New Headband Holder

I know that I haven't posted the survey results for the headband holders yet, but I wanted to share one that I made today. I wasn't really planning on starting these already, but I had received two requests through Facebook for one. Then I found out that there is an upcoming craft fair in town that I am trying to sign up for (waiting for the woman in charge to email me back). So I decided to make some of these earlier than planned in anticipation for the craft fair (on February 18th).

I prepared all of my materials the last night:

I had high aspirations of finishing two of these today.

And impatiently waited until naptime today to "whip" one up.

Here is the first one that I have made up (excluding my "mock-up" that was shared in the survey):

The blue fabric is for the next one.

This darn thing took me about TWO hours to finish! And that's not including the time that it took me to measure and cut the fabric and the batting the night before.

I'm not really sure if I like how this one turned out. The pom fringe doesn't really look how I had pictured it would, and I think it might be a little overkill once headbands and hair clips are added. There is a dark purple in the fabric, which coordinates with the ribbon and fringe, but it's a little difficult to see in this photo. There are two hair clip ribbons on this one (the consensus from the survey was to have two), and the padded lid removes for extra storage inside, for hairbrushes, combs, hair ties, etc.:

Tabs inside prevent it from falling inside the container.

I am still debating whether or not I want to try to track down some bases for these, as shown in the mock-up, using one of my votive bases:

What do you think, don't worry about a base, or definitely include one? Ditch the pom fringe, or keep it?

Earring Survey Results

30 people responded to the earring survey, (and one silly goose who inadvertently skipped it).

Photo/Project Credit: Happy Together

1. Who do you think that earrings like these would be more appropriately targeted toward (Select all that apply)

• Women- 30%- (9)
• Teens- 50%- (15)
• Young girls- 50% (15)
• Other (6): "i would think high school, college, young adults would wear there, very cute!"; "tweens"; "Seniors, too."; "Young women-early 20's"; "Depending on the fabric color it could be for young girls too."; "While I think they would be most appropriate looking on younger girls, they also might not hold up on them."

2. If you were to wear these, or buy them for someone else, would you prefer solid, prints, pearls, beads, cool, warm, or neutrals? (FYI, I had to use this format for the question because I was only allowed to have 10 questions per survey and this one was part of the bracelet survey).

• Answers for this question were all over the place, but the general consensus was that anything would go. Winner of the best feedback response was: "both solid and prints would work for me. again, if it is something like this that is a little out of the box for earrings-i think the women that would wear these would like fun colors and prints rather than neutrals. Pearls are beautiful, but if you had a sparkly tiny button that would be gorgeous too! Love sparkles."

3. The average min/max price range that people said that they would pay for these is $7.50-$10.30. $5 was the lowest price suggested and $15 the highest. Three people claimed that they would not buy them at all.

My MPW suggested the following: wholesale price- $6.54; "safe" price- $11.54; retail price: $13.08, which seems to have underestimated a bit? Originally, I was thinking of pricing these for a craft fair at $4.00 a pair! Seems as though I was underestimating what people would pay, too!

I would like to reply to a couple of feedback comments/concerns that I received regarding these earrings. Actually, I think it's only one comment. One responder who said that they would not buy these, explained, "The fabric looks [like] it will fray, and they look a little gaudy." To which my response is, to each his own. I would personally never wear these either, as I prefer my earrings to dangle a bit, but I know that there are some women out there who would.

The main reason that I was considering making these earrings when I came across them was because there were so many women at my last craft fair who were excited about my pom hair clips, thinking that they were actually earrings. They were disappointed to find out that they were in fact hair clips. I couldn't help thinking first, that the poms were much too large to be mistaken for earrings, (they are 1.5"-2" in diameter!) and secondly, how gaudy that would look, but again, to each his own. But then I started thinking, well what about a smaller version of the pom....

As far as fraying goes, I think that the natural fraying of the earrings in the photo from Happy Together, actually added to the charm of them, except maybe that long bit hanging out on the left side of the photo:

Photo/Project Credit: Happy Together

 However, I believe in selling a product that is going to hold up and not fall apart on my customer, so I was planning to seal the edges of the fabric before constructing the earrings. Which I did, with the second pair that I made:

I actually wasn't very crazy about how these turned out, nor was I satisfied with the whole process in general. Hand-sewing the tiny fabric pieces together was a pain in my tushy, and I am too much of a perfectionist to have them appear sporadically arranged and messy as they did in the original tutorial, (as seen in the blue earring on the far right):

Photo/Project Credit: Happy Together

So, all things considered, I concluded that I will not be making these earrings. I didn't really enjoy doing it, nor did I like the end result enough to want to make more. If I'm going to spend valuable time on an item, then I want to be able to be proud of it, regardless of whether or not I would wear it myself.

Thank you again to everyone for the wonderful feedback! Expect to see the ring and headband holder survey results within the next week, and if you haven't checked out the results for the bracelets yet, check them out here.

Many Thanks

Thank you to all for the successful day at the Book, Bake, and Craft sale at the Canton Library today! I really appreciate the business from past and future customers. I hope to be able to get my Etsy shop up and running this week, so keep an eye out!

Thanks again!

Coming Soon: Betty Bow Blue on Etsy!

I have decided that after my last craft fair of the holiday season this weekend, I will be posting some, if not the majority, of my items on Etsy. I am hoping to reach a broader "clientele" that way and see how things sell. I will still be accepting custom orders through email or personal correspondence, but most of my ready-made items will only be available to purchase through Etsy, (unless you know where I live and stop by my house).

I am excited about a few new designs that I have been working on, including headband "sliders". These are hand-stitched, felt headband pieces that are removable, interchangeable, and hopefully collectible! They will be making their debut at a craft fair that I am attending this weekend. I also kept getting annoyed after attaching a bow or pom on a headband, only to realize that when I tried it on, I had placed it in the wrong spot. I also noticed that the right position for my head is not necessarily the correct placement for smaller heads (I totally tested this on my sons). So from here on out, all of the bows and poms that I create for headbands will be sliders so they are positionable. And don't worry, they will not fall off the headband on their own.

Wish me luck for the craft fair this weekend and for the "Opening-Soon" Etsy shop!


P.S. If you take a look at the above tabs, you will notice that I now have a "Sold Items" tabs. This will help me keep the galleries of my on-hand inventory shorter, but also allow folks to see other items that can be made. 

New Headband Design

In my mad dash to build up a stock for my bomb of a craft fair this past weekend, I came up with this new design for a headband and whipped up four of them:

They are made using fabric, felt, ribbon, and embroidery thread. This design takes a little more time than my others because the fabric is hand-stitched together. It didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it to (do they ever?), but the headbands did receive some good "reviews" at the craft fair. Many women and girls commented on how cute they were, and how they haven't seen headbands like these before. Would you believe that one woman, after looking at these headbands, turned to the other one next to her and said, "These are so cute. I need to figure out how to make these myself. So and so would love this." Right in front of me. Seriously?!

Unfortunately, I had no sales with these items and I'm questioning whether I have them priced too high. I priced them at $12, mainly because they require different supplies than the others, and more time. What do you think? Is the pricing off?

New Items Added

My first craft fair was yesterday, at Edwards-Knox Central School, and it was a huge flop! I had six sales in 6 hours. It was kind of relieving to find out from others vendors that their sales were awful too. A lot of traffic, just no one buying anything. Fortunately, that means I have many items on hand now. I have posted new items in each category, so be sure to check them out! And since there were so few of them, here are the items that I sold yesterday:

My first sale was one of these elastic headbands, (I had two available).

The cutest little girl, dressed in a Halloween cardigan, came right up to the table, grabbed the headband, and announced, "I want this one, Grandma", and proceeded to pull out her money. She was a girl who knew what she wanted! She wore the headband immediately. I sold the second one later in the day.

Another woman purchased a set of "Gloria" hair clips to send to her granddaughter in Maine:

A really nice older woman, who happened to be one of the vendors at the fair, fell in love with the pom necklaces and purchased the "Autumn Leaves" one.

As we were packing up to leave, my friend Beth, (who was selling the best-ever cupcakes at the fair) bought another pom necklace. She purchased the "Sophia" necklace, which was fitting because as soon as I had seen that fabric, I immediately thought of her. (Unfortunately I had already used her name for a different fabric).

I also sold a flower headband, using the "Autumn Leaves" fabric, but I do not have a photo of it to share.

All in all, the first craft fair was a good learning experience, but here's hoping that the next one goes a million times better!

In Scramble Mode!

Earlier this week, one of my friends informed me of a craft fair that she is participating in and asked if I wanted to join her as they are looking for more vendors. I excitedly agreed, the only problem being that it is next weekend on the 29th! And all of my current stock is packed up two hours away! So I am officially in scramble mode as I work to rebuild a stock large enough to bring to the craft fair. (Wish me luck!) This also means that any new items that I am making are obviously not available for sale right now. Everything is being reserved for this craft fair. However, items in my mom's possession are still available to be placed on hold.

For anyone local, it is Saturday, October 29th from 9-3 at Edwards-Knox high school in Russell. Come check us out!

First Craft Fair

My mom is attending a craft fair at the start of November and volunteered to take my items to sell along with hers. I would have liked to have gone myself, but it is too far away for me; I would have been gone all day and would have needed to find someone to watch the boys for the whole day. So this past weekend I packed up nearly my entire inventory (appx. 85 items!) and sent them home with my mom. I am hoping that she will be able to sell a good chunk of items, at least that way I will get a better idea as to what will be the more popular items and which ones I should spend less time on making. I am leaving up the listings of all items that she currently has in her possession, but will mark them "@CF". However, that does not mean that you cannot reserve an item to purchase. If you see something that you like, let me know and I will ask her to save it aside. I will update the listings after the craft fair is over.

I am also looking into attending a few local craft fairs within the next couple of months as well, which means that I need to start building a new inventory since my mom has all of my current stock! Wish me luck!