Just wondering if anybody out there sells their items and makes a living off it or just sews for fun. I would appreciate your comments. Thanks in advance.

Grammy:

A number of us participate in church craft shows and local activities and display our items. Yes I do a craft show at the University of Florida every December and have been doing it for 10 years now.

I do make some $$ but in reality it is the love of sewing and embroiderying that I do it.

As a sewer unless you are willing to really run a business many of us never do get back what we put into it.

Hope this helps to answer your curiosity.

MOM

Grammy,

I think most of us sew for the love of it. A business would be really hard especially if you buy an expensive machine. I cannot imagine getting up in the morning knowing that I HAD to get stuff done on a daily basis. Doing it for the love of sewing is altogether different. I think that people who do repairs do OK, because you don't need to have a top of the line machine to do that and in time you get fast at removing zippers for replacement and putting on patches, etc. There are so many commercial embroidery places that I don't know how anyone with a single needle machine can make a go of it.

Cheryl

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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada
HMC12000, Horizon 7700QCP, 4120 QDC, Jem Platinum 760, CoverPro 1000, HuskyLock 936, Xpression Felting Machine, DigitizerMBX v.4.0

To add to my previous post. My experience with sewing garments is people expect something much better than they can buy off the rack and pay a whole lot less for it. They think that we should make up their fabric purchase for a few bucks, as they've already bought the fabric. They don't realize the hours that go into the sewing.

Cheryl

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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada
HMC12000, Horizon 7700QCP, 4120 QDC, Jem Platinum 760, CoverPro 1000, HuskyLock 936, Xpression Felting Machine, DigitizerMBX v.4.0

Oh Cheryl aint that the truth, I dress made professionally for years. I'd get people turning up with cheap market stall fabrics, nothing wrong with that I use them, but then want haute couture garments at jumble sale prices.
'Do you have a pattern, zip, threads', was invariably met with,
'but you provide all that your a dress maker. Cant you make a pattern?'
Well yes I could, but when I told them how much that would be their eyes would glaze over.
I grew to loathe the smell of unwashed bodies and stale perfume, or grubby underclothes under clean clothes, I even refused to fit one client untill she'd returned home, showered, changed her underwear. I'd insist on a minimum of 3 fittings, some of them would ask why as I had their measuremnts so why fit them. I learnt very uickly, take a deposite, a meaningful one, get everything agreed before you made a pattern or toile, adding axtra design detailing came at an additional cost as it was invariably come up at the third fitting. Oh I saw a dress this week that had... can you do that. If it meant almost undoing the entire garment I'd say only at the design stage I'm afraid. Then the other drawback, they'd have forgotten their money but had to have the garment for that night. Fine go and fetch the money and you can take the item. It doesnt leave my workroom untill the bill has been paid or cheque has cleared.
My freinds tell me when they hear my stainless steel voice tone, they darent argue with me, LOL, well my clients soon learned the same. If an item hadnt been paid for in full within a certain time frame, clearly laid out in the terms of business, they forfieted any deposite and the goods. I was then legally free to dispose of the goods to recover my costs.
I did build up a loyal client core that followed me from UK to Germany back to UK then Ireland, then finally I had to tell them I was sorry but I was retiring from garment making. I still get mail from some of them, but I'd grown to detest sewing in all its forms even for myself. Took me a good 10 years before I felt pleasure when doing any. Did I make a living, lets just say there are easier ways.

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digimad

Hey mom,

Do you still do the craft show at UF? Wasn't sure due to the date of your post. Would love info on it if possible.

Thanks!
Spunkybear



Go Gators!

I do not enjoy sewing for other people for a whole bunch of reasons the main one is that it turns a pleasure into a chore. However, if ever I need to supplement my income, I would do it by making winter coats. I make these out of top quality fleece lined with Kasha. They have patch pockets and a hood trimmed with shearling. The coat is covered by a shell made from Commander which is embelished with embroidery, rick-rack, and decorative stitches. These coats are warmer than downfilled ones and completely washable. I have made 3 for other people. I let them choose the colour of the coat and shell and I make the decisions about embellishments. Each is a one-of-a-kind. I get $800. + for each and fitting is minimal. When I wear my own, I get stopped in the street and asked to make one for the "stopper". I always refuse.

I think it would be very difficult to make a living doing small items or even custom sewing. And as Maggie points out, dealing with other peopls's low standards of hygiene, reluctance to pay, fittings etc. would send me round the bend. If, however, you can fill a niche market as I did, you might do alright.

Jacquie

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Ladysmith BC,Janome 12000, Bernina Record, Bernina 1150MDA serger, bit of a Luddite, garments not crafts

I hope that the individual asking didn't get discouraged. If you have a passion for it, do it!! If you want to make a living out of it, you will.

I am growing my business now and loving it!

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Angela

Janome Memory Craft 4800 QC
Janome 1110DX Serger
Janome Memory Craft 350e

Many of us would love to hear about your business and what you are offering. Would you want to share that information?

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stitcherlady

Yes, I would love to hear...still a dream of mine!

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Boston Area USA, MC11000

My2lovies, it is possible to make an income crafting, but you have to put the leg work in first. You need a portfolio of items you feel might be marketable, ignore family and friends who say its lovely, their biased, Joe Public isn't. Have some kind of business cards made, nothing too flamboyant, then armed with your portfolio visit local clubs, organisations, groups, and tell them who you are and what you can offer. But be professional from the word go, make it plain you require a minimum of 14 or more days notice, you do not accept an order for 50 patches to be delivered in 24 hours. Niether do you negotiate on prices, not even for large repeat orders. Set your prices sensibly, don't be tempted to undercut commercial companies, you can't. Read up on local rules and regulations on home based industry, some can be quite punitive in you live in a zoning area that doesn't allow commercial enterprises to run from domestic dwellings. Crafts sold for profits fall into commercial enterprise rules. Find out if you require special insurances etc, as standard home and contents public liability may not extend to clients who are in your home to discuss their requirements. Contact your local tax office for advice on their rules regarding income from home based crafting work, its always better for the small crafter to have the tax authorities assist rather than chase them.

Don't be tempted to offer things you haven't become sufficiently skilled at producing quickly and efficiently. That's a sure way to to damage a reputation fast, just sound out what people in your town want and produce a small range at first, then over time you can extend it. I have several acquaintances who generate a growing income by creating goods for kennel clubs, and nothing else, someone else knits ski hats, nothing else, another makes bespoke personalised baby and toddler blankets. So yes you can succeed, but you have to be good, things have to have an excellent finish, look professionally made and not home made, delivered on time, even if that means missing out on things, and sensibly priced. Not cheap, but reflecting the quality of the items and the skills needed to produce them.

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digimad

Yes, my cousin in Ohio is supplementing his income, by emboridering shirts, vest and a few other items for POW WOW's around their area. He has been doing this for about 3 years now and is hoping to retire from his job next year and do this full time. He also does heat transfers on tee shirts. He started doing things for their church, shirts for the 100 yr anniversary, that kind of thing. Then people where he worked started ordering from him, he started with the 300E and still has it for back up, but now has an industrial multi needle, which he says if you are going to emb to sell is the only way to go. Keep a regular sewing only machine or if you have sewing/emb. use the emb on it for either small stuff or as a back up to a multi needle. He found a nitch in the Pow Wow's and like I said he is doing very well. He had asked me to make authentic indian apparel the sewing was a breeze, but I told him I would have to make one to see just what it would intale before I would committ. I am glad I did, as the sewing easy, but the marking for the differents ribbon details took hours! Because it was to be authentic there were specific widths used at precise measurements from hems and the other ribbons. So I told him though I like making costumes, he would not be able to pay me what I would need to make these garments, as he would not be able to sell them and make any money. I would not want to sew for a living, as it would take the fun out for me I did that with painting....and I was good. But I lost the love of it when I started to do it for money and not for fun. Hope this helps.

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Peggy
Janome/Horizon 12000
Janome 9700
Compulock 888
Janome 1110DX
Janome CoverPro 900CPX

I can speak from experience on this topic. I run a successful home based embroidery business. Can you make a living from it? Answer is no. It does make a great second income, but you can't solely live off it. I operate with 2 Janome MB-4 embroidery machines that average about 6-7 hours a day use 7 days a week. As far as embroidery business goes, you can only get so much finished in a day because of the actual stitching speed of the machine. That is what limits you. To make a full time job of it, you would need enough orders to warrant purchasing $50K industrial machines and having employees. Only problem with that is you have to constantly have large orders to pay the bills. Most embroidery businesses make their profit off the markup in the garment itself, not the embroidery. Not to mention they have very little profit built in to each item, but they thrive on quantity.

I would like to comment.I am just learning with my Janome SE1100 and have had a few people ask about embroidering stuff for them but as of yet, I do not feel confident. I DID check out a local embroidery company to see how they are doing. They have the bigger machines but still can't go any faster as threads break. Also they are not doing so well.I think it was a retirement dream, but hard to compete with Chinese patches and such.They were friendly but made it clear that they were struggling and there are two of them!! I think the above answer is correct. You probably can do it as a side biz but it would be difficult to do it full time .Also I think finding your special product or niche is also part of it. A well meaning friend wanted a badge digitized, then it was six and could be forty or more. And if they liked them even more. I was just not ready to do hundreds or thousands of one thing....at an hour a badge.

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carol christoffel

You might think about going to yur local dealer and see if he offers classes and offer to teach a class for him.

Also there are local craft fairs and church fairs that have yearly shows you might want to consider doing them. Sometimes you may only have a few people interested in your items but word of mouth gets out. As far as doing patches and limited items that may not be the way to start as the business competition is not easy to compete with, but if yu can do some house hold items and shirts and start with smaller shows that may help.

MOM

An acquaintance of mine makes embroidered lobster bibs from small, cheap handtowels and sells them. Wash and dry them first. Cut out a neck hole and use bias binding around this and for the ties. Leave them the original size so that they are large enough to wipe hands on in between bites. Very simple and quick to do.

If you do not live by the sea, try making pasta or BBQ bibs.


Jacquie

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Ladysmith BC,Janome 12000, Bernina Record, Bernina 1150MDA serger, bit of a Luddite, garments not crafts