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A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was making a handbag in Prestigious' gorgeous 'Sixpence' fabric. I'm pleased to say that it's now finished and here it is......
It's lined with hot pink cotton and has feature buttons where the strap meets the bag, these are covered in the same lining fabric.
What do you think?
So, what else has been happening at Handbags Just 4u? This last week I've been busy preparing for a craft fair (will blog about this very soon) and have made these beach bags in VW Camper Van fabric.....
These are lovely big bags which hold all the essentials for the beach.
In between making I have had some time for searching the internet for lovely things and came across Handmade Monday. Here various crafters can link and share their blog posts with one another. What a great way to make some new crafter friends. Hello to everyone, I look forward to checking out your blogs.
I haven't updated my blog over the last couple of weeks as I've gone into production mode & haven't had much time for writing.
I was given the opportunity to show my work at the ladies evening at my church. This was to be the first time I would 'set out my stall' so to speak. I really wasn't sure how many bags I would need to take so I spent much of the 3 weeks leading up to the night making as many as I could!
Here is a photo of the final layout.
Thank you to my husband, John who made the stands for me to hang some of the bags from.
This evening was a great experience as I am booked into my very first craft fair soon.
I recently read a blog post about falling sales at craft fairs and the writer was saying that the success of these events shouldn't just be judged by sales on the day as there are other factors to consider which, though not easy to quantify, should be seen as opportunities.
Although it would always be great to sell lots of product there were some other benefits I experienced from the evening which would be difficult to quantify in a monetary sense but I'm sure are of great value.
Marketing, advertising and PR:
I was able to reach a different audience, showing my products, giving out business cards and promoting my website. In an earlier post I talked about using social media. I've found it great for networking and have achieved sales using it but I was conscious that not everyone uses Facebook or Twitter.
Feedback on my products:
It was lovely to hear the praises people had for my work which was a real boost for my confidence. What was also very useful was the feedback from people about the types of bags they would like to see. A handbag for a lady is a very personal thing and as I've found out women have some very definite ideas about what they like. I've been able to take that feedback away & use it to help me plan what products to be making next.
A gauge for prices:
Pricing is always a difficult thing to get right. There are many ways to calculate the price but ultimately I want a fair reward for the work I've put into making a handbag. One of the things I learnt whilst preparing for this first experience as a stall-holder was to stick with my price formula and to not lose confidence and undervalue my work. If the client feels the product is worth the price being asked (assuming firstly they want the product) then they will pay that price. This paid off and I sold my most expensive bag on the night.
There are other things I learnt from the evening, however I've covered the main things here & I now have some useful tweaks in mind for my next stall. I will let you know how it goes in a future blog post.
