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The Sew What’s New Archive
This archived content is from Mary Wilkins’ sewing and
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From: frumpy
Date: 03-11-2004, 12:24 PM (1 of 6)
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Hello, I'm a newbie to this sight, so i thought i would start things off right by asking for your help and opinions. I am a stay at home and my husband was resently laid off. Needless to say we need money...so anywho i was thinking of starting up a mending business (something i can do at home). What do you think? Do you think it will fly or not? Do you have any other ideas? Alot of people tell me i should start a seamstress business but I am so very critical of my own work i really don't know if i could. Are any of you "pros", if so what is it like and how did ya get started? Thank you. |
User: frumpy
Member since: 03-09-2004 Total posts: 1 
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From: bsisemore
Date: 03-11-2004, 12:44 PM (2 of 6)
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I would love to do a stay at home business if you find anything please let me know I have 35 plus years sewing experence. At one time I made and sold little girls pageant dresses, this is a market you have to be into the pageant strip to do (to get your contacts) Some people are doing well sewing and selling on ebay. I'd be afraid my item wouldn't sell and I'd be charged the listing fee for listing weither the item sold or not. And I for one can not afford that. I can tell you from my experence of dealing with the public, they are fussy about what they get, and I have never been able to understand this, they are paying for an item that looks prefect and they still want to knit pick you to death. |
User: bsisemore
Member since: 03-09-2004 Total posts: 26 
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From: MaryW
Date: 03-12-2004, 10:45 AM (3 of 6)
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Frumpy, what will it hurt to try? Put a notice up in the local community boards and go for it. It might be a good way to start until you find your niche. I sewed kids clothes for years but could not support us on what I made. I went the craft show circuit. The booth spaces were quite expensive and took a lot of my profit. MaryW
owner/editor of Sew Whats New |
User: MaryW
Member since: 06-23-2005 Total posts: 2542 
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From: paroper
Date: 03-12-2004, 12:20 PM (4 of 6)
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I've done this. The problem I had was that it took all my time to keep the business going and I didn't have the time I planned for my family. The other thing is that I was sewing "for people". It is not cheap for the customer who must bring you items and pay you to make them. At the current cost of fabric and supplies, you really have to shop to save money sewing anymore, then tack the cost of paying someone to make the item, well, it just can't be cheap for them. Most of the people who bring you things have no idea what it will look like made up and they don't necessarily purchase the best fabric for them or the pattern they want. A huge portion of your customers will want you to sew for them because they can't get clothes to fit in the stores...so you end up with lots of alterations. You can also forget them bringing you patterns that fit them. They tend to buy a size six when they need a size 14 pattern because they have been squeezing into a size 6 ready made since they were 12. However, there is money to be made out there. Some of my best and most reliable customers came from alterations...simple alterations and the very very best place to post to get these is in the local coin operated laundry mat! If you do bridal sewing (which I did a lot of) you have a lot of detail and fitting and a lot of time consumed for little profit and a lot of times you have short fitting times because brides' maids often come in from out of town for the wedding late the night before and you are doing alterations after the rehersal dinner at 2 in the morning. My favorite type of sewing is sewing for square dancers! In our area it is a really big market. There are usually special shops that you can sell these through or you can get the word out through square dance clubs. The ladies dresses are always a certain length. They usually are made of cotton or cotton blends. Most often they have elastic waist bands. You use lots of ruffles, and with a machine ruffler, that is a breeze...and beautiful. The patterns are simple, gather skirts or 6 gored full skirts. I used a serger or a rolled/scalloped hem foot to hem these...and yards and yards and yards of lace. The tops are often modified peasant blouses, but the clothes are always beautiful and comfortable (and little fit). With a minimum of imagination, you can design beautiful square dance clothes and the time involved is limited compared to other types of sewing. When you make custom dresses for the ladies though, often you also make western shirts for the husbands. Another market I have heard is a market for people who do majic and/or clowns. This would be another type of fun sewing. I had a friend that was a clown and I thought about doing that for awhile.
pam
Bernina 200e, Artista V5 Designer Plus, Explorations, Magic Box, Bernina 2000DE & 335 Bernette Serger, Bernina 1530 Sewing Machine, Bernina 1300 DC Overlock (with coverstitch) |
User: paroper
Member since: 02-03-2004 Total posts: 3775 |
From: MartySews
Date: 03-13-2004, 07:36 PM (5 of 6)
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Kathleen Spike wrote a wonderful book called "Sew to Success" and it probably is at your local library. For about 2 years, I had a custom dressmaking business that I had to give up because of poor health. There is a large market out there and finding one's niche is the trick. If you want to try your hand at mending, contact a retirement center or nursing home. Offer to mend clothing for a small fee to see if it is something that you would like to do. Your customers will be eternally grateful and you would be doing them a great service. Now, I sew for myself and family plus 3 regular customers. I also spend time making adult bibs and catheter bags for a nursing home plus tote bags and clothing for children in an abused shelter. Because people are aware of this, they donate fabrics and notions to me quite often. I recently had someone call me with over 10 large "lawn" bags filled with fabric to donate. I sorted out what I would use and donated the rest to a sewing guild. You can make a difference. Also, Barbara Wright Sykes has a series of books called "The Business of Sewing, Vol I " and then a Volume II. She has also written a books called "Marketing Your Sewing Business" and "Pricing Without Fear". Most of these should be in your local library. Hope this helps. Happy Stitching! Marty It takes one moment to change a life.
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User: MartySews
Member since: 02-23-2003 Total posts: 504 
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From: bsisemore
Date: 03-14-2004, 09:25 AM (6 of 6)
| I was like paroper, I sewed for the public some and I ran across some of the same problems she did. I also did brides maid dress. I have sewed for children, I did pageant dresses (these sold best, but they are alot of work and the notions and fabric are really high, even with the customer paying for most of it. And I turned a good profit doing them. I'm not sure at this time if it is something I'd like to get back into. I did however, when telling them how much fabric was needed add yardage to it because from experence I found when I got the dress almost complete they would decided on an extra fuffle, or different sleeves. So just from the go I'd add extra and that saved time going back to try and find the fabric again. I rarely used a pattern on these pageant dresses (I did my own) but when I didn't they paid for that too. |
User: bsisemore
Member since: 03-09-2004 Total posts: 26
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