too sweet

I'm making a special request for a customer who is having a lollipop themed first birthday party for her daughter. I didn't realize how hard it would be to turn a lollipop swirl into felt when I first started! Lots of trial and error but the end design is super cute. At the customers request I will be switching to a pink onesie and replacing the pink parts with light purple in the lollipop. I like the sprinkles around the lollipop and am tempted to add the design to my shop as a regular item.

Rock On!

I just added a new design to the shop. A cherry red, white and black electric guitar. I was talking with a friend this weekend who has a 1 year old boy and she was lamenting about the very typical designs she finds in the stores. So I thought I would make something a bit different for little boys with my new design. I need to put it on a toddler tee now. I like the gray background. Next up is a gender neutral rubber duck sitting in bubbles that has the option of saying JUST above the ducky.

St. Patty's Day

Several years ago, seven years go to be exact, I lived in Chicago for half a year for a Collage internship. I have a lot of really good memories from that adventure but one of my favorite was celebrating St. Patty's Day. I had never given much thought to the holiday before going to Chicago. Sure I had had corned beef and so forth and received my fair share of pinches for forgetting to wear green. However, in Chicago, St. Patrick's day is epic. I ended up going to a huge paraded in one of the Irish/Polish neighborhoods with a bunch of other people from my program. I would say it was more like what I envision Mardi Gras to be like than any St. Patty's parade I had ever seen. TONS of people, tons of beads being thrown out (no showing of cleavage though) and a whole lot of green and black beer. We had a great time, it was sunny and fairly warm for spring in Chicago. I got dragged into a Walgreen's to get my Chicago St. Patty's tee, and attacked by a gaggle of girls who put green ribbons in my hair and green glitter all over me. I wish I knew where I had photos of that. After the parade we went downtown to have a meal of corned beef and cabbage from a street food cart and watched the now green river flow through the city.

I've made two Shamrock onesies for St. Patty's day. I should have gotten them up a few weeks ago but hopefully I can still sell one or two. I really like the one that says lucky across the shamrock but I have had a hard time photographing it. The letters show up better in real life than they do in the photos. The sun shined today and I took photos outside but I might try an inside photo on black fabric also for that one.
Here is the Lucky Charm one




the shamrock on the bum:


I've been experimenting with adding names and words to my stuff. Cutting the letters by hand has been a pain in the butt. I decided to try something a little different for the word Lucky. I went into word and typed the word and then chose a font I liked and made the letters the size I wanted them. After I printed it out I copied it onto card stock and then cut out each letter into a square shape. Then I put the letter square on top of a square of felt and cut out the printed letter while cutting the felt underneath. It still took a while but I feel the result is more professional than my previous attempts.

This all would be so much easier with just pain old fabric, well the cutting part would be, and then I could fuse the fabric onto the shirts. The stitching would still take the same amount of time. While it is tempting to go for easy with the fabric, then I would be like a ton of other shops on Etsy. Right now the thing that makes me stand out is my use of felt, my hand stitching and the look of felt being stitched.

My second shamrock is simpler but still unique from the other items I have seen because I emphasize the hearts and use different shades of green.



We will see if I sell any or if I waited too long to post them.

Special requests

Well after a week of watching my views I learned ...not much at all. Well that is not true. I learned that I am not smart enough to get google analytic hooked up to my shop and if I WAS smart enough I would not have to track my numbers by hand. Sigh...Jen....hhheeeellllppp. I also learned that the two ways to get sales is to keep listing and re-listing each day and to keep active in the forums. I also have learned, and not from my number tracking, but just from the good ole calender, that sales pick up towards the middle to the end of the month. I also think that if you want to get in on peoples holiday buying that you need to list your items a month or two before the holiday. I made it almost a month before St. Patty's day and I'm doing good on my Easter items...but that is for another post.

I've had the fun and challenge of making two special orders in the last two weeks. One was for a good friend's niece. She wanted me to take a photo of the family's do Duncan and turn it into a applique. It took me quite a few tries to get it look good to me but I was happy with the end results. Hopefully she will like it also.
Here is the dog:

The doggie is a pit bull mix but I think the body was more lab like than stocky pit bull so that was a bit of a challenge to get the right body shape. Here is the felt version!
not bad if I say so myself. In retrospect I do wish I had added the second back leg, but at the time I could not figure out how to add it without making the dog look like he had an extra inappropriate part showing.
And the finished product for Miss Violet.


I also had a really nice lady in Chicago ask me to do a rush order of the Rocket Ship toddler tee for her daughters pre-school performance next week that has a space theme. I've done this shirt and onesie so many times for boys so it was really fun to tweak it with a girl theme. She got the shirt already and is very happy with it and has promised to send photos:)

machine and hand sewing...getting better

A few weeks ago I posted my first attempt at merging my hand sewing designs along with machine sewing to cut down on the time it takes. I was not very pleased with my first results so I ripped them apart to try again. I re-thought what parts of my designs I felt really needed the hand sewing to get the right look and what parts could happen on the machine. I'm happy to say that I feel MUCH better about my second attempt. Good enough in fact that I feel I can finally get back to the women who is so patiently waiting for me to work out wholesale with her shop.

So once again...the first attempt with the machine for the cupcake, by hand, and the new version
vs. vs.

in the third pic we see a marriage of machine and hand that I am finally happy with. In the end I discovered that stitching hearts on the machine takes MORE time than it does by hand. Then I decided that the hand stitching on the cupcake base is really part of what I think makes my design unique, so that had to stay. However, the stitching around the the cupcake base and top can be done by machine without changing the integrity of the design. This merging of machine and hand will allow me to bring my price down to what I hope is a "wholesale" price.

Then I tried it with the bird on a toddler tee that will go to my nice who is 4. First by hand and second by machine and hand.
vs.

vs

I think the combo of machine and hand looks pretty good with the bird. There is still quite a bit of hand sewing in this one though, the wing, the hearts, the eye and the legs still need to be done by hand to keep the overall look. However, not having to sew the grass by hand saves a bit of time.

Next up...how to do the giraffe in less time....now that is a challenge

Hello new friends, how about free shipping?

Well...somehow I don't think my best friend Jen, my one follower, and I are racking up 79 views...so hello to everyone, anyone, who has reached my blog. I hope quite a few of you are finding this through my Etsy shop. I know things are pretty boring with all the data tracking right now...but in a way it is interesting to see the inner workings of trying to make a small business become something successful. Let's run a little experiment... If you become a follower of this blog before midnight on Friday the 12th, you will receive free shipping on your next purchase from my shop Apples Love Oranges. I will email the free shipping code to the email associated with your blogger account that shows up with your follower icon. Tell your friends, family and co-workers and lets see who all those views are coming from :)

Suzanne

two days to go! numbers for Tuesday

Sweet tweet bird: 50 views and 2 hearts (5) 52 views and 2 hearts (2) 56 views and 2 hearts(4)
Rocket ship : 26 views and 1 heart (3) 31 views and 1 heart (5) 34 views and 1 heart (3)
little fox: 44 views and 1 heart (5) 50 views and 1 heart (6) 53 views and 1 heart (3)
black bird : 325 views and 7 hearts (3) 328 views and 7 hearts (3) 330 views and 7 hearts (2)
Orange : 301 views and 5 hearts (2) 304 views and 5 hearts (3) 307 views and 5 hearts (3)
lion : 32 views (1) 38 views (6) 45 views (7)
cupcake: 60 views and 3 hearts (6) 63 views and 3 hearts (3) 74 views and 5 hearts (11, 2)
Giraffe: 21 views 1 heart (8) 26 views and 1 heart (5) 30 views and 1 heart (4)
boys rocket: 94 views and 2 hearts (1) 98 views and 2 hearts (4) 99 views and 2 hearts (1)
apple: 282 views and 3 hearts (8) 283 views and 3 hearts (1) 287 views and 3 hearts(4)
ice cream: 116 views and 1 heart (10) 119 views and 1 heart (3) 126 views 1 heart (7)

I added 3 new items today: Ladybug (9 views) and personalization with a total of 15 views I'm not too sure about the personalization, it takes a lot of time for how much I'm charging but I'll be interested to see if anyone takes advantage of it. I think if I put up a cupcake with a name that it will be a good seller. Today's big winner for views was the cupcake. I think I will re-new it in the morning and see if I get a sale. Not taking my new items into consideration...because then my data would not be "true" data collection, today I had 56 new views. That is the highest for several days. Once again proving then when I add a new item it increases views overall. Two new people heart-ed my shop today. Still no sales. For now I guess I should just worry about getting all my orders out and done and hope that some sales will come along soon. I have to make sure not to let the money I put into etsy overtake the money I am making.

here are some more photos of my newest item, the lady bug with personalization. I went ahead and choose my personal fav name that if/when we have a little girl of our own we will name her Emma Rose.

numbers for Monday....this is getting really boring

Sweet tweet bird: 45 views and 2 hearts (2) 50 views and 2 hearts (5) 52 views and 2 hearts (2)
Rocket ship : 23 views and 1 heart (4) 26 views and 1 heart (3) 31 views and 1 heart (5)
little fox: 39 views and 1 heart (3) 44 views and 1 heart (5) 50 views and 1 heart (6)
black bird : 322 views and 7 hearts (4) 325 views and 7 hearts (3) 328 views and 7 hearts (3)
Orange : 299 views and 5 hearts (5) 301 views and 5 hearts (2) 304 views and 5 hearts (3)
lion : 31 views (2) 32 views (1) 38 views (6)
cupcake: 54 views and 3 hearts (1,1) 60 views and 3 hearts (6) 63 views and 3 hearts (3)
Giraffe: 13 views and 1 heart (3) 21 views 1 heart (8) 26 views and 1 heart (5)
boys rocket: 93 views and 2 hearts (7) 94 views and 2 hearts (1) 98 views and 2 hearts (4)
apple: 274 views and 3 hearts (10) 282 views and 3 hearts (8) 283 views and 3 hearts (1)
ice cream: 106 views and 1 heart (9) 116 views and 1 heart (10) 119 views and 1 heart (3)

41 views on items being tracked. as opposed to yesterday I had 49 views and the day before that..50 views. Hum so within 9 views of each other each day. I can see that the views on the bird and the cupcake are down and I still attribute that to a huge decrease in search for valentines items. As for the other items I can find no rhyme or reason to what is viewed each day. I did not post or realist anything today so that may account for my lower views. I'm reluctant to re-list when I'm not getting sales but I know the best way to get sales is to realist. I can't imagine that raising my prices from $12.00 to $12.50 has decreased my views. I will get up early to make sure I can get the lady bug up and running for the morning. Here is a sneak pre-viwe.

wait till you see it with the name I stitched on underneath...too cute.

Sunday numbers

Sweet tweet bird: 43 views 2 hearts (10), 45 views and 2 hearts (2) 50 views and 2 hearts (5)
Rocket ship : 19 views 1 heart (9, 1), 23 views and 1 heart (4) 26 views and 1 heart (3)
little fox: 36 views 1 heart (4,1), 39 views and 1 heart (3) 44 views and 1 heart (5)
black bird :318 views 7 hearts (2,1), 322 views and 7 hearts (4) 325 views and 7 hearts (3)
Orange : 294 views 5 hearts (4), 299 views and 5 hearts (5) 301 views and 5 hearts (2)
lion : 29 views (3), 31 views (2) 32 views (1)
cupcake: 53 views and 2 hearts (6), 54 views and 3 hearts (1,1) 60 views and 3 hearts (6)
Giraffe: new 10 views 1 heart (10,1), 13 views and 1 heart (3) 21 views 1 heart (8)
boys rocket: 86 views and 2 hearts (1), 93 views and 2 hearts (7) 94 views and 2 hearts (1)
apple: 264 views and 3 hearts (0), 274 views and 3 hearts (10) 282 views and 3 hearts (8)
ice cream: 97 views 1 heart (1), 106 views and 1 heart (9) 116 views and 1 heart (10)

hum...views are up on the ice cream cone ...maybe we are getting into the right season. Also good viwes on the apple, the cupcake, the giraffe and so so on the bird. I'll leave the valentines label on the bird for one more day just to see what happens.

machine vs. hand sewing

I prefer to sew by hand with my appliques. I like the look and the portability. However, I see the problems with hand sewing...its slow, if you don't know what a perfectionist I am you might think the sewing is not as sturdy as with a machine and tying knots by hand is a pain. STILL with all that I like the look of a running stitch, something you can not do with a sewing machine.

Regardless, one way to decrease my base cost for wholesale items is to give sewing the design on a machine a try. I decided to start with a left-over cupcake I had on a reject onesie. I already had a hand sewn cupcake that is being shipped tomorrow to compare with. (please note the cupcake top is misshapen and was a reject item)

So let's start with the cupcake sewn by hand. Probably my fastest item to sew by hand, taking about 45 to 50min.

the stitching on the base of the cupcake is what takes the most time on this design.

Now I went ahead and stitched one on the machine. In the end I had to sew the heart by hand. It was faster and looked better when I did it by hand. I believe that stitching on the machine saved me about 12-15 min on this particular design. I used the loosest straight stitch I could trying to get a similar look to by hand...still you will never get the spacing between the stitches. Sewing machines just don't work that way.
Here is the machine one (remember...reject cupcake top)

even though this one was done with a machine it looks less professional to me...however, that might be my personal bias. If I had never seen my hand stitched ones I would think it looks cute, although lopsided.

and now for the side by side photo:
so I think I could offer the hand stitched one for $9 and the machine one for $7 each.
Next up is the bird experiment.

leave a facebook comment if you have any thoughts on this pricing/sewing dilemma issue.

wholesale mussings

I'm talking more with the women who is interested in wholesaling my items. I'm not going to mention the shop yet in case it doesn't go though. After chatting with a acquaintance who has had success with her crafting and is a pro at the wholesale thing I was in a better position to contact the shop interested in me.

Michelle, my mentor in the expansion game, had several suggestions for me. First she said that I will need to sell my stuff for less to the wholesale people than I do on etsy. The wholesale people need to feel that they are competitive with my online prices. One thing that she suggested was to up my price (online) by $1 right now and another $1 each time I get a wholesale deal. She also suggested that I set a minimum price amount that the wholesale lady needs to reach (she suggested $100).

I have thought about raising my prices....I wish my sales were more consistent, they come in spurts so I start worrying that if I go higher I won't sell. However, in person I raised my price to $14 for the winter craft fairs and I still did ok. I worry about raising my price too much on etsy because shipping costs already raise the price. I could raise my upfront price and use free shipping or I can raise my upfront price and my shipping price or I can raise my shipping price.

If I were to raise my upfront price one dollar each onesie would be $13. too bad I am incredibly afraid/paranoid about the number 13. I know it seems silly but you smash your kneecap, femur and tibia on a Friday the 13th when you are 13 years old and then tell me how you feel about the number 13.

So I think I will raise my base price by .50 and my shipping price by .50 and bada bing one dollar increase. It should be pretty easy to do as I already raised shipping on a few items by .50 and forgot about it an never did the others.

So now my base cost is $12.50 and my shipping is $2.50 giving us a total cost of $15. Michelle said I should not go below paying myself min wage...$8.75 in Oregon. My short sleeve onesies cost me $1.50 each and the long sleeve $2.00 each. I will only wholesale short sleeve. Some of my designs take about an hour to cut and sew...like the bird and cupcake....others like the rocket ship and fox take close to two hours. So I need to stick with simpler designs for wholesale.

Let's use the bird. The bird takes an hour to sew at $8.75 + $1.50 for the onesie = $10.25. Michelle suggested that I offer to sell my stuff at $9 a item and remind the shop that I have my items prices really low. So we have a $1.25 deficit. The question is can I start doing a combination of hand and machine sewing to cut down a bit on the time it takes to make the onesie but still get the look I go for? I feel like I'm cheating...but most people buy my items because they like the designs, although I think the running stitch adds to the look. Perhaps I can do layering with the machine and outline stitching by hand. I am going to start by trying to make the stitching on the cupcake bottom with the machine set at a longer stitch and then hand sew it onto the onesie. I'll post a comparison later on and update what the wholesale lady has to say in response to my email... as follows below:)

Thank you so much for your interest. I would love to know more about your boutique. Do you have a website I could visit? I have not done wholesale yet, as I have been focusing on building a customer base since July. Since I have been starting out with Etsy I have priced my items low seeing that I hand cut and stitch everything. I know usually when sellers do wholesale orders they sell their items for less than their Etsy price. Some of my designs take far more time to sew while others. I feel I have several designs I can stitch in a reasonable amount of time that wholesale pricing would be possible. I would love to know what types of arrangements you have with other people you work with and learn more about your shop. I look forward to hearing back from you!
Suzanne:)