hi welcome back to christine's home
affairs today i'm going to show you uh
what i do to help
encourage my business so this is going
to be a so to sell video and i'm going
to show you
some of the things that i make in bulk
uh to sell in my shop now you can sell
your products at markets um on facebook
online there's lots of made it
websites etsy things like that
um
so i use a few different platforms to
sell my products i use facebook i use
made it and i have a website
and
i have my shop and we're in a touristy
area so we're lucky that we get a lot of
people that come through on weekends
i also used to do a lot of markets
craft shows and things like that so i'm
going to show you some of the
best things that i make to sell the ones
that are really good money spinners i
make them in bulk as well
so um
let me take you for a walk and i'll just
show you some of the samples of things
that i've been making over the years to
sell in the shop
i'll also explain some of the products
that i use
and how about how i go about pricing my
products as well so that'll be toward
the end of the video stick around
my number one item that i make is my
supermarket shopping bag so i rescue
fabric i used to be a fabric store and
selling quilting fabric dress material
and haberdashery so the whole place used
to be full of fabric
and sewing oceans
and once i made the decision that i'm
not going to sell fabric anymore it
started finding me so i was lucky enough
a few years ago to have got nearly six
ton of upholstery fabric
so the first thing that i started making
was these supermarket shopping bags now
these are made out of really sturdy
upholstery fabric
so i've got
i think i've probably had about 50
different colors
over the last few years and i think i've
got about 20 colours left but i've made
over 3 000 of these
supermarket shopping bags they're really
really quick to make and since upgrading
my machines i can get a lot more done an
hour as well so it actually helps my
profitability
i don't just use
upholstery fabric
i use
this is vintage
fabric so this was
volvo
volvo cars and trucks i found this in
the cupboard the other day because
whenever i get fabric i'll stash what i
like what i want to keep for later so
i've just been making these little book
bags for kids i sell them all 15 each
and they take no time at all to make
rather than making handles i buy the
strapping and i'll put a link in the
description down below
where i actually get my
strapping from so you'll be able to find
that in australia but you'll be able to
find that wherever you are in the world
as well
so the upholstery bags i've done about
as i said about 3 000 of them in the
last three years
and i've got a whole heap
at the moment that i've been working on
this weekend so there's a whole heap
that are almost sewn up and these ones
here just need the labels put on them
so they're keeping me really really busy
they actually keep me busy every single
week but before i take you for a walk
and show you the other bits and pieces
that i sell here's a couple of things
that i do sell a lot of
this is my newest product i don't throw
any fabric away or very very little so
as my fabric pieces get smaller
i make smaller projects and at the
moment these are my smallest ones so
these are little
puppy or doggy doggy poo pouches
so all i do is put a little zip in i've
got a roll of
bags in here which will
when you're taking your dog for a walk
help you have some storage for your
little poo bags so these actually clip
onto
your lead or if you had a bum bag you
could clip it onto that as well
they could equally be used for treats as
well so if you're taking your dog for a
walk you can have a bag for treats
so
this is brand new to me in the store it
was an idea that came up because we've
got a dog
and every time i go for a walk i'm
constantly leaving these bags in my
pocket they end up in the wash
go through the dryer and they don't look
very good when they come out they don't
have any poo in them though
but anyway i decided that i'd start
making these and i know you could buy
them all over the place but i thought
i've got the fabric why not make them
and they've been really really popular
this month alone i've made
in 21 days i've made over 100 of them
and
yeah i think i've sold a quarter of them
already so these are going to be really
really good in the shop
the other thing i do with remnants of
fabric is just make little pouches
of different sizes
and
having a label
on my products makes all the difference
as well so
i
ordered my labels in bulk i get about
1500 at a time
they come in a nice little box
and i just sew them on when i do my
batch sewing
labels i have found are really important
when i first started making these bags
i'd made over 100 of them and they
didn't have any labels on them at all
they weren't selling and then i thought
one day i'll get some labels try a few
and they just started walking out the
door so they've made a huge difference
my labels
have got handmade in the gambie written
on them they've got stitch this which is
the name of my business
and then it's got my website underneath
so handmade and again in the gambie is a
really good selling point because we're
in a small country town and often people
like to come into a town and buy a
souvenir so i do sell a lot as souvenirs
um stitch this obviously it's just
um plugging my business
and then i shamelessly go and put my
website underneath and tell the
customers that if they want more they
just have to go to my website and buy
more so if they're out and about and a
friend sees them and they like what they
what they've got they can point them to
that particular website so that helps
your business as well
um
headbands this is just a vintage stretch
fabric so i've just been making some
headbands there
there's those poo bags
uh and let's go and have a look around
at the other stuff that i make
now my plan is to have a youtube video
out for each of the things that i've
been making so if you're interested in
those i'll pop a link up in the corner
for any of the ones that i've got
existing videos for
so the supermarket shopping bags i've
already got a video out for that i've
had that up for a couple of years
the link is up there
and anything else that isn't done yet if
you pop a message in comments down below
and let me know what in particular you
would like me to do a video for i'll get
that up next
so uh
yeah without any further ado i shall
show you all the other bits and pieces
that i have and as i said i'll pop links
up in the corner for anything that
there's already a video already a video
for
what i've got here
came about because i i do rock and roll
dancing
we teach it as well and if you'd like to
see what we do there i'll put a link up
in the corner for you to see our rock
and roll youtube channel
so um anyway what i wanted is some bags
to put my dance shoes in
so this idea came about
to put dance shoe bags in but as
customers came in they've given me lots
more ideas they're just an expandable
bag
and the customers have given me lots
more ideas for their uses so you can use
these to put hair straighteners in epi
pens
this one here has got a wine bottle in
it so they're a really good wine bottle
gift bag i still
sell them as shoe bags as well
but yeah they've got lots and lots of
other ideas
for customers to use so i think i sell
well i know i sell them for 20. each but
the ideas i've just written on the
bottom of the tag there just some ideas
for customers to actually use these bags
for so they're just sitting on display
in the shop as you walk
in
as i said these supermarket shopping
bags are my number one seller and as you
walk into the shop
you're greeted by these bags so i always
have them on on display out the front
with a little blurb about
how i came about making these bags and
the fabric that's used in them
so here i've got some hot water bottle
covers these are made with
upholstery fabric so it's just a uh it's
almost got a
a suedey feel to it but the really
simple hot water bottle goes inside
there
fill it up and stick it in your bag and
you won't burn your feet
scrunchies are another um
they're a really good seller they're
super quick to make
these are the only colors i've got left
at the moment but i've done hundreds of
these and they just sit in a basket
four dollars each or three for ten
dollars and people love going through
those the hot water bottle covers i just
sell those at ten dollars
face masks unfortunately have been
another really good seller but that's
due to necessity with covert these are
the only colors that i've got left out
of probably two and a half thousand that
were made
and these are made with three layers
of fabric and i have just sort of mixed
fabrics together as well but they're
done with quilting cotton so with these
ones here
with these ones here i have actually
purchased the fabric so it's all brand
new material and when i've charged out
i've actually charged out the cost of
the material plus the cost of the make
of the masks
these bags here i've just called tablet
bags so they'll fit the
you know your little
ipads tablets so they're big enough to
fit a tablet they've got a
pocket in this in the top there for you
to put your tablet in and then there's a
little velcro
opening there as well as another zip
along here so you can actually fit your
chargers your purse your phone and your
tablet or little ipad
these i sell for forty dollars each
they're actually a little bit time
consuming and i could put more on them
but i do like to keep my prices down
somewhat
these ones i do sell at forty dollars
each
now at the back of the shop i have a
handmade section so this is where i have
on display all of the things that i do
actually make with my rescued fabric
and
on the
wall i do have a little blurb that tells
customers
about my product as well so they know
that most of the fabric here is rescued
fabric or vintage fabric of some sort
and that i try to keep it out of
landfill
these are just some little zippered i
think i might have shown you earlier
some little cosmetic bags
or you can use them for anything your
ipod charges and whatnot
so i've made a whole batch of those out
of vinyl
and
these are done with the regular
upholstery fabric this was a vintage
fabric
so these boxed bags i make these in all
sorts of sizes
so some are lined and some aren't but
you can see how tiny this little one is
this one's good for ear earbuds
just whatever the fabric is whatever
size i have left is the size that
they'll end up being so um i haven't got
a video out for the box bags yet but i
do plan on doing that let me know if
you'd like that sooner rather than later
likewise for the hot water bottle bags i
haven't done a video for that one yet
it will come one of these days but you
know if i get the demand for it then
i'll do the video for that sooner as
well
these are the ipad or tablet bags
i do have some customers that use them
just as handbags as well mum actually
uses a black the black one there for a
handbag
these bags are a couple that i've tried
the green one i think i consider it a
fail
at the moment but probably only because
of the fabric choice that i made
this is a little backpack made out of a
velour type of fabric it makes me almost
want to have a jumpsuit but i've made a
few of those they're very slow cellar
and this is
a
some kind of a
a big
pouch
that i've only done one of those i
haven't really tried to promote that
the down the bottom here i have a whole
heap of those shoe bags or those
extendable storage bags so you can see
that i actually make these in bulk
because they are a really really good
seller and that's them on display there
again
the other thing i make is these bowl
cozies so these are great for
ice cream bowls if you've got a really
cold plate of ice cream or if you've got
a hot bowl of soup
you can actually after you've heated up
your soup
you can carry your or hold your bowl in
your hand there with your little bowl
cozy so i sell those at 10 each i've
made quite a lot of those over the years
this is
zippered bags they're just made out of a
curtaining fabric i did a curtaining job
for a customer and i think i've got a
video for that i'll send you the link
for that
um that's just the remnants that are
left over so the customer gave me all
the fabric and that's what i've done
with it i've also done a video on these
zippered bags as well so which
these ones just over here
so
i do have a video which i'll post the
link for in the corner there
and all of these bags that i've got here
i've just made with
remnants
any size fabric
these are just
sample pieces of fabric all turned into
just some lined zippered bags and they
sell really really well
now i mentioned earlier about my labels
so i
said i i used to just make the bags and
not put labels on them
and these bags have been sitting here
for a really long time not selling
because there's i don't know what it is
about the labels they're not fancy
labels or anything but it actually makes
all the difference in the product so a
customer will see the bag with a label
and they'll want to buy that they won't
actually want to buy the ones without
the labels i it's strange but it just
makes such a huge difference
so i do go insane and
actually label
absolutely everything now
and the other thing i forgot to show you
was my peg aprons
so these are just
just some half aprons i'll go and find
the apron on a mannequin somewhere so
here we go we have our mannequin wearing
just a little peg apron that i've made
these um i've made a whole heap of these
and i've only made them in the one color
because i had the fabric available and i
thought i might as well give them a go
there's a video up here in the corner as
well showing you how to make these
the other thing that i have out the
front is these uh horse or pony bridal
bags
so i've made quite a few different
colors in these these are actually brand
new to me i think this year so i've only
been making them for the past six weeks
or so but they've actually been quite
popular
so they've got
an inbuilt handle just along here
the zip that goes all the way down
and if i can open this up
so once i've opened this up you can
actually see there are
velcro straps on the inside so these
straps will come up
and actually harness
the bridle for people that do they do
show bridles or show show their ponies
and horses
so then they can just close it up
and
put it away nicely so yeah these are
quite large i sell these at 40
45 each
so at the front of the shop i carry a
massive amount of excess uh shopping
bags these are all finished and ready to
be sold
there's a couple of hundred here i
imagine probably a little bit more but
as i sell them from the front i always
keep two of everything at the front and
then i just come in and pick out what i
need to restock the um the racks out the
front and then whatever i need to sell
when i'm selling them on facebook or via
my website i can just come and grab them
as i need them rather than having to
make them up quickly so i do like to
keep a stockpile of everything that i
keep on my website at least
now when it comes to pricing of my
products
i have just a really simple rule
if i don't pay for the fabric that i get
because it's been donated to me or it's
fabric i've rescued i don't charge for
the fabric that i use in my bags
if i pay for my fabric or
my strapping anything like that the
zippers
i do charge that out
so the basically how i work things out
is i will grab
a heap of fabric and i'll make up a heap
of bags and work out how many i can do
in an hour so whether it's my puppy bags
or my shopping bags i'll work out how
many i can get finished in an hour and
that's from
cutting the fabric to finishing the zips
and handles and putting the labels in
and all that sort of thing so work out
my hourly rate so for example if i can
get four
shopping bags done in an hour
my hourly rate is forty dollars an hour
so that means if i can get four bags
done in an hour
then i should in theory charge ten
dollars per bag
but i've got to add
my
costs on top of that as well so i do
have power i do have my machines and i
do upgrade my machines or have to pay
for servicing and things like that i
have thread
for these particular bags the shopping
bags i have the strapping or the webbing
that i use i have my labels
and
sometimes i might have hooks and other
notions and things like that
so i'll charge out my hourly rate so
it's forty dollars an hour if i can get
four of these done then it works out ten
dollars per bag
then i add my costs
at the price of your fabric um you work
out what you want for your your return
on your fabric and you're strapping
anything like that so the hourly rate
plus
the um costs so these bags i sell at 15
each which are actually quite cheap um
but that's because i'm not charging out
the fabric
the other thing i like to do is buy
everything in bulk so rather than buying
a zip for an individual bag
i actually buy hundreds of meters at a
time
so i'll buy
this
roll of zipper tape this is the number
five tape
this is a 200 meter roll
and i buy it from a company in melbourne
and i also get my zipper sliders
from them as well so these are a number
five slider to go on a bit on these
and i buy those in box i buy about 300
at a time and they just come in a big
bag
i work out
what i've paid for each item and then i
work out what i want to charge per meter
for each particular item so
um i've just
roughly said okay the sliders will be a
dollar each
the zipper tape i'll charge out at three
dollars a meter so if i use half a meter
on a product
then it's a dollar fifty plus the cost
of a slider and then just add a little
bit extra for you know your machines and
your threads and your power
the other thing i buy in bulk is
strapping now i used to buy uh the
different colors so you can get this in
lots of bright colors i now just buy um
i usually buy about two to four hundred
meters of this at a time they're 50
meter rolls
so i buy loads of this i go through
hundreds and hundreds of meters of this
stuff a year and i'll put a link in the
comments down below as to where i
actually buy these from in australia
and velcro as well so or hook and loop
tape so i buy each side because i don't
always
need the same amount on a particular
product so i'll buy the hook and i'll
buy the loop separately and then it's
easier just to update
whatever i need later on
what else do i have and my labels so
i've shown you my labels before i buy
those in bulk
that's because i know i'm making a lot
of products
what else can i tell you
i think that's about it
i hope you've enjoyed this video
if you would like any particular item
that i've shown you made or a video made
for the items let me know and i'll get
that up as soon as i possibly can
thanks for watching catch you next time