My first craft show; Lessons learned

So I had my first craft show yesterday, and I'm a little disappointed but I'm not looking at it as a failure.  Lets call it a dress rehearsal.

First of all, it wasn't very well advertised.  The show was in conjunction with a school competition and wasn't advertised to the public, but I thought for a $10 entry fee what do I have to lose. The organization of the event wasn't the greatest.  From what I understand the event planer wasn't even sure if the craft show portion was going to happen at all due to all the rules from the school and liability laws.  Also, my booth and about 7 others were put in a room out of the main traffic areas, which cut our visibility in half.  We did get some traffic but there was never a steady stream of people, and I'm not sure if the booths in the main areas did any better because they were packing up early.  Lesson one: Research the event

Stitch 1 Stitch 2 booth

Secondly, it was me.  Although I think my stuff is pretty darn cute, it seems I was targeting the wrong audience.  The show was during a dance competition, so the things that were selling were very girly girl things.  Sequenced headbands & mittens, jewelry, Scentsy and of course any booth that sold food.  I took baby clothes, mittens, totebags, and some key-chain wallets.  I got a lot of "cute stuff, but I don't have babies to buy for anymore" comments.  Lesson two: Target the expected audience.

But it wasn't all a total waste of time.  I did get to make a few new connections, see some people I haven't seen in awhile, and practice setting up and tearing down my booth.  I'm already thinking of what I can do to make improvements for next time.  Being able to accept credit cards would be one, although it wouldn't of done me much good yesterday because those who did; had trouble getting a cell signal.  A tv tray would of made a nice little table to put the cash box behind the display table or even as an extension of the display table to put business cards and my portfolio.  A framed sign with my name and business info would be nice too, so I don't have to print a new one each time and looks more professional than a handwritten one.  And the last thing, when bringing a mannequin for display purposes, don't forget the stand.  I had a baby mannequin I was going to use, but forgot the stand at home so the mannequin was pretty much useless.

Poor Kitty

My poor cat, Puddle, had to have half her tail amputated on Friday, and I feel just awful about it.  I went to start my car, Friday morning and didn't realize she had crawled up under the hood.  When I started the car, she got her tail caught in something, and lets just say it wasn't good. I rushed her to the vet and they confirmed my concern that yes she did have to have an amputation. 

I brought her home after the surgery Friday afternoon, and we gave her lots of cuddles and attention.  Normally she's an outside cat, so the kids (especially my son) are enjoying having her in the house, where she'll need to stay for 2 weeks, while she heals. I'm supprized that for an outside cat, she's doing very well being indoors.  Saturday and Sunday, she seemed content to stay in her carrier, normally we have to force her in there.  We would take her out to feed her and give her meds and when she was done she would go right back to the carrier.  Even with the door open, she choose to stay in there.

By Monday she was a little more social, and came out of the carrier by herself to cuddle, and we let her visit with the dogs out on the porch for a while.  Our other cat, who refuses to come inside no matter what temperature is, is worried about her; she keeps meowing/calling for her.   She's getting little better everyday, and looks kind of funny with that short little tail, but she'll come out of this just fine.

A few new listings

I have 2 new listing in the shop, and I'm working on more.

First one is this Infinity Scarf.  Made from lightweight cotton, it's the perfect accessory for dressing up a t-shirt, and light enough to be worn in warmer temps.

Infinity Scarf by Stitch 1 Stitch 2

The next one is a lightweight, wool scarf.  This scarf is great for staying warm in the winter, but not so bulky that you get overheated.

Wool Scarf by Stitch 1 Stitch 2

You can check out both scarves and my other great handmade items at www.zibbet.com/stitch1stitch2

Getting ready for a craft show

Mittens by Stitch 1 Stitch 2

I'm getting ready to do my first craft show in a few weeks.  I started looking at my shop and noticed I didn't have very much winter stuff.  This is Minnesota after all, where winter lasts for 6 months (or so it seems).  So I got to thinking, what could I make for winter wear that I could make several of in a short time.  The answer, fleece mittens.  I attempted mittens a few years ago, but the pattern and instructions were so confusing and resulted in lots of tears, frustration and only 2 pairs that didn't turn out all that great.  This time I went looking for a much simpler pattern and I found it at FleeceFun.com.  She offers free downloadable patterns in different sizes and easy to follow instructions.


I made a test pair out of some old fleece I had and was a little disappointed that it didn't seem true to size, but that was my mistake because I forgot to change the scale to 100% instead of scaled to fit.  I went back and downloaded the pattern again, this time correctly, and I figure I can use the first pattern for kid's mittens.  I've been very busy the last week and a half cutting, pinning and sewing mittens.

Chicken wire frame from knack.org

Also as I'm getting ready for the craft show, I started reading about craft show tips.  One thing that stuck out for me was displaying things at eye level to draw people in.  I started to think about how I could do that.  I have a table to set thing out on, but how was I going to be able to hang things so people could seem them from a distance?  Then I started looking on pintrest for display ideas and really liked these chicken wire frames.  I started to think about how I could put something like that together.  First I thought about a couple large picture frames hinged together, but I didn't think that would be big enough.  Then I thought about building something out of lumber, but (a) I'm not very mechanically inclined and neither is Hubby and (b) I really didn't want to spend a lot of money on it.

Repurposed closet door

Then one morning as I brainstorming ideas, I remembered the bi-fold closet door that used to be in my daughters room.  The hardware that held it in place broke and the door sat in the basement hallway for years waiting to be thrown out, but the basic frame was still in pretty good shape.  I removed the shutter slats and sanded it down.  I was going to paint it but I liked the distressed look the sanding gave it.  My daughter helped staple the chicken wire to the back of the frame and now I have what I think is a pretty cool looking free standing display all for under $5.

If I ever get my own sewing room this will be a permanent fixture, because I can think of so many other uses for it.

I only think I want a new sewing maching

Every so often for the last couple years, mostly when I see ads for sewing machines, I think I oh it would be so nice to have an automatic button hole, or look at all those fancy stitches just think of the decorative top stitching I could do, or like the one I looked at last year that pretty much did everything for you but cut the fabric.  And then I think about my sewing machine, we have a history together.

My sewing machine was built in the mid-70's.  There's no bells and whistles on it.  It does a straight stitch, a few zig-zag stitches, and a back stitch.   It's the sewing machine my mom bought when I was 3 or 4.  It's sewed lots of clothes for my sister and me, quite a few patches to my dad work pants, a few Halloween costumes, a couple stuffed toys, at least 2 baby blankets, other decor items and clothes for my own children.  Never in all these years have I or my mom ever needed 22 decorative stitches.

It's a real workhorse machine.  Solid metal body and parts, there's no plastic in there anywhere.  It's heavy, so it doesn't get moved around much and it powers though everything I put under the needle.

So yes while it would be nice to have a newer machine with lots of features, I'm not sure if I'd use them.  I think I want a new sewing machine, but I'm kind of attached to the one I have.  It would be like trying to replace an old friend.

They just don't make them like they used to

I know it's kind of silly, but I'm feeling a little sad today because I took my old 1985, rabbit ear, 13" analog TV to be recycled this morning, and not because it didn't work.  It worked perfectly as long as it was hooked up the cable.  Sure the UHF dial was missing, and it wasn't capable of being hooked  up to modern devices like our now obsolete dvd recorder/vcr, but it still had a decent picture and worked for watching tv in the sewing room.

It was the first big purchase that I bought with my own money, that I earned from my paper route when I was 12.  It was a big deal for me then, I felt so grown up walking into Best Buy knowing that I had finally saved up enough money to buy it.  It cost me $110 + tax, which seemed like a lot of money back then.

I had this tv for 28 years and never had a problem with it, in that same amount of time I'd also owned 4 vehicles and was always happy to upgrade.  The only reason I decided to part with my good old trusty tv was because we just hadn't used it in the last 2 years.  We upgraded our main tv to a digital flat screen, moved the one from the living room to our bedroom and the one from our bedroom downstairs to the sewing room.  My little tv just sat on the living room floor unused.  My son wanted to put it in his room, but there's no cable hook up in his room so it wouldn't him any good.

I took it today to the recycling drop off and handed it to the guy.  He said, "I used to have one just like this in my room when I was a kid.  Brings back memories."

It sure does.

On the needles

It's been a busy summer, but now I'm finding more time to create.  Usually I only work on one project at a time, but I broke that rule because I had to many ideas floating around in my head.

The first one is finished, so I did actually accomplish something.  Actually I've knit 3 of these hats in the last month.  It started as idea, and the first one came out a little to small so I put it in the shop as a child's hat.  Seeing how cute the first one was my daughter requested one for herself, with steampunk buttons, and after I saw how cute her's was I decided I needed one too but with a cool chunky button I bought from a seller at Zibbet.

Next is a sweater I'm knitting for myself, unfortunately I'm not making much progress.  I'm finding it very boring.  If I ever finish it, it will just be a plain hooded cardigan to wear around the house.

Next is a scarf/cowl that I'm making for the shop.

And last, although I don't have a photo because I haven't actually started it, I'm in the process of designing pants for myself again.  I have a pattern that I need to make a few tweaks to and then I can start cutting the fabric, but I have a good idea where I'm going with it.  I'd show you the sketch, but I'm a really poor artist.