Sewing as a job

When I took a leave from teaching, sewing for public consumption wasn’t really on my radar. It took the first year for it to slowly rise to the top of the idea pile after I made quite a few quilts for family members. I knew I had to find an outlet for the finished products and future ideas that were piling up. When I started selling my sewn items, I generally got one of two responses. One was, “Lucky! I wish I could stay home and play all day, too.” The other was, “There’s no way I’d be able to sew that much. Too boring.” Well, both comments are right on the mark. Some days I love it, and some days I don’t. When I’m working on items, I can easily spend 8 hours ironing, cutting, or sewing. Time flies and nothing else gets done. On the days I’m not sewing, I’m looking for ideas for the next project, or for new color combinations to try, or tidying up my sewing room (though not often enough!). I know I’m lucky to be able to work on my passion project this early in life. I don’t take that for granted. It’s fun to make things people want or need. It’s rewarding to make quilts or pillows to honor and remember loved ones or special memories. It’s great to have repeat customers who send me ideas of things they want made, and I love the confidence they have that I can make it. My sewing job doesn’t pay the bills, but it does earn enough to keep buying fabric. It’s easy to fit into my part-time job schedule, and it’s flexible enough to take trips to see our grandkids. And, it keeps me out of trouble!

Taking My Creativity Seriously

As I drove home from CO, some of my time was spent listening to podcasts. One podcast I listen to regularly is “Elise Gets Crafty”.  I love her insights into crafting as a business, not just a hobby. I listened to an episode titled “Taking Creative Work Seriously”.  

She asks the question “Are you taking your creativity seriously?” and talked about how to decide if you’re crafting as a hobby or as a business.  (I’m paraphrasing, so if you want the exact quotes, check out her podcast, episode 45.)  A hobbyist generally is making one item at a time, not caring how long the process takes, and is making the item for their own use or as a gift for someone else. A business crafter is making multiple items, needs to make them in a time and cost efficient manner, and is looking to create an income by selling the items.  A business crafter also has to craft whether they’re in the mood to or not. It’s work. 

If you are a business crafter (I am), you also need to be good at self-promotion (I’m not!).   Ack. Not an easy thing to do!  The gist of her beliefs is that if you don’t toot your own horn, who will? Good question, I guess. She goes on to discuss ways to make your business more open with its current and future customers by sharing parts of your craft with them. I’ve been comfortable with posting pictures on facebook or instagram of what I’m working on, but I’m going to go out of my comfort zone and post a blog entry once a week in an attempt to share some portion of what I do. It might be an informative post or just a picture of what’s on my worktable.  If you have an idea for me to post about, let me know.

Thanks for letting me work on my self-promotion skills!