Sew Food

Sewing has been such a soul searching journey for me. I am so glad that I decided to take this path. I've always enjoyed sewing and have found it as a part time passion. I put it to rest during college because it wasn't fashionable to sew your own clothes or sew your own purses. Everyone carried the Coach style leather bags. Thanks to Vera Bradley, sewn and fabric style handbags are now back in style. She really pioneered that movement of quilted accessories. Now riding on her coatails, I am obsessed with sewn quilted and fabric made accessories. Every time I walk into a store I look at the construction of every piece of accessory I can find and tell my husband "O I can make that". I must have made a gazillion different types of gadgety and fabric accessories. My box of failed attempts are laughable and embarrassing! :) However, this sewing journey has made me really passionate about being ME and accepting the quirkiness of who I am. Sewing has really fed my soul and filled me with a happiness that I never thought could happen. OK yes my family (2 girls and hubby), they make me happy too but a girl has gotta have more than about her life right? I hope all of you find your Sew Food :)

HANDMADE DIY IS A VIABLE & SCALABLE BUSINESS

CraftyStitches did it! Handmade DIY is a viable and scalable business - not just your little hobby anymore!

Let me breathe for second. It's all happening so fast! I can't believe I won...

CraftyStitches just won 1st Place in the Scalable Business Plan Award! Yes, we are going places! Lookout -Handmade DIY is a viable and scalable business - not just your little hobby.

I have to say that the moment really took off when I did my first Heartsy Deal and sold over 600 pieces of product in 2 days! Yep. That was the day I quit my full time job and decided to push forward with my business. I stopped playing around. It's now a real livelihood. From then on CraftyStitches is now with 2 part-time assistants and 1 full time. J It's incredible! I couldn't have done it without Heartsy!

My advice is to take it seriously! Take every sale seriously and make it count! Customer Service and deliver everything you've got. Yes it's a discount, but you also just increased the awareness of your shop Exponentially.

I wrote my business plan based on all the ideas I've been storing away for years and really thought about the cost and analytics behind building a business and not a hobby. I wrote with passion, I wrote with conviction, I wrote with love for handmade, I wrote from the heart! That's at the heart of handmade LOVE, PASSION and ART. I also love business and understand that my love for quilted accessories would not continue if I didn't make any money to support these wonderful ideas. Love what you make, believei n what you make. Live up to the mistakes - boy did I make a lot of those too. When I did, I offered a refund and my customers came back. They supported the DIY Handmade movement because they believe in it.

Our customers today are different. Our customers are just like us - those who love our handmade work believe in a handmade human economy. They appreciate you. So go and promote your items and what you love to do.

I too hope you will continue your love for handmade goods and continue the DIY handmade movement through Heartsy and Etsy. It's how I believe will create a different kind of economy. We are the next generation of GLOBALIZED HANDMADE. Keep shopping handmade and supporting the handmade human economy.

Visit my website for our DIY CraftyKitsTM and handmade quilted accessories. SEW SEW SEW... keep stitching us together.

Check out how my 15 min pitch with my scribbles.

Thinking like a business woman...

So, I've been thinking about what I need to do to become more business savy as CraftyStitches. It's really hard. I mean hard hard! Maybe because I'm more an artist, crafter, mom and worker. Swtiching and turning on that gear box is definitely a giant paradym shift.

So here's what I've been thinking about doing to better understand what it takes to do business (gentle encouragement, comments are welcome)

• BRAVERY! that's probably gonna be key for me. Eventhough many think I am so outgoing, brave to talk to people etc... I still feel inside like a shrinking flower. It's so wierd. I can give these awesome advice to my friends and family about going out there and just do what's in your mind and create the world that you invision. And now I have to take my own advice.

• Tell yourself YOU CAN DO THIS - this is probably the same as above but really, I have taken some major steps to tell myself that I can do this like... getting an LLC, upgrading my old sewing machine, setting up my sewing room to make it like my own creative office space, participating in wholesale shows, going out there and telling people that I am making things and selling them.

• Setting up my Corporation - so I've decided to finally incorporate and become an LLC. Yep CraftyStitches is going to become officially an LLC and so I'm out there! Way way out there! This is a major investment for me and commitment. I now have an EIN, articles of icorporation, etc. But I couldn't have done it without Company Incorporation. They did it all. I didn't have to worry about any forms etc.. No worries! I have a link on the right if you are interested in setting up too. So go and do it.

• Joining Guilds/Associations and getting out - So I am now way way more active than ever in joining forces with others who are doing what I do or other things to inspire more energies towards being a business owner.

Keep up with Jenn and I'll keep reporting great news and hopefully inspire you to do what you love too.