Saturday, February 10, 2018

Welcome to my shop!


Part of my work space. The sewing machine is one that I have had since I was around 20 years old.


Today has been quite a dreary day. It has been cold and cloudy so I have not been able to take any pictures of my outfits. So instead of doing nothing, I decided to do a live Facebook video inviting my friends and customers into my home. I wanted everyone to see where I work. I wish that I had a bigger place to sew but I don't so I just have to make the best of it. The area where I work is just a small room that used to be the back porch area and was enclosed to make an extra room. When my father in law owned the house, it was his office area and when my daughter was little, it was her playroom. Now it has become my sewing shop.



My Brother serger on my work table.
As you can see by the following pictures, the space is small but I'm able to get a lot done in here. I have a Bernina 910 that I have had since I was in my 20's. I would love to get a machine that is more modern and has more stitches but for now is has worked nicely. The serger is a Brother and I have had it for about 4 years. I got it when I first started making doll clothes. It really helps to finish the seams and give my outfits that professional look.

Some of my fabric stash
More fabric
As you can see, I have accumulated a lot of fabric in the 4 years that I have been sewing for dolls. About a year ago, my fabric stash had gotten out of control and I needed a way to organize it. So I searched Pinterest to find a way to organize it. There are so many ideas about how to organize fabric on Pinterest. What I do now is that I take comic book boards ( these are cardboard rectangles size 8.5 x 11 that are used to store comic books) and I wrap my fabric around these boards so it lays nice and flat then I put them in my plastic tubs or storage drawers. It is so much easier to know what I have just by glancing in my tubs.

My Ott light and ironing board
One of my favorite things is my Ott light. I just don't know what I would do without it. Now that I am older my eyesight is not as good as it used to be. The Ott light really helps me to see when I sew. It also has a magnifying glass so that if I need to correct mistakes (yes, I do make a few!), I can see those tiny stitches.
My cutting board and craft table.
Something that I could not do without is my craft table and cutting board. I use this to cut out all of my fabrics to make the doll clothes. I used to use my kitchen table before I got this craft table from JoAnn. It was a real pain because I had to make sure that I cleaned the table off real good before cutting any fabric out. I didn't want to get any food or grease on any of my fabrics.

A view of my doll house.

Another view of my doll house
I also share my sewing space with the doll house that I have made. It is just another hobby that I love to do. I made my doll house out of a shelving unit that is 48 in. wide x 72 in. high and 18 in. deep. It was another idea that I got from Pinterest. I'm hoping to maybe add a third unit and have a few more rooms. I would like to have a laundry room and also another bedroom. I am hoping to get the new girl of the year doll Luciana for my birthday.

My shipping supplies
There is a little room at the top of my doll house for storage. I use part of that space for my shipping supplies. Since I now have new logo, I have changed how I package my outfits for mailing.

My heater it gets cold in here!

Since this area used to be part of the outside of the house at one time, the heating and cooling is not very good in here. It gets very cold in the winter and hot in the summer. The summer is not so bad because I can just open up the double doors and it gets some cooling from the rest of the house. But when it is really cold outside, it is very hard to heat without some kind of heater.

So I hope you enjoyed my little tour of my work area. It's not much but it does get the job done!

Friday, February 2, 2018

Etsy Packaging

Since I had my new logo made from Susan at Logolane , (who has a great little shop on Etsy by the way) I have changed the way that I package my doll clothes. I used to just wrap my doll clothes in plain white tissue paper and then put them in a bubble mailer. But now I put the clothes in a 9 x 12 clear poly bag from Amazon , wrap it up in pink tissue paper and tie it with gold curling ribbon (paper and ribbon were from Papermart ). Then I stick a round Avery sticker on it printed with my logo.


This is the way that I package my doll clothes that I sell in my Etsy shop.



After I tie the ribbon around the package, I tuck one of my new business cards in between the ribbon.
My new business card with my new logo.

I hope that my customers will like the new touches that I have added. Please feel free to comment down below and tell me what you think of my new packaging.