All New Shabby Chic Thread!

csarina

These are the shabby chic cushion covers I make. I am thinking of opening an etsy shop to see if I can sell some. I would like opinions as to a) whether they will sell and b) how much would you be prepared to pay for one. Bearing in mind there is 3/4yd of fabric, wadding, thread and buttons plus it takes me approx 3 hours from cutting out to finished article. Each cover will take an 18" cushion pad, they need to be well plump......so I always use a pad about 2" bigger than the finished cover.

The buttons I am using at the moment are shell buttons which are quite expensive.

lilmisskitkat

Not much help i'm afraid as no idea about costs but i think they would definitely sell with the huge trend for shabby chic/vintage floral/cath kidston stuff at the moment.

They're really lovely Csarina, i envy your skill, i can just about do a button

kate xxx

Kaz2904

Eenymeeny wrote: »

....can I just add a word of caution to anyone thinking of buying a big wardrobe? (snipped) how they would manouvre it up the stairs! HTH:o

Thanks for pointing this out, I have looked at all of this and will only be buying a piece of furniture which separates for ease of moving!
We had our nasty UPVC front door replaced by a proper wood one a couple of years ago. It keeps so much more heat in and cold out and it looks so much nicer too.
Also if you get a huge wardrobe, consider how you will be able to carry it. These are heavy items and I have been in the position where I had to help the delivery man unload our solid granite hearth (in the snow) from a lorry with no lowering thingy, it was tough!

angeltreats

They are very pretty. As far as pricing goes, I've read that you need to work out the cost of materials and overheads, and decide on an hourly rate for yourself. So say you were paying yourself a fiver an hour, and your materials cost another fiver, you'd want be selling the cushions for £20 a go. Plus the Etsy listing cost and paypal fees would need to be factored in. It might be worth searching around Etsy though to see how much similar items are selling for.

There are some articles about pricing on Etsy here.

The trouble with Etsy is that it's absolutely saturated with people selling the same or similar stuff (like there are probably hundreds of people selling polymer clay food jewellery or crochet corsages or even cushions with shabby chic prints), you'd need to make your shop really stand out and market yourself quite aggressively in order to be noticed. Maybe a blog would help. I don't sell on Etsy myself but I have friends who do and none of them have done particularly well out of it.

Another option is Folksy, which is like a UK based Etsy. One of my friends sells handmade jewellery and knitted items there and she has had far more success than she has had on Etsy.

Sorry if I've rambled a bit but hope some of it was helpful

imataloss

Lovely cushions. Not sure about how much you could sell them for.
You need to work out the cost of materials and a percentage of that cost for time spent making them.
PM me if you need any help with costings.

csarina

The problem with costing is that I am using up a lot of fabric I have had for some time and have no idea now how much I paid for it.....the same with the wadding I tend to use up bits left from something else.......I often buy odd lengths in sales and stash them away against future projects.

Thanks for the info on Folksy, I will have a look at that when I have a minute, right now I am supposed to be cooking bacon for sarnies, OH has been working in the veg garden all morning!!

otterspasm

Hi there,
I've just had a quick look on ebay and folksy for comparisons with your lovely cushions. Many on ebay are just covers (no pads) and sell for between £6 and £16 but there aren't any higher than that. On folksy the prices seem to range between £15 and £25...variable as to whether that includes a pad or is just for a cover. If you go with Folksy (I prefer it to Etsy myself) you could price your cushions somewhere in that range to be in line with the going rate on there.

I hope you sell some, they are lovely and have clearly taken lots of work.

Good luck!
Tess

wssla00

Is there a local craft market around where you are? It might make more economic sense to rent a stall there once a week and charge slightly more. The other option is look for a small shabby chic shop and offer them on sale or return. Could mean you get out of Ebay's fees there

jcr16

There fantastic. Really pretty.

coraline_2

i'd try folksy before etsy just to avoid the faff of international postage and dollar/pound conversion all the time, exchange rates etc - might be more trouble than it's worth!

and i think they're really nice and i would want all three clustered together