Monday, January 16, 2012

Finally my addiction gets funded!

Now that Christmas is over and the new year has come, I finally have some down time. Time to sew what I want! Sew something for ME!  I have long been wanting to make some curtains for underneath my crafting desks in order to hid all the junk storage I have underneath. While that means hours in the fabric store searching for the perfect fabric, it also means LOTS of money (I measured my desk and it will take about 8 yards of fabric to make the curtains! YIKES

So while on a quick trip to the fabric store, I decided to finally listen to my husband (the businessman and entrepreneur's advice) and test the waters in making and then selling my creations to others. Since Valentine's Day is approaching I thought about what I was doing this time last year. I was sewing Valentine Chair bags for my boys with my new machine!  When I made them there were lots of Facebook Ohhs and Ahhs and I even had a few "orders" for bags. So off I went, happily sewing the bags.

Keep in mind a year ago there was no Pinterest in my world so I found the tutorial for these the "old fashioned" way - AKA - my Google reader. 

Quickly, while leaving said fabric store, I typed up a quick Facebook post to test the interest level for Valentine Chair bags. Within a couple hours I had 5 bag orders!  Not too shabby.  A couple days later I was back at the store picking out felt, Valentine fabric, and the assorted notions I would need to fulfill my orders. Fabric was cut, piled, organized and prepped for sewing. Having a bit more sewing experience than I did a year ago and NOT wanting to fight with the bag like I did previously, I made a few changes to the original design making the bottom of the bag SO much easier to sew! Thanks to Pinterest and the amazing Copy Cat Bag tutorial (which is sadly no longer online - so glad I printed the tutorial out!) I saved myself hours of frustration and thus streamlined my assembly process.

Just a little over a week later and my bags are being delivered to customers and received with great joy (YAY- for customer satisfaction). After posting finished product pics on Facebook, I received another order for 2 bags as well as a order from a friend that wanted a purse like mine (again, the Copy Cat Bag!).



Not sure where this will lead as I do have 4 small children, homeschooling to accomplish, a house to manage, and the need for some down time, but I do know that very soon I should have my under desk curtains as well as a few other nice touches to make my crafting space a bit more friendly on the eyes.

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About Me

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The Mills family was established on April 20th, 2002 when Bryan C. Mills married Allison Wilson. The family grew in 2005 with the birth of Christopher and then again in 2007 when Cameron first made his appearance. It just grew a little more in 2009 with Zachary's arrival and then again in 2011 when Ethan entered the world with a bang! We hope to continue to grow our family as God allows. We are truly blessed and praise God each day for the joy we bring each other!