A friend of mine emailed and said she wanted to order some ladies handkerchiefs. She said that her husband chidded her for leaving Kleenex in her pockets and when they did laundry those little bits of Kleenex lint were all over everything. She said that she wanted to bring back the dainty ladies handkerchiefs of old. I immediately set about making some handkerchiefs and hand rolled the hems. Then I regained my senses and went searching on the internet for wholesalers of ready made handkerchiefs.
My handkerchief search reveals some things to me. Most handkerchief wholesalers are in China or India. Although those wholesalers probably offer a good product and are good companies, it dawned on me that all of my wholesalers are within the United States. In fact, most of my wholesalers are factories that actually make the thread or fabric. Those that are middle men may purchase from China or India. All I know is that I purchase from the United States. In the end, my new handkerchief wholesaler is here in the good ole USA. I wanted nice, dainty, elegant, high end ladies handkerchiefs. The funny thing is that I ended up with a company that I have visited their website ever since I was first introduced to machine embroidery. I never purchased anything there, just got great ideas from them. Now they have grown to have a wholesale company in addition to their retail company. I have now placed my first order and am anxiously awaiting arrival. It will probably arrive in a week. I purchased a few of many of the handkerchiefs available. Everything that I purchased is embroiderable. No. I did not purchase any Irish Linen. That Irish Linen company that impressed me never responded to my inquiries. My new wholesale company does carry the Irish Linen. I can get it if you want. I purchased a lot of their middle-of-the-road handkerchiefs. There really was nothing there that I did not like.
Now I have to determine what we are going to charge for these little goodies. At this point, I believe we will charge $5 or $6 for each, plus embroidery.
The internet search gave me so many wonderful ideas. These handkerchiefs are definitely in the "heirloom" area and would make nice gifts for any shower, wedding, birthday, etc. I saw some of these handkerchiefs that had things like wedding bells embroidered with the names of the couple and date of marriage and some with a baby's name and date of birth. One place suggested the handkerchiefs as wedding favors and had the handkerchief folded on a tiny coat hanger with a cardboard bodice. All of the handkerchiefs that I purchased are white, except I did purchase 5 black handkerchiefs. The synopsis under the black handkerchief said that these were appropriate at funerals or as a gift to the surviving spouse. Some of these handkerchiefs are even used in scrapbooking. They are all 100% cotton. The ones that I purchased all have lace, as well.
As I said, when my friend first contacted me, I immediately made a couple of handkerchiefs. Those handkerchiefs are now on our Etsy website for sale. I may be making more. In fact, I think the ones that I made will be more in the everyday handkerchief category or "artsy" category. Those are a good thing for me to do with my hands when I'm just sitting around.
All of that is to say that I, personally, am tossing out my kleenex and bringing on the cloth handkerchiefs and hope all of you do the same.
Now onto the next unusual request. A customer asked if we embroidered welcome mats. I never thought of that and initially wondered if Boudreaux could do that. Then came the internet search. As usual, I was very surprised to see that carpet, mats, rugs can be embroidered. This venture may require us purchasing a special hoop for Boudreaux. The customer has a condominium in Navarre that they rent and they wanted a welcome mat with the name of the condominium and a design of a pelican. Immediately, I'm thinking that I want one that says Cajun Stitchery:>) So far, I have not found a wholesale company for the door mat/welcome mat. Still looking for that. In the meantime, we are going to go buy one someplace and see how it works on Boudreaux. Oh, and yes, Boudreaux is supposed to be able to embroider on these mats.
Hopefully, I'll finish another duffel bag today. Don't you love the little "wrestler tyke" design.
C'est toute, mes amis.
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