The Comfy Crafting Cafe Challenge

Kepp

wordsfan wrote: »

I do cross stitch and knitting as a hobby. Could do with making money at it. Question is...what sells? Also i'm a beginner level knitted even tho i been doing it on n off for years. I can knit and purl but sometimes lose/gain stitches and dunno how to do this on purpose!?! Any tips v welcome. I also used to do calligraphy years ago....even did my own wedding invites. Any market for this?

I think cross stitch would be hard to sell - mainly because of the amount of time to produce a piece versus what you can sell it for. However, can you design your own patterns? I've seen many an Etsy shop do well selling just the patterns. The time is saved as they only have to produce one example piece for the photos.

Knitting - hit on the right product and it will sell very well! But it must be good, and can't have missed stitches etc. When you give something as a gift people don't mind as they appreciate the effort, when someone buys something they tend to look harder for flaws! I'm currently trying to perfect crochet because of this.

Calligraphy - no idea although the wedding invite market is pretty huge so maybe.

As Devine says - plenty of research! I spend hours looking on Folksy and Etsy looking at what people are doing and how they are doing well at it - ie if they sell a lot, do they also have a blog etc It's no hardship as I love looking, although it is hard not to buy things as they are all so lovely!

Devine - love, love, love those plaques!

Monkeynut

I have a friend who does cross stitch and sells quite well. She makes new baby / wedding etc things, which she puts in a frame (just a simple bog standard cheap to buy frame ). They are not a complete block of cross stitching so don't take as long to make. So for example she does baby ones with the name and date at the top, then for example a rocking horse in the middle, and then little designs around the edges and bottom, such as dummy, booties, rattle etc etc

mummybearx

Monkeynut wrote: »

I have a friend who does cross stitch and sells quite well. She makes new baby / wedding etc things, which she puts in a frame (just a simple bog standard cheap to buy frame ). They are not a complete block of cross stitching so don't take as long to make. So for example she does baby ones with the name and date at the top, then for example a rocking horse in the middle, and then little designs around the edges and bottom, such as dummy, booties, rattle etc etc

Thats a good idea, means you can have lots of cross stitches started with the designs along the bottom, then just add in the name/date when people buy them

kiss_me_now9

sketchingkari wrote: »

Thank you, I do love making him

Really cheeky, are they easy to make? Me and my Mum are in love with the advert and if I could I'd love to give it a go making one for her; bearing in mind I've never knitted before in my life and can't sew a stitch...

wordsfan

Thanks for the replies. Re cross stitch i was thinking wedding and baby samples pre stitched and add personalisation upon order. But didn't wanna influence answers hoping for other ideas too. Also bookmarks and age birthday cards an anniversary cards. I used to work in a bridal boutique so wedding invitation market is huge. I'm currently researching materials. There's also a big market where i love for christening and first communion products.

gildius

I absolutely love cross stitch!

I've just finished a little one, and I've started one that I got from a Chinese company (I went to China and they had whole shops dedicated to cross stitch, with some absolutely huge kits for really good value).

Mine's something like a metre and a half by a metre, it's of the Great Wall of China, and it cost me about £25 (all the canvas, pre-sorted thread and two needles included).

Pretty sure this beast is going to take me about a year to do, off and on. I'll keep you updated!

psychopathbabble

I was thinking about attempting those ruffle scarves for christmas presents for OH's mum and sister. Where is the best place to get patons pirouette yarn from? I was looking on fleabay and it's around £11... is this good?

mummybearx

Oh this knitting malarkey is getting harder!!

I don't know what I've done, must have split some stitches or something, I'm about row 20 and I'm finding some really thin threads and some fat ones

Starting to get messy, going to leave it tonight and show it to my neighbour tomorrow. Another benefit of her teaching me, she is on,y next door lol x

simplydevine05

wordsfan wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Re cross stitch i was thinking wedding and baby samples pre stitched and add personalisation upon order. But didn't wanna influence answers hoping for other ideas too. Also bookmarks and age birthday cards an anniversary cards. I used to work in a bridal boutique so wedding invitation market is huge. I'm currently researching materials. There's also a big market where i love for christening and first communion products.

When I first started out I sold personalised bookmarks. They weren't cross stitch, but I sold around 6 and then that was it. Not a single sale. I did mostly have them on Ebay which may have been the problem, but I ditched them after 4 months of none selling.

Kepp

simplydevine05 wrote: »

When I first started out I sold personalised bookmarks. They weren't cross stitch, but I sold around 6 and then that was it. Not a single sale. I did mostly have them on Ebay which may have been the problem, but I ditched them after 4 months of none selling.

Wonder if that's an indication of how things are changing? I love books (although don't use bookmarks) and wouldn't give them up, but Kindles, Ipads etc are a big market now as are making covers etc for them.