signs are now free. Heck I can do all of my advertising printing with them and it still cost me less than my ink cartridge for my printer.

The morning before Mother's Day I filled my mug with hot water to make some hot chocolate. After stirring the hot liquid I noticed that some was leaking out the side of the mug. Upon closer inspection I found a hairline crack that ran from the top of the mug to the bottom.

The mug was a special mug, it was my "mom" mug that was presented to me at my baby shower over 15 years ago.


It was with a heavy heart that I placed the mug in the trash that morning. A few hours later my husband was putting something in the kitchen trash when he asked me why I was throwing out the mug. I told him it was cracked and added that the mug held a lot of memories besides hot liquids. He then asked me why I didn't think of making it into something like a holder for fake flowers or something like that. I then remembered that a good friend had made pincushions out of small dishes and knick knack items. I removed the mug from the trash, washed it and so began the "mom" mug's life as a large pincushion.

Follow me as I show you what I did to my mug:

First I filled it with packing "peanuts".


Notice the other side of the mug reads " If I start to rant and rave and babble, don't be alarmed..."
Next I added some cotton batting.


I then cut a piece of coordinating fabric and put it over the top. I hot glued the fabric in place on the inside of the mug. Here is the finished pincushion:


I am so thankful for my husband for reminding me to think more artistically before I throw something so special out.

I spent almost the entire Mother's Day weekend redesigning my embroidery website. The old look is now gone. I think it looks much more professional. One of the biggest turn offs for a customer is to visit a website that looks too cutesy. Even if I sold baby items, customers can get turned off of too many angels and fluff. Those types of websites look fine for a personal website that only family looks at but not for professional selling website.

I have added the link to my website at the top of this blog as well as a link to my original machine embroidery designs. Yes I do sell my embroidery designs but I am keeping the prices all under $2 each. I don't believe that any embroidery pattern should cost more than that and I have seen some people charge $8 and up for a machine embroidery pattern. Are they trying to make all their money off of 3 or 4 sales?

That brings a pet peeve of mine when it comes to the world of sewing. Why is it that companies think we are made of money? They over charge for embroidery software, a package of bias tape cost almost $5, thread is priced too high for what it costs to make and turn a profit. Don't get me started on the overpriced fabrics. If fabric was more reasonably priced then more people would be sewing. Now if the sewing machine companies thought of that maybe they can think of a way to bring down the cost of fabric at the retail level.

If you have been doing any machine embroidery or are just new to it, you would have come across the terms embroidery punching and embroidery digitizing. So what is the difference?

The word Embroidery Punching actually dates back to the age of traditional embroidery machines. The code or instructions telling the machine frame how to move was stored on a tape punched with holes. This is how the term embroidery punching came into being. But these days computerized embroidery machines have replaced the traditional machines and are run by the code stored in digital file formats.

So if someone mentions to you that they do embroidery punching they either have a very OLD piece of equipment or they just are not aware of what the term really means.

Here is a very funny movie clip video from an old 1940's movie. The song is about the sewing machine and takes place in a sweat shop. Enjoy:

Advertising is the most crucial part of your business, if no body knows you exist then you are not in business. Much like the photo above, it looks pretty but it looks different if you had a business located there and no one came to it. Here is a simple list of what has worked for me as a business owner of not only my sewing business but businesses in general and best of all they are cheap or free:

• Business cards. Have some made or make your own. Don't get fancy, it just needs to list your contact info and what you do. You don't need to list your entire company bio on the card. Always carry at least 5 cards with you at all times, you never know when you get the opportunity to hand one out.
• Get a website with a top level domain name. Forget the www.yourbusinessname.atfreewebsitehost.com it is just too long for people to remember. Get a SHORT easy to remember website name. This will be the only BIG expense you'll have. Hosting can be anything from free to just $6 a month. I have Brave Host as my website hosting supplier and I pay only $99 a year and I can have up to 10 websites for the same price, I only have to pay for the domain names. There is a link in my side bar if you are interesting in them.
  
• Get a blog. Now a blog is different from a website. You should have a website AND a blog, why you ask. You will use your blog to advertise your website. Your website is where you will be strictly business where as your blog is more of a personal touch to let your customers know you are human, but don't get too personal on your blog. Your website is where you will sell or list your services with lots of photos, it gets updated about once a month or less. A blog is more dynamic and gets updated daily or at least weekly. Your blog can be a free one either as part of your website as a sub-domain or hosted on typepad, blogger or myspace. Stay away from wordpress.com as they don't allow advertising on the blogs they host even if it is your own website.
• Join Twitter and make friends. Social networking will be your greatest asset. Don't spam, meaning don't keep promoting your own website or blog. People get turned off by spamming. Be interested in what other people have to say and write back to them. Forge friendships and allies.
• Go to craft fairs or other places where business gather and talk to the business owners. Find out if they could use what product or service you are selling. I love to go to horse shows and meet with the horse breeders. They often want sewn items with their farm name on them for promotion. It is helpful that I also own horses so I have a mutual ground for discussion with them. You can try car, dog or flower shows as places you can find customers.
• Donate an item or 2 of yours to a worthy cause to be auctioned off. The cause should mention your donation as part of your gift to them. Your charity work might end up being mentioned in a local newspaper and get you some publicity.
• Give away some of your items to friends so they can promote your business. I made several custom embroidered baseball caps and gave them to some business owners I know. They really liked them and now 2 of them are interested in t-shirts with their company names on them.

I have finally gotten the hang of Twitter. I have found a great small group of sewing hobbyists over there. Why don't you join us? We are sharing the best places to look for clip art, cooking recipes and how-to tips for sewing. Just look at the side column at the top for the link to my page. I will warn you right now I will not follow spammers or someone that is always trying to sell someone something.

You just got your computerized home embroidery machine and have done a few premade patterns on it. Now you have an itch to try your hand at designing your own patterns and have visions of maybe doing logos for businesses.

So where do you start? First you have to have a computer that you can hook up to your machine. Some of the lower priced home embroidery machines do not hook straight to a computer but to a "box" that reads "cards" that were programed by a computer. In other words you need a method of getting your designs from your computer to the embroidery machine.

The next step is to see if you are up to the task. You may like the idea of creating a design but be technically challenged. If you love working with Mircosoft Paint or messing around with cropping and pasting photos then digitizing will work for you. You must love working with computer files and know the difference between a bitmap and a jpg file.

Next find a free 30 day trial of digitizing software on the web and mess around with it for 30 days. Don't buy the first one you try until you have tried out at least 3 from 3 different companies. Here is a link to a page that lists 30 day free trials of most of the major digitizing software. Each one will have it's own problems like it won't write files that are compatible for your machine or it doesn't read photo files. After you have found the one you like, shop around for the best price. The only way those software manufacturers will bring down their prices is if people start to buy only the more affordable programs. I have not found a really good digitizing program for under $140 yet. Embroidery Magic sells for $99 (on eBay for less than that) but I couldn't find a free trial of it and I am not going to spend $99 for something that might not work for me.

Good luck in your quest and who knows you might actually find something you really like to do and be good at it. Also don't you believe it when those embroidery companies say it takes years to learn how to digitize an embroidery pattern, it just takes talent and a will to learn something new.