A new sewing supplies online store

If you have not noticed by now, there is a new link at the top of the blog "Shop for Sewing Supplies". It is a store that I put together that is powered by Amazon. I know it is often hard to items online at a price that won't break the bank or leave us with a huge credit card debt. Ebay is often a place I look fro really hard to find items but most of the time I hate having to bid on an item only to lose out on it in the long run. I have found that Amazon can be much more easily trusted when it comes to money transactions and they are often the company that is the supplier of the item as well.

I partnered with them to form the store. If you would like to see something that is not listed in the store, drop me a comment and I'll see if it is available. Drop on by the store by clicking here.

Cutting fabric and pattern layout

Here is a handy step-by-step video guide to preshrinking and layout for pattern cutting. Tips on how to deal with slippery fabric. Watch the video below:

My first ebook - Easy steps to website promotion

Well after 3 weeks of writing, re-writing, editing, formatting and finally uploading, my ebook is finished. I would now like to introduce you to my first ebook -

The information included in the ebook is strictly based on my own experiences and not some ideas that I have heard and never tried (like so many other ebooks I have read). I have also made sure that the information is up to date. So much information about website promotion is outdated or misleading.

I gave a copy of it to some of my close friends to read and one of them, who doesn't even have a website yet, remarked that it has given her the courage to get her own website and start selling her items online. She had so many relatives that had websites for their various hobbies but never had many visitors that they gave up on the internet.

Edited to add: on November 25, 2010 this edition is no longer available.

Tiny crafts

Here is another round of ideas for items to make and sell. Have you thought about going small? I don't mean the size of your business but the size of your items. We all know it takes many hours if not days to make large items like quilts or even tailored wedding dresses so why not go small?

Make custom designed quilts for dollhouse furniture. Better yet get a miniature dress form for a doll house and design and make an elaborate wedding dress to go on the form and display it in the doll house. Or how about this little cutie below. A miniature doll that has baby clothes and the lined bassinet.


For someone that wants to take their time designing and making items like this there will be a market for them. If you put your mind to it you could even make items for the retailer of miniature doll house items and you would not have to do much selling anymore. You would become the wholesale manufacturer.

Of course you are going to need some ideas so I recommend you go and visit this dollhouse miniatures online retailer. Take a look around and see if a light bulb goes off in your head. Off of the top of my head I could think of wall hangings that depict family trees and personalized welcome mats. They have a wonderful selection of bathroom fixtures that got me thinking about miniature personalized bath towels. It adds a bit more charm to a doll house when it has a link to the real world with personalization.

Think in the terms of making items that can be personalized with names, dates or places on them. In the example I gave above about the wedding dress, it could be a true miniature reproduction of an actual dress.

Annouce a craft show or event

I thought that it would be a great idea if my readers could share up coming events with other readers. If you have a local craft sale, event or other type of event that Sewing for Cash readers can sell their items at please leave a comment. Try to put as much information as you can about the event and include a link to any websites that has more information about the event.

If this post starts to get a little long in the comment section I might add this feature to my newsletters in the future. That way the events will be current in the newsletters but for anyone reading this post they would have to scroll down to the end of the comments to read the latest events. Then again as the events expire all I have to do is delete the comment. I'll see how this works out before I do anything drastic.

So if you have an up coming sewing or craft event (please no sewing machine store or fabric store sales) that people can sell their own items at, leave a comment. I will be checking out the event before I publish it to make sure it is not spam or an online sales pitch.

The right webhost for your site

I know how hard it is to find the right hosting company for your website or blog. I have personally been through 3 of them. Each one was dropped for either technical issues on their part or they went out of business. When you go shopping for a good web hosting company here are some things to watch out for:

• Price. They try to draw you in with a low price and then you find lots of extras that don't come with that low price unless you "upgrade". Stay away from those kinds of companies.
• They have a fancy website with no real contact information. Anyone with a server unit (about the size of a small filing cabinet) can set up a web hosting company. One of my brothers-in-law did that several years ago
• You need a hosting company that does not go off line every night for "maintenance".
  
• Once you find a hosting company you like, see if they have an open forum. Search the forum for complaints or service notices. You can find out lots of information about a company on their own forums.
  

If your online business ever grows to the point that just regular website hosting is too slow or gets over run with visitors (don't worry your web hosting company will let you know), you may have to go to a dedicated server. A dedicated server unit is a piece of computer hardware that will only hold your website and no one else's. For more information on that type of web hosting check out this page on dedicated servers.

If you have not done so by now, you should have a great domain name. Here is an article on how to choose the right domain name for your business.

I certainly hope that I have helped out with the technical aspect of your business. You don't need to worry about computer and internet stuff when you are just being creative with your sewing or craft.

The new website owner blues

I am asked to speak at a few small gatherings a few times a year about the internet, website promotion and selling stuff online. Now those are really small groups of less than 10 people and often at a club members house. I am not an internet guru by any means but now I get phone calls from a few of the people I have met on subjects like "I just got this free website, now what?" or "should I start an eBay store?". I give them my ideas on the subject.

I only speak to 2 or 3 groups a year. A few months ago I had my most memorable meeting to date. A friend had invited me to talk to a few of her friends that were interested in selling their handcrafted items online but didn't have a clue where to start. After giving the group the regular how-to instructions with written handouts, I was bombarded with questions.

One of the women stood out from the group because she was almost in tears as she asked her questions. After the meeting was over and I was leaving that same women pulled me aside and literally broke down in tears. It appeared that her son had made her website and told her she was all set up. He made her a shopping cart, put her items on the site and made it look really nice. What he didn't do was to promote it in any way. Because he failed to do that she had no visitors to the site. This had been going on for months. She was at her wits end. She knew nothing about marketing or the internet, except how to surf it. She also need the income from selling her items.

I then told her not to worry. In fact most home crafters actually know very little about marketing their items. They can advertise their items locally but are at a loss when it comes to national sales. Often most home craftsmen take their items to local craft fairs and the extent of their advertising is the banner in front of their table. The internet is a whole new frontier for them.

I showed the women some simple techniques that she could use to get more visitors to her website and last I heard she had a few sales.

My advice to you is don't pull out your hair worrying about your website or blog. Learn to promote it and you'll be fine. I am currently working on converting my written notes on website promotion to an ebook and I am up to page 8 so far. Once it is complete I'll let you know about it so you can grab a copy. I'll have a link to it in my email newsletter just in case you miss my blog post about it.

Back to school crafts

It is time to start thinking about making or designing back to school clothes and items for school. If you are on a tight budget and can't afford to buy some of the pricier fabrics there are on the market then you might want to buy a pre-made item of clothing and customize it.

For example you can buy plain t-shirts and decorate them with applique' or embroidery or pay $20+ each for the designer Tees. You can also add lace to parts of tops or skirts to make them unique. Don't forget that your student will also need bags, organizers and other items that can all be made or bought and customized by you.

If your student will be going to college you can also design some unique sheets, pillow cases and towels for them. It will give them an at home feeling if they have something that you have custom made for them.

To help out with the pre-made items, Kmart is having a one day only (8/15/2009) sale. They are bringing back the Kmart Bluelight specials. Lots of specials will be available including kids Backpacks (Athletech, Route 66 and Licensed) reg. $19.99 – Bluelight $8! That is about a $1 cheaper than my local Walmart so Kmart is pulling out all the stops to get customers coming into their stores on the 15th. Did you know that you could even follow Kmart on Twitter?

They will be having bluelight specials throughout the store not just on back to school items.



Happy shopping!!

Join my newsletter list and get free stuff

After starting my new email newsletter just a few days ago I am trilled that over 12 people have signed up already. Five of them still have to confirm their subscriptions but it won't be long for them to complete that step.

I am so happy with the results so far that I am planning to start some giveaways to email subscribers only. I'll announce what I plan on giving away here on the blog as well as in up coming newsletters. The first items might be some machine embroidered items custom designed by me.

So if you want to get into some of those freebie giveaways from me then you had better sign up for my newsletter.

Marketing your website

So you have just set up your website. Whether it is a stand alone website that you are paying for the hosting, a website hosted at Etsy or eCrater, or even a free website with a website builder, you need to market it. Yes I said market. Learn to treat your website differently from a store. You can't just patiently wait for people to drop on by. If you do just that, they will never come. Even brick and mortar stores need to pay for advertising and your store will be no different.

This is such an in depth subject I plan on doing a series of newsletter articles about it or even a free ebook. In the articles I plan on covering what is the best ways to promote your website. How to get your website indexed by Google in less than 24 hours. I might even write about local search marketing for your business.

As I write this I have not started my newsletter subscriptions yet. If you happen to read this and there is a sign up box for the newsletter, sign up and you will receive more info than I will be putting on the blog.

A newsletter for Sewing for Cash?

I am currently debating about starting up a newsletter for this blog. I have a tremendous amount of information that I would love to share with my regular readers. Notice I said regular readers. It is those readers that I would love to dispense my knowledge to, in the form of a newsletter.

As a regular reader of this blog you are entitled to some more in depth information than just the occasional one hit visitor gets. Of course the newsletter will be free and I might even throw in a free ebook or 2 just for signing up.

It might take me a few days to put something together since I am still looking at different email newsletter software and providers.

New beds means new bedding to sew

Have you ever seen Platform Beds like the ones pictured above? What makes them different than a regular bed it the fact they don't have a box spring. The mattress just lays straight on the platform. I predict that these types of beds will become more popular than they are right now. I can sight one main reason why:

• They would attract less dust than a box spring bed

If my prediction comes true then it will change how bedding is designed and made. Are you designing and sewing for platform beds? The platform is designed to be shown off and not hidden. Sheets and bedding would be made to fit the thinner mattresses.

Try something fancy

Have you ever wondered how fancy heirloom type stitches (like those pictured above) are done? No it is not the type of machine that is being used but the type of needle. Any sewing machine can produce those fancy open stitches. All you have to do is use a winged sewing needle. You can buy the needle at any fabric or sewing shop, they are not a rare item.


What the wing needle does is open up the fabric each time it is inserted through the fabric. The needle is wide and flat and you can get twin needles as well as the single needles.

Some people use a wing needle to put a fancy edge around baby blankets and then use the holes to anchor crochet to them. You can also turn a plain handkerchief into a fancy heirloom one with a few fancy borders.