Wedding Handkerchiefs and Benefits of Ammonia

We have an order via Etsy for three of the polka dot handkerchiefs with embroidered lace.  They are for a wedding later in August.  The bride wants poems and writings on each of them.  One for the bride's mother; one for the groom's mother; and one for the godmother.  The bride likes the modern feel of these hankies.  She also chose a font that I've never had anyone choose before, Bickley Script.  I don't think I would have chosen that font, but, as it turns out, it really looks nice.  The writing is teeny tiny, which is difficult for embroidery.  We have gone through all of the steps and today should be the final stitch out on the handkerchiefs. 

One of the pleasantries of this business is all of the nice people you meet.  This little bride has been so sweet.  She originally convo'ed me on Etsy asking if I could embroider a poem on a hanky.  We worked together throughout the process to assure that she gets exactly what she wants.  There have been many practice stitch-outs.  We chose the color of thread, placement of the embroidery, choice of font, which hanky should go to whom, and even delivery choices.  She lives in Illinois.  I know embroidery is not something that will bring about world peace but in a small way, it does put a smile on the recipient's face when they get a creation that they had a hand in creating and it turned out beautiful.  Okay, it puts a smile on my face, too.

We tried an experiment the other day.  You are supposed to use vinegar in your laundry.  I thought it helped clean and whiten.  We had a stack of old, dingy, white shop rags and washed some as usual.  Then we soaked the others in vinegar for about 15 to 30 minutes and washed them.  Neither was any whiter, but the vinegar rags sure came out soft.

Well, we love experiments over here and I recently read about ammonia.  Ever since I started keeping my own house, I always knew to make sure we had plenty of vinegar, peroxide, baking soda, and ammonia.  The vinegar, peroxide and baking soda is used around here for a multitude of tasks.  The lonely ammonia bottle would sit for years unopened.  I knew that if someone fainted, I could always bring out the ammonia but no one faints around this house.  When I read the ammonia article a week or so ago and posted about it, I went looking for my bottle of ammonia.  Apparetly, through the years we got rid of it.  We bought a new bottle and last night put it to the test.  The article, and indeed, the ammonia bottle instructions, said to put a cup of ammonia in a container, put it in the oven, and let it sit overnight.  The ammonia is supposed to loosen all of the grime and you just wipe it clean.  My oven is one of those with a lock.  You lock it and turn it on clean and the temperature rises to an astronomical degree and then turns off and the oven is clean.  I did that a few times when the oven was new.  Somehow over the years it got really dirty and I went to clean it one time and I was afraid that the house would burn down.  So, I turned it off and haven't used it since.   That oven  was filthy.  We put the cup of ammonia in the oven last night and when we opened it this morning, nothing looked any different.  Oh well, another experiment that didn't work.  But, I took a damp rag and started wiping the oven and that gunk started coming off.  I think it's going to take a few ammonia evenings to get everything in there clean, but I was amazed at how much a simple wipe with a damp rag removed.

The next experiment is going to be fertilizer.  The article said that ammonia combined with water makes the best fertilizer.  We'll see.  That will be a hard one to determine.  It's not an overnight experiment and our garden looks beautiful but it is time to fertilize.

Stay tuned....

Yes, Another Website

This has been an interesting week.  I made some more handkerchiefs and began making the scarves that I promised.  Yesterday, after not listing anything on Etsy for about 10 days, we listed several items in a blitz.  No sales so far but a lot of fun.  I put the red lips on several items.  Surprisingly, yet maybe not so surprising, the zipper lips on a hanky received very few visitors compared to the other items.  Why?  I think it is because the zipper lips were not smiling and the others were.  I'm telling you that smiles are contagious.  Most of the hankies that were posted were made using the new pin striped fabric with the red lip designs.  Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I listed the hanky with the black polka dots, it seemed like everyone went there.  And I have so little of that fabric remaining.  Ouch!  I looked for that fabric when we went on the fabric binge  recently and didn't find it.  Something else sort of surprised me, pleasantly.  I listed a long scarf, black with white polka dots, and the lace embroidered doves and butterflies, and received lots of visitors on that.  I'm not sure if that's because it's a new item for us or because of the scarf, itself. 

You never know what people like at any given time.  The polka dots, for instance, is retro and has been in vogue for a few years now.  You'd think that it would be coming to an end but, I don't believe that is the case.  Just like the red lips embroidery design, I have a set of designs for eyes that I have wanted to embroider.  Eyes are the window to your soul.  I wonder if they would be as big a hit as the red lips?  The red pops out on the black and white, where the eyes would not be such a contrasting color, unless the fabric was the bright color.  Hmmm, I'll have to think on that.

As much fun as I have, and will continue to have, playing the Etsy game, something else occurred this week.  There is a wholesaler in the U.S. that I keep hearing about.  I use a lot of different wholesalers for different things.  One main wholesaler that I use is Virginia T's.  VAT for short.  They are a wonderful company and I've been with them from the beginning.  As their name suggests this is where I usually get our t-shirts and polo shirts, etc.  They carry the apparel, but also some caps, towels, aprons, bags, etc.  I read a lot of forums and professional magazines and one name keeps surfacing -- Sanmar.  They sell the same type things as VAT but when someone is looking for something specific, the response is usually to call Sanmar, they have everything.  So, I thought it would probably be a good thing for me to sign up with Sanmar.  I tried last fall but every time I gave them information they requested, they wanted more.  It finally became a hassel and since I'm so pleased with VAT, I dropped the issue.  Sometimes VAT doesn't have the colors that I need, or they are out of stock of an item, and I do want another place where I can go that does the same thing and may have different colors.   So, I started the ball rolling again with Sanmar.  I was jumping through hoop after hoop until finally the last hoop was that I needed to call them on the phone to register.  I did this yesterday and must say that these are very nice people.  After I registered, the lady and I were talking and she said she didn't understand why more customers didn't use their free catelog web site. 

Well, one thing turned into another thing.  She put me through to the tech department and voila, Cajun Stitchery has another website but this one has the Sanmar catelog.  I'm still trying to figure this thing out but you are welcome to go look.  The website is www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.  This website allows our customers to look through the catelog and purchase whatever they like.

I still have to figure out the flow.  If you go to the website and, let's say, you want to buy an apron.  You can chose the apron and put it in your cart.  I think once you decide to purchase, the cart comes to me.  This is where I need to learn more.  Some of their stuff is pricey; others not.  Of course, purchasing this way has an added cost for shipping.  I usually recover the shipping costs in the cost of the item.  So, this would be a little bit different.  Somehow you pay through Paypal, something else I have to work out.  Of course, this is only one company and if you don't see what you want there, or you want to find out if we can get an item cheaper elsewhere, you can always contact me and I'll look around at VAT or wherever.

C'est toute, mes amis:>)

What Do Customers Want To Buy?

It has rained all week until yesterday afternoon.  The sky is blue and the sun is out this morning.  It is a beautiful day.

Cajun Stitchery has been busy this week.  I've been thinking about a lot of lace stock designs that we have and I've wanted to stitch them out for a long time.  This week those designs are coming to life with several new techniques on the embroidery machine.  I read that you take FSL (free standing lace) designs for corners and stitch them out on WSS (water soluble stabilizer), then rinse off the stabilizer and attach the new lace to whatever you want to attach.  I have some beautiful lace designs but they are not held out to be FSL.  I embroidered the lace design onto a light weight cloth, then carefully trimmed around the design and then attached the corner design to a handkerchief.  They turned out beautiful.  I made 2 handkerchiefs in this fashion on the black polka dot fabric and put them up for sale on Etsy.  Then I did the same thing on a 3rd handkerchief but this time included a lace design of 2 birds and the word "amour" (translated "love" in french).  That made a beautiful handkerchief.  Then I made the 4th handkerchief with just the birds and no lace corner.  Again, very beautiful.  By that time I was over black and white and wanted some color. 

I was also thinking about a new way of doing the handkerchiefs by applying the lace first, onto the fabric before making the handkerchief.  My eyes caught sight of a beautiful piece of pink fabric in our fabric drawer and the experiment began.  The fabric was hooped.  A design was digitized of little circles and then stitched out.  That worked fine.  Then I found a nice corner lace design and stitched that out.  Then I found a lace dove and stitched that out.  After looking at the design created in the hoop, I felt that was enough.  The fabric was unhooped and I measured 11" square using the edge of the corner design to begin my measurements.  I trimmed around the corner design very carefully and hand rolled the hem around the rest of the handkerchief.  I am very pleased at the result.

As these handkerchiefs were being produced, I was listing them on Etsy.  A lady convo'ed me and said she really liked the way I used some modern ideas and fabric in an heirloom handkerchief.  The visitors and hearts applied to the handkerchiefs and our store on Etsy has been pretty high, at least compared to normal.  Friends have commended on how much they like these new handkerchiefs. 

I did some searches on Etsy to see what other handkerchiefs were being made and only a few are being hand made.  Most are store bought hankies with embroidered personalization on them.  What really stood out is how much less I am charging for these handkerchiefs.  I know what they cost me wholesale, and what the store bought/wholesale hankies are selling retail locally.  That's how I based my hanky prices, but on Etsy they are much more expensive because rather than purchasing the plain hanky, the one's on Etsy have the personalization and embroidery on them.  I realized that mine are completely handmade and at least need to be in the ballpark of the others, if not higher.  I'm not going to go back and change the prices of the one's already listed, but from here out, the prices will be more than the $6 I was charging.  In fact, the pink handkerchief is being sold on Etsy for $10, which is really a steal.

I ordered some bags that should arrive today to fill some orders that we have.  One bag in particular, I'm curious to see.  We are going to use it as a diaper bag and the info on the internet and the pictures makes it look intriguing.  We ordered the bag in purple.  It says that there is a velcro water bottle compartment.  That should work out for baby bottles.  We'll see.

We have some more pillowcase orders to fill.  Customers are starting to give me some real general ideas and letting me create designs.  You know I love that.

I still need to get to my fabric store and get some special fabric.  We are going to start making scarves and I have so many ideas. 

I still don't understand why the kloth koozies were not a real hit.  I love those things and they are so pretty.  But they didn't sell and that's the whole purpose.  I may just make some drink can sleeves and sell for about $5 because they are easy to make.

Right now I'm thinking that aside from the odds and ends that I make, my five main categories are going to be cell phone/droid holders, napkins, handkerchiefs, scarves, and I need to figure out a fifth category.  The plan is to try lots of different things and keep throwing them out until I find 5 solid categories of items that customers buy. I know that I'm over the totes thing completely.  It may be that I can do some table runners, placemats, pot holders, or dish towels.  Those waffle weave dish towels that we purchased earlier this year were a real hit.  I'm not sure if we have any of them left over.  I have not put any pillowcases on Etsy.  I might try doing that.  What I have learned is that in retail everything evolves.

Gotta go embroider. Gosh!  I love doing this stuff.

C'est toute, mes amis.