To Sell or Not to Sell

Since I've been a sewing maniac the last couple of weeks, some of my friends have been telling me I need to sell the clothes I make. Or I should make and bunch of and sell them. I've had many people tell me I should sell my crafts.

It's something I've debated myself. My main question is, will people be willing the pay the prices befitting a handmade product? Not just any handmade product. As a seamstress, I charge $20+ an hour for custom clothing orders, plus materials. I have 5+ years of profession costume construction experience. I know I'm worth it. Will others think so too?

Will making mass quantities of any item take the joy out of creating for me? I get bored making multiples of items. Depending on what I'm making that could be copy #2 or copy #5. I've always defended my position on not selling mainly for this reason. I'm a Passion Consultant, and earn my income that way. The profits are great, and I don't have to manufacture any of the products.

Has that reason become my crutch? I've been enjoying sewing and crafting so much lately, why not get paid to do what I love? Or is it the pressure of society to be validated by money? It would be nice to make enough money to pay for the craft.

So far I have no answer. My girlfriend suggested that I teach a sewing class, like one on how to make the girl's drawstring top dress. I kind of like the idea of teaching others how to sew. I like teaching. My brain doesn't want to deal with the logistics of finding a space (my apt is too small), enough sewing machines, and trying to find enough people to take the class.

What's your take on it? How much would you want to pay for a high quality handmade children's clothes? Do you want to learn how to sew?

Ruffles and a Chopped T-shirt

I actually starting cleaning off my sewing table. I'll spare you the pics. It was like shopping. I rediscovered some of my fabric stash. I also found the mermaid T-shirt that I Gocco'd over a year ago. Shortly after I embroidered the face and seashells, Sophia got to it. She cut holes in one of the sleeves and the shoulders (opposite sides of course). It was totally my fault for leaving it out (with the scissors), but I was so upset, I didn't touch it until the other night.

Looking at the shirt again, I thought about this dress from Dana. I just discovered her blog last week via these cute ruffled skirts. I know Sophia would love a girlie skirt, but all those ruffles! Putting them on would drive me crazy.

After a long debate, I decided to make 2 separate pieces. I chopped up the t-shirt, turned it into a tank top. Cut off the sleeves & neckline ribbing. I also took in the sides and shorted the hem. I wanted to lettuce edge the hem with teal thread, but I couldn't get it to work the way I wanted. So I just serged everything.

T-shirt before the hacking.

T-shirt after.

The skirt is a simple A-line skirt with an elastic waistband. I just drafted a quick pattern. Normally I wouldn't draft a pattern. I'd just draw it on the fabric and cut it out. But since an A-line skirt has many uses, so the pattern will come in handy for other skirts. Thankfully, I had the perfect fabrics in my stash.

I stitched up the skirt, hemmed it, and finished the waistband except for inserting the elastic. Next, came all the ruffles. I hate doing ruffles, not because they're so feminine. They're just so repetitive and boring. Like hemming a really long curtain.

I wanted to the ruffles to make a wave pattern. Mermaid shirt, wavy ruffle, get it? So I pinned the ruffles on beforehand. If I were to put them straight on, I'd draw stitch lines and just add them on as I sewed.

It's not the lighting. The fabric is ombre. Darker at top than at bottom.

Originally I wanted to cover the entire skirt with ruffles, but after pinning 3 rows on, I thought it looked great. Too many more would've been overkill.

She like this outfit, though not her favorite color. Thank goodness she like mermaids. I was able to snap some pics of her at the playground before she got the outfit too dirty. One day I'll remember to take a close up of the embroidery while it's clean.


I'm really enjoying making clothes for Sophia. Partly because she's so small, the clothes come together fairly quickly, usually about an hour. Plus I don't want to invest too much time on making maternity clothes.

Now I need to make a sundress for my sister. She's feeling left out. (Hi Sis!) Check out the new zine she made!

Stay Sane and Not Too Messy With Kid Crafts

This summer Sophia & I are staying busy by going to the park, meeting up at friends' homes, watching videos (while I hopefully nap), and CRAFTING!

I've been trying to keep Sophia busy all day. If she naps or falls asleep in the car, she won't go to sleep until 11pm. That usually means no time for me and hub to veg out together on the couch. For a while I felt bad because I hadn't been doing a lot of crafts with her. Monday, I vowed to start again!

We made cute little egg carton ants. First we painted. While the paint dried we snuck in a bit of lunch. I found some glue on jewels from Target's $1 section, so of course all the pink ones ended up on Sophia's bugs. After the jewels and eyes dried, we added pipe cleaner legs and antennae.

I know a lot of parents shy away from crafting because of the potential mess, but I'll share with you the ways I contain the mess.

How to keep kids crafts from becoming too messy:

1. To keep things from being too messy, I usually let her do things one step at a time. I only pull out the supplies necessary for that step. With kids' short attention spans, if the supplies for the next step are in sight, they want to get ahead of themselves.
2. Cover your work surface. Sometimes I use newspaper. Usually I use a large plastic tray (the blue thing in the pictures) It has a lip so it should catch major spills. I just wash the tray after we're done.
3. Use an egg carton to hold paint. Cut the egg carton in half. I just pour a little bit of paint into each well. If you're worried about colors mixing together, you can use every other well. Sophia eventually mixes up all the colors anyway so I don't bother. I give her between 4-6 colors at a time. Egg cartons are great short term storage for paints. Just close the lid, and the paint might be good tomorrow (depends on your paint).
4. Let the kids craft naked. Or without a shirt. I don't have a smock for Sophia. Sometimes I strip her naked and let her paint the walls of the tub. After you're done, the kids get a bath! It's a two-fer!
5. Let your child help clean up! It's Sophia's job to wash out her paint brushes while she washes her hand. Of course this would depend on your child. If she splashes a litte, no big deal. We play "Let's clean the sink" afterwards.
6. Don't be afraid to get messy!

As you can see, our craft project today was air dry clay. We use the Crayola brand, but I'm sure there's a recipe out there you can make your own. I love the quality of Crayola products and they don't smell funny. (They didn't pay me to say any of this). The clay is a bit hard right out of the bucket, but just knead it and mash it for a few minutes to soften it up (you the adult-might be a bit tough for little kids)

I love air dry clay! The first time we used it, we just used it like playdough. I explained to her that it would get hard if we let it sit out a couple of days. After it dries, we paint it. It's 2 projects in one! I always ask her at the beginning what she wants to make. Sometimes she makes it; sometimes it's some completely different. Other times she just plays with the clay. I'm ok with that. I don't want to limit her creativity.

Today, I also gave her a small cup of water and a brush with the clay. She loves using the water to mold the clay. As you can see, she also loves rubbing the wet clay on her arms. Today she made a worm and some lollipops (with craft sticks). I'm sure the huge balls will take several days to dry, but we have a busy weekend of blueberry picking and 4th of July festivities. We can paint it next week.

What are your kid crafting tips?

Handmade Mart Report

I'm so lucky that I live in an area where there's so many great things to do, especially in the summer. Today, Sophia & I met my sister and a visiting friend at Handmade Mart. I wished that I had realized my camera was at the bottom of my backpack. Alas no pictures.

The weather was just beautiful! Sophia eagerly check out all the cool vendors with me. Her favorite vendors included anyone with pink jewelry. LOL. My girly girl. Luckily, my sister gifted her with one of Isabel's Rose oh so cute lampworked cupcake beads. Of course Sophia's had much more pink on it than the picture here. (Pic shameless borrowed from Loriola's etsy shop.) She was very sweet too!

As we went to each booth, if they weren't too busy, I introduced us to the artist/crafter. Sophia was awed as I told her that this was the artist that created the items in the booth. I think it was really cool to see her connect the art of handmade items with a real person.

Eventually, she would ask herself whenever we went in a different booth. "Are you the artist that made these things?" or "You made all of these?" Screw the craft versus art debate. These wonderful vendors are artists. I want Sophia to know that being an artist doesn't mean you have to create with canvas and paint or other traditional media. She's super creative and artistic, I'm going to encourage it as much as possible!

We then shared a delicious Italian ice while enjoying the live music. I love downtown Silver Spring! I can't believe I've never had Italian ices before. It was perfect as the afternoon got warmer.

Of course I had to browse the Pyramid Atlantic Store. In addition to the great art made my local artists, they had great demos. You could silkscreen your own shirt wit the Handmade Mart logo or make some jewelry. Guess what my darling opted to do? She made a totally sparkly pink stretchy bracelet. Totally worth the $5 as I hope she'll stop wearing my jewelry.

Also kudos to blockpartypress who had a kids table at her booth. Most of the booths weren't necessarily kid friendly (even if they sold kids items). I was worried that Sophia would jumble up the displays and such. But she covered a small table with brown paper, put out a bowl of markers, as well as some polymer clay. Sophia did not want to leave her booth. The clay was a bit harder than playdough, but she still had a blast. (Pic also from blockpartypress's etsy shop)

We ended the afternoon with a yummy lunch at Lebanese Taverna, where Sophia actually ate the hummus this time. She loves hummus but sometimes decides it's a yucky food. Maybe it's a texture thing.

Seeing all of these wonderful handmade art really makes me want to create something! So I ordered some elastic thread and making a cute Heather Ross faux smocked sundress for Sophia. I thrifted a fugly dress last year. It's fuchsia and 100 % linen. I think it'll make the perfect summer dress.

Secret #1: Your Creative Self

I'm participating in Jamie's book blogging group, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor by Gail McMeekin. It's not too late for you to join in! You might remember in November, I also did the Soul Coaching one.

Secret #1 is acknowledging that you are creative. This is a hard concept for most people; harder for women, I think. I truly believe that everyone is creative--you just need to find your passion.

I have been creative since I was young. I learned how to crochet and loved to craft. But I never thought I was creative. We lived in a small town with a small school system. You didn't take art classes unless you tested for "Gifted Art." My sister was spotted early on by her elementary school teacher. I was not. I was the academic one (perils of being the oldest child in a first generation Vietnamese family) and she was the artistic one.

Funny how easy it is to get boxed in by labels. My parents wholly supported my sister's artistic endeavors. They bought her art supplies, saved every single one of her art projects (the macaroni has been eaten off the pictures), and went to all of her art shows. They were even ok that she majored in photography in college!

I struggled with my love for theatre and the desire to please my parents by studying computer info systems. I double majored in both until I couldn't stand the business classes required by my CIS major. Telling them I dropped the CIS major was quite an ordeal. Theatre wasn't practical! As you know, every Asian family wants their children to be a doctor, lawyer, or computer nerd.

Where I am going with this? My senior year i college, I took an art class. In the art department. Never mind that it was a freshman level class. A real bona fide art class. I got to buy charcoal, 5 different kinds of drawing pencils and acrylics.

I took the evening class, so there were many non-traditional students. At first I felt like an idiot in the class. How was I supposed to hold my pencil? Mix my acrylics? My professor didn't tell how to use my art supplies. When he told us to paint a grayscale with our acrylics, I thought he was crazy! What kind of teacher was he? He didn't even tell me how to use the acrylics? What do I thin it with? Did I need gesso?

How was I supposed to learn how to use acrylic paints if he didn't tell me what do? What if I did it wrong? But he would just smile and tell me to do the project (he did explain a grayscale to us). So I just had to do it. Figure out how to use it.

It was the best decision I ever made. I realize now that our professor didn't limit us by telling us the right and wrong way to make art. He gave us the very basics (and color theory) and told us to create. Thanks his class I realized that I could be an artist. That I was creative! (Nevermind that my major was costume design for the theatre). Back then my definition of creativity and artistic was very traditional.

I promptly signed up for the next class in the series with the same professor. Since then, I knew I had always been creative. Recently, my struggle is finding balance for creativity amid work and family. The paintings above was my final project for my art class. It's based on color theory (if you ask me what I did, I have no idea!). It's called Windows to the Soul (they look like window panes, get it?)

What about you? Do you think you're creative? What keeps you going and creating?

Day 21: Flames of Creativity

photo via enggul

Incredible creative life force flows through my entire being. (today's affirmation)

I have always believed that everyone is creative. It might not manifest itself into what is conventionally creative. If you think outside the box, you're creative. Without creativity we'd be pretty unhappy people don't you think?

My husband for example doesn't think he's creative. His creativity isn't the same as mine. Did you know he used to be an actor? His energy on stage is amazing! He knows how to entertain a crowd. And he makes up his own songs! Sometimes they don't make any sense, but he's enjoying himself.

Just because what you create isn't physically tangible, doesn't mean it's not valuable. The best thing about his creativity is that he's passed it on to our daughter. She has fun making up songs and singing them over and over. She doesn't worry whether it's "good." She just has fun. I'm not going to discourage her because she might make up a song with nonsense words or the same line over and over. Heck no!

The funny thing about my creativity was I never thought I was creative. My sister's artistic talent was "discovered" when she was in 2nd grade. She was able to take special art classes. She receive lots of special attention. Teachers told my parents what talent/potential she had. From then on, she was the artistic. I was the smart one. Not to say that my sister isn't smart (she's very smart). But that was my label.

I didn't realize how much I enjoyed creating art until senior year in college. (Story for another post.) Have you been given a label that's stopped from trying something new? What's stopping you now?

It was sooo cold today at the parade. Poor Sophia couldn't move. We stuck it out for an our and then went to lunch. Did I tell you she eats sushi now? Okay, she really just eats the fish and the nori. But it's a good start. Especially when she says, "I love sushi. It's my favorite!"