I have just released my newest pattern!

It is a Lace Scalloped Bag and comes with a PDF Downloadable Pattern and Photo Tutorial

And to celebrate the new release, it is 15% off til the end of April!
You can find it in my Pattern Shop
or in my Etsy Shop (use coupon code PATTERN15)

This pattern is great for Confident Beginners.
It is a simple enough pattern, but your choice of fabrics can make it more difficult (and interesting!) These bags can be made as a clutch or a cross body, and make great gifts, especially for bridesmaids!

Your Finished Bag Size will be: 10” wide by 7” tall (25cm x 18cm) with 55" cross body or 11.5" wrist strap options (140 cm or 29 cm)

The pattern can be immediately downloaded and printed at home! Your download includes:

• PDF printable pattern that is compatible with US letter or A4 paper

• Detailed PDF instructions that include what tools and yardage (or meters) of material you need, and the directions for how to use the pattern and sew your very own bag with tons of step by step photos!

• Tips on what fabrics to use and ideas for creative ways to make your bag reflect your own unique style.

To see more sewing patterns take a look at my shop
or
If you decide that sewing sucks, and you would rather just buy one, visit my Etsy shop!

If you would like to receive updates (and discounts) when a new pattern comes out, sign up for my email list.

If you have read my about page, you’ll notice that all of the handmade items in my Etsy shop are made using discarded materials. You might be wondering what exactly that means. Well this post is for you!
 
What I consider to be discarded material:

• Items that are damaged – Clothing, curtains, and materials with stains, holes, or permanent creases that can be salvaged and cut around.
• Headed for the trash – Sometimes new, undamaged, whole materials get thrown away. You would be surprised.
• Secondhand items – There are many times when someone buys new materials, and it sits around for years gathering dust. Then when spring-cleaning comes, the buyer decides it is taking up too much space, and it needs to go.
• Scraps – sometimes you (or I, or a company) buys a material for a certain project, and when you are done, you likely have a certain amount leftover that might seem unusable for your purposes.
• “Seconds” – these are new materials that for some reason do not fit with the manufacturer’s standards and cannot be sold to their customers. It may be fabric that isn’t the exact right color, or it could be that the grain is skewed.

 
 
Why I use Discarded Materials:

• I used discarded materials because I truly believe that they can be made into beautiful, functional products. I am one of those people who hates to see anything go to waste, especially when it doesn’t have to be.  So I intercept the waste and puzzle out ways to use it to create products that someone will love.

 
 
Where I get them:

• Garage sales
• Thrift stores
• Donations from friends and family
• Local workrooms and factories
• Hand me downs
• Websites that sell seconds

 
 
How this affects my products and pricing:

• My products are often one of a kind. I may only have enough discarded material to make one!
• My material costs can vary quite a bit. Some of my materials are free, some are expensive, and they can be anywhere in-between. Each time I make a product out of a different material, the price reflects that specific cost of materials.
• Having one of a kind products means that I spend more time photographing and listing my products on Etsy than someone who is selling the same thing repeatedly. I cannot always reuse my photos or description if the materials change. This also is reflected in how I price things, because each of these things takes time.

 
 
Who benefits:

• YOU benefit because you can be proud of your purchase knowing that it is responsibly sourced and made.
• MY SOURCES benefit. Supporting thrift stores and garage sales helps ensure that people continue to resell their discarded possessions instead of trashing them. And my local workroom? They love knowing that the fabric they can’t use is going to be used by someone else instead of being thrown out.
• THE EARTH benefits because there is less trash going to landfills.
• I (MADELINE STAGE) benefit greatly. It never gets old. Using discarded materials is one of the really challenging and also rewarding parts of my business. It is often very limiting to my work. I usually have to work around not having enough of one fabric or material and knowing that I will likely never be able to get more. But this limiting can be a good thing! Often it’s our limits that force us to be more resourceful and creative.

You may have noticed a change in my prices this month. I have been working hard to standardize my pricing these last few weeks, with lots of excel spreadsheeting involved. My goal by the end of the year is to be paying myself at least for my time sewing and patterning for my business. (paying myself for my admin is a whole ‘nother issue I need to tackle) Right now, all of the money I make goes straight back into the business, buying supplies and marketing materials, etc.
 
My pricing breakdown is something like:
 
Profit I get from Etsy = price + shipping cost - cost to wash fabric - cost of shipping supplies – cost of material – my actual cost to ship - my labor (cost of my time patterning and sewing, cost of my time listing the item, cost of my time shipping the item) – 3.5% Etsy fee – (3%+.25 direct deposit fee)
 
Wholesale Profit = (retail price  * .5) - cost to wash fabric – cost of material – cost of my product presentation and packaging– my labor (cost of my time patterning and sewing, cost of my time interacting with store owners)
 
I am trying to juggle these two formulas, and also trying to standardize some of my profit margin: 25% if it’s resale, and 15% if its wholesale
 
That 15-25% profit? It is there to help cover random overhead costs of my business: my car fuel, my administration work hours, my internet, my website, assets like my camera and much more. Is it too high? Is it too low? I’m not sure yet. Only time will tell. Covering those overhead costs depends a lot on how many items a year I sell, as well as how expensive of an item it is, and the total of my overhead costs, all of which I don’t have nailed down yet. I also haven’t been super strict when it comes to these numbers, because the products I sell are so varied in price. So 15% of a $10 item is much much different than 15% of a $400 item. So sometimes I adjust accordingly.
 

I have no idea if I am doing this right. In fact, I have no idea if there is a “right” way to do it. It is simply what I came up with for now. And this change in pricing isn’t final. My product prices are very likely to change again. Here’s why:

1. I use discarded and secondhand materials in my work. This means that my material costs are constantly changing. I have tried to average the costs for my spreadsheets, but if there is a big fluctuation in material costs for an item I’m making, its final cost may go up or down to reflect that change.
2. I am constantly learning. I’m still trying to nail down the best way to calculate my costs, and therefore my pricing. Every new bit of business information I learn can end up changing how I price my products.
3. I am getting faster at production. When I first make a new product, it may take a while. I have to develop a pattern, and figure out the best way to make it, create a listing, and take photographs. But, the more I sell, the more I make, and the more I make, the faster I get at sewing it, the less time I spend listing and photographing it, and the cheaper it gets to produce, which means I can pass those savings onto you.
4. Wholesale. This is a whole new ballpark, as you may know. Generally if I wholesale my products through another store, that store will only pay me 50% of what the retail value is. And this changes everything. If I end up wholesaling an item, I may have to charge a little more to get a profit from it. Which means my retail price in my own Etsy shop would have to go up too, so that I’m not selling my product for less money than the boutique down the street. No one is going to go for that. None of my items are currently being wholesaled, so most of my prices right now do not reflect that. Yet.

 
 
The moral of this story? Pricing is complicated. And in order to be a profitable business (that can actually pay me) I am doing my best to figure out how to price my items to cover all of my costs. So bear with me as I make changes. They aren’t random, or greedy, or personal attacks on your wallet. They are just a reflection of a small one-woman business trying to figure it all out as she goes.
 
P.S. I am always open to tips on how to price things! Let me know if you have any suggestions, or see that there is anything I can do better!

One fourth of the year is over!!
Aaahhh
So what does that mean for my goals for the year? I should be 1/4th done with them right??
 
Well… let’s see.
 
Things I HAVE accomplished:
I taught a class for Indy Trade School (boy I was a nervous wreck!)
I’ve released 2 new sewing patterns so far
I’ve taken a photography class
I’ve applied for craft shows
I made business cards and I streamlined my shipping process
I’ve created a spreadsheet with all the details that go into pricing, to get me on track to pricing correctly (and then onto paying myself for my work)
I ran a 10K
I volunteered for a garden
I started my wedding quilt
I patterned a skirt for myself
I’ve read 3 (printed, physical) books so far.
 
 Things I CANNOT accomplish:
Things change, and that's ok. One of my goals for the year was to run Steve's Run, one of my favorite road races. But Already I know that this won't happen because we have a wedding that day! It was a nice goal, but it will just have to wait until next year.
 
Things I MIGHT NOT accomplish:
I’ve had a realization about some of my goals: They aren’t in my control. This might have been quite obvious to an outsider, but it wasn’t obvious to me when I made the goal. One of the goals that falls into this category is: SELL ONE ITEM EVERY MONTH (even the slow months). Problem: This isn’t actually in my control. I mean, I knew this ahead of time, I knew that I can’t force sales or somehow magically control when someone decides it is time to buy. But I figured there were plenty of things in my control: putting up items consistently, creating new products, blogging, social media posts,  having the right key words on Etsy, shop updates, promoting myself, emails (etc. etc.) And all these things do help to bring in sales, so I figured setting a goal of getting sales would inspire me to keep up with all these different tasks. But then March happened. I listed several new items, renewed several more, blogged, emailed, and posted updates. And I got great results in views and favorites!  I haven’t had that many eyeballs on my shop since October of last year (and October is my busy month!) But no sales came! This is when I realized that I didn’t actually have control over this goal. (duh) I DID end up getting a sale in March, on the very last day of the month actually (funny how things happen). But in the end, I may reach this goal, or I may not. I guess this is one of those times that reaching the goal isn’t actually the point. I would like my sales to come in more consistently throughout the year, and it’s the constant striving for this goal that (hopefully) pays off in the end.
 
My overall feelings: I’ve made good progress, but I have a long way to go in these last 3/4 of the year!

How are your goals for the year coming?

I always keep a flat head screwdriver handy in my sewing room!
Here’s why:

1. For changing sewing machine feet – I am constantly needing to switch feet when I sew: normal foot, cording foot, zipper foot, invisible zipper foot and back. Having a screw driver in arms reach makes this task much easier. I even know someone who has a magnet on their machine, and keeps the screwdriver and the extra feet on the magnet at all times.

2. Turning out corners – Turning out sharp corners (or squiggly Indiana riverfront on a pillow) can be tricky to do by hand. But a flat head screwdriver is the perfect tool to help. It is long and narrow, helping you get into those tight spaces, but it isn’t sharp on the end, so there’s no worries about accidentally poking through your fabric.

3. Stuffing small spaces – I’ve also found that a screwdriver is helpful when you are stuffing polyfil into a small space (like a little cat paw)  especially if the opening you left is too small for your fingers.

4. Feeding your machine - Sometimes when I'm sewing, there's just a very small piece of fabric to hold onto. In order to avoid my fingers being right next to (or under!) the needle, I use my screwdriver to feed the fabric into my machine. That way, if I get too close, I only get a broken needle, and not a hole in my finger.

Happy Sewing!