Craft Fair #1

The Saturday craft fair at Salem Covenant Church was a very big success for my daughter Kelly and I with our top dollar amount in sales ever. Business was steady with not just lookers but buyers, too. Even though I had some new items, such as the hanger covers and aprons, the big sellers continue to be the hot mitts. I made up about twenty new ones for this sale and I sold so many that now I will need to make up almost twice as many for the next sale on November 21. Success! Now I will need to get sewing. I thought you might like to see the process and the use of my limited space:

That's right: it's just 2 ironing boards

Sewing them up on the Singer 201 with a walking foot

The best part of being in show like this is talking with the customers and other vendors to see what they like or would like to see. Various color schemes and themes were suggested: blue kitchens, sport themes, no white edges (there aren't any but even light colors are rejected), larger tea cozies, mother/daughter aprons, and solid color ironing board covers. There were a few items in the boxes we were not going to put out but thought "why not?" and they sold: at least two rag dolls sold, although the baby back-zip sweaters did not. None of the toaster covers sold even though everyone liked the one with Bible verses:

So what is my response to this? On the way home I stopped to buy more cotton batting by the yard and Insul-Bright heat reflecting/absorbing lining for the hot mitts. The men's shirt aprons got a lot of attention so I looked through my stash of shirts and decided I needed to buy a red shirt to combine with a couple green shirts for some Christmasy half aprons. Okay, that was Kelly's idea, not mine, but it's a good one! I also found one that was very pheasant- hunting-season and I'm thinking about what I could add to it for a great look. I have sold more of the hunting and fishing themed items to women for women rather than men so it stands to reason those same women might want an apron.

Here's the pile of hot mitts I'm working on tonight:

From fish to herbs to denim, to printed piecework, something for everyone!

Although most is done by machine, the final stitching of the bias tape is best done by hand so there's my stack by my chair, waiting for me to get back to my movie. I better hurry: the good part has just begun!