A Jane of Most Trades

“A penny saved is a penny earned.” Ben Franklin said it first.

It’s probably better to save a penny than spend it and earn it back later because the earned penny will be taxed a second time. I’m not talking about being miserly or cheap, but wisely frugal.

When you are working online it’s important to reexamine your expenses periodically.

It’s easy to hemorrhage money on hosting. Most of my clients grossly overestimate the amount of space and bandwidth that their sites will require, and then they pay for their optimism month after month.

Server space can actually be quite cheap. Use Google, it’s our friend. For hosting multiple sites use search terms like “discount reseller hosting”, you’ll find hundreds of nice hosts that will offer WHM with cPanel– this is what most of us need. Make sure to check the reputation of the host and double check to make sure that what they offer is what you need. If you aren’t sure, check the documentation provided by your current host and the support forums for any platforms and plugins you want to use.

I highly recommend the host that I use, Atomic Webhosting. The support is personable, responses are quick and the hosting is extremely reliable all at an extremely good price. I think I’m in love.

Then there’s the matter of domain names. I know GoDaddy is annoying with all the offers upon checkout– but they are cheap, take customer service seriously and have a kickin’ domain name control panel.

Some registrars (Yahoo) will offer a cheap initial year, and then kick up the price the next year. And other registrars (Yahoo) will also require that you email your requests for a DNS change and make you wait for weeks before actually getting around to reflecting the change. Some registrars (Yahoo) really tick me off when all I want to do is a bit of quick redirection so that I can work on a site without really mucking things up.

One last point: Use free services, Google Apps Standard Edition offers free custom gmail (you@yoursite.com) , Google sites, Google docs and Google Calendar. All free, all easy to use, but that’s just one example– keep looking and you’ll keep finding free (or ridiculously inexpensive) alternatives to the paid services you need.

I’m going to apologize ahead of time, I just took some DayQuil the daytime sniffling-sneezing-coughing-achy-stuffy-head-what-in-the-heck-did-I-just-write-on-my-blog medicine.

With seamsters, once a reasonable workspace is found, sorted out and declared a sovereign nation the big obstacle is organization. A well organized craft room means that there’s no stopping a project for twenty minutes in order to search for an essential tool or notion, which means you can flow seamlessly through a project (or a few projects) focusing only on the creative and technical aspects.

Do I even need to mention a sewing room should not be so overflowing with supplies that one must do all the cutting at the kitchen table and all the sewing in the hallway? That is neither pleasant or efficient.

So what can you do when your work space is less than ideal?

1. Start by organizing projects into types. While there’s destined to be some overlap between tailoring and doll making (I’ll address that bit at number 6 in this list) for the most part you’ll be using a number of trade specific tools for each.
2. Separate projects. Plastic freezer bags and clear totes are lovely just for this purpose. Everything you need to complete a project (short of your standard cutting tools and sewing machine feet) should go into the tote with the project.
3. If you haven’t pre-washed your uncut fabric do so, dry and iron it. This way when you’re in the mood for some creative action you won’t have to wait for the wash and dry cycles. (*It might seem a little OCD but I pre-wash, dry and iron all of my fabrics immediately after purchasing.)
4. Make sure that everything you need to complete a project is there, in the container with the project instructions and materials. If you find that you have lost the zipper to complete a dress or need to pick up grommets and boning for a corset, write a note to that effect and place it in the container where you’ll see it.
5. Triage your projects visually. Line up all your projects into a queue, the projects that you can finish quickly without making mad dashes to the fabric store (because you have all the supplies and notions right in the plastic tote, right?) should go to the front of the queue. The projects that you may not have enough space, time or materials to complete should go towards the end of the queue. Then organize your containers to reflect this order.
6. Keep your commonest tools available and organized. Hang some peg board near your cutting table and sewing machine where you can easily reach it, then use the proper hooks and organizers for your tools. Make up organizers, tackle boxes, and tool boxes are also very nice if you don’t have a large sewing caddy. (One thing I love about peg board is that I can also hang spare notions still on the card up so when I’m project planning I don’t need to dump out my sewing caddy to see what I have.)
7. Have receptacles for finished projects handy. Again, probably OCD, but if this is gift sewing, have a gift box and wrapping paper ready so that when you complete the project you can wrap it up completely don’t forget to fill out the gift label, so you don’t forget and give it to the wrong person! (And, if I die or am in a coma, everyone will have one last gift from my grubby little paws– which is creepy and fun all in one fell swoop.) If it’s clothing, then a hanger and garment bag. If crafts to take to bazaars, then a very large clear tote that is practical for taking on the road (and that will protect the goods from damage.)
8. Toss out, sell or donate leftovers and white elephants.
9. Put all of the pattern making and universally needed material (like interfacing or serger thread) together in a way that makes sense.
10. Store everything else.

Although it’s not my highest earner, I like using Project Wonderful for managing paid advertisements.

Here’s why:

• Payout is low (ten dollars)
• If you don’t meet payout you can easily set up your own ads on  other peoples sites without a separate advertiser account
• You can set minimum bids for your ad boxes
• You can set your boxes  to reject NSFW ads
• Project Wonderful only takes a 25% commission on ad sales and charges a $1 fee when you choose to accept a payout
• You can have as much or as little control over the content of the ads displayed through your boxes as you like
• If you choose to advertise as well as publish you can control exactly how much you spend on advertising campaigns

It’s the lower price point stuff that is meant to garner an opening sale. Table filler is the stuff that technically pretty much anyone can make (and does) and make fairly quickly from cheap materials. It’s cute and fills in the odd spaces hopefully without distracting from the more involved (and higher priced) items.

I’ve been to my fair share of craft bazaars and it never fails to amaze me that people wholly seem to expect that they are going to somehow cover the cost of a table on plain crocheted wash cloths or braided plastic key-rings, let alone walk away with anything that even remotely resembles a profit.

I understand the compulsion to make lots of small items that can be sold at a lower price point, but what I don’t understand is only using one’s time and talent for only table filler. As cute as these items might be, going home with less money than you started with is a pretty disheartening experience (I’ve so been there, I know this one.)

So what’s a hard workin’ craftswoman to do?

First, figure out why you’re sticking to the safe end of craftiness. Is it because those items look professional (straight lines often do) or maybe because you’re scared of making mistakes on larger items or that aliens will punish you if you do not use up all your worsted weight cotton yarn and plastic lacing?

some of my craftiness in action

The next step is to grow and keep working on new ideas. It takes time to develop new products, and it does take longer to do more intricate and larger projects. It also takes guts to say “You know, I think I need to charge $390 for this free form crocheted life sized wheel barrow in order to pay for time and materials.” (Or what-ever-it-is that you make.)

If you work with fibers and fabrics in your at home business, you’ll need to pay attention to labeling requirements.

The rules seem a bit arbitrary for instance you must label all clothing items, except for hats and socks, unless those fall under a different section of the labeling requirements (such as those from fur or wool) or unless there’s mention made of the fibers used (for instance putting 100% cotton on your packaging, you’d then be obliged to follow through and put in the care instructions.)

Diapers and menstrual pads would be excluded, unless of course you tout the absorbent qualities of the batting, then you must label.

Doilies must be labeled, but bags don’t need it. Ironing board covers need to be labeled, but tea cozies are excluded.

Fortunately the FTC has a page dedicated to helping us sort what our legal requirements are as crafters and seamers.

Do consumers care if you label?

I’ve played around with different kinds of labels with my items, usually affixing a sticker or small hangtag with the content and care onto an item, but sometimes I feel that sewing in the label is the way to go. I’ve had customers praise and complain about all types (fortunately not in the same breath) but they’ll usually acknowledge that it is professional if nothing else (which is sometimes the complaint with craft fair buyers who would prefer everything look homemade.)