Accounting for and Managing Raw Materials

As an independent businessperson, managing inventory can be a challenge and a headache. Craft-based businesses both manufacture and sell their wares, making inventory management all that much more difficult. Sometimes it may seem that chaos reigns all around us as we try to balance making, selling, and promoting our goods along with keeping the books and tending to family or personal affairs. Proper record-keeping and physical inventory management can help you run a successful business and give you some peace of mind.

Keep track of costs and stay organized?
I'd rather read a book or make a custom embroidered bookmark!

Why not just craft and count on everything else to take care of itself? 
If you are crafting purely as a hobby, you might be able to do this. However, if you want to at least break even - or make a profit! - you need to keep track of your materials expenses. Gold, cotton, and other raw materials have been increasing in price at an astonishing rate. I recently heard from someone who just realized he was currently selling his hand-dyed shirts at LAST year's blank shirt wholesale price. Do you want to sell the work you have now at a price that is below what it would currently cost you to make it?

By law, we must know our costs and how much money is tied up in inventory come tax time. Waiting until next April to crunch all of your numbers is unwise. Not only does it make April that much more hectic, it deprives you of valuable information that you can use throughout the rest of the year to set price points and determine your business's profitability. My friend had to make a sudden, drastic increase in price to correct for not staying on top of his raw materials expenses. You can bet that he wished he'd stayed on top of his records rather than waiting for months at a time to put his financial house in order.

Accounting Methods
Materials costs change, and different vendors charge different prices for the same goods. Before I go further into record keeping, it would be wise to decide on a method for how you will account for changing materials costs.

A Thank You to Everyone Who's Helped Me Recently

One of the things that I love about being on Artfire is the community that exists behind the scenes on the artfire forums. The sellers there are willing to help one another by giving advice when needed or by acting as a sympathetic ear.

Recently, I've gotten a lot of help from one seller in particular: Gabi, or Catfluff, as she is known in the forums. Every now and again, Gabi is willing to do a very thorough (even brutal) critique of other people's artfire shops in an effort to help others improve their own situation. She was willing to give me a lot of good advice, which I am currently working on implementing. 

Thank You to Anyone Who's Featured my Work

Custom Embroidered Robot Pencil Pouch

I'd also like to thank anyone who's featured any of my products in a collection. Let's take a look at a few of them, shall we? 

Two studios created collections as a thank you to people they'd gotten help from on the forum. A studio called The Elusive Lemon created a Thank You Collection while a seller called Chains, Charms & Chokers compiled A Special Thanks... Each collection actually features features more than one of my items. I'll just highlight my robot pencil pouch. 

A Walk Through Oregon City

I recently took a 4-5 mile walk through Oregon City for three reasons:

1) Enjoy nature 

2) Check out the local businesses

3) Have a date with my husband

4) Start getting ready for a marathon in October

Yes, I signed up for a marathon. My father-in-law assures me that anybody can do a marathon (walking). He also says there are only two ways your body pays for it: either before or after - either way it takes six months.  So I'm starting to make a down payment now via layaway, and it made for an interesting walk.

My starting and ending point was Clackamette Park. From there, I walked a loop upstream along the river toward the bridge, up through downtown Oregon city, past the old papermill and museum, and then back around to where I started. I kept an eye open for anything interesting, which for me includes plants, animals, vistas, and local businesses. 

On the plants and animal front, I was happy to spot a ruby throated hummingbird sitting on a barren tree and my first snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) of the season. (BTW, if you've ever asked yourself what hummingbirds eat in late winter before there are any flowers, the answer is tree sap and pre-digested tree sap, which they steal from aphids.)  Since the river has been running a little high, the falls a little further upstream of the city were beautifully dramatic.

What I really noticed on this trip, however, were the local businesses. Downtown areas are not setup to navigate by car as easily as the local strip mall; however, they're a mecca for businesses that are interesting, independent, and local. I noticed, for example, a shop that sold vintage hats along side gourmet chocolate, a traditional arcade (complete with the old machines for Pacman, Centepede, and Tetris), a few antique stores, and a print shop that allowed a glass artisan to display his work in their window front. 

There were also two shops that I noticed due to their connection to the fiber arts: Wynona Studios and Seven Seas Canvas. I was able to talk to the owners of both, who were extremely friendly, and I was impressed with the work they've put into making a brick and mortar business work.

Wynona Studios is devoted to anything having to deal with knitting, yarn, or related fibers, and they are in their second year of business. The shop was full of wool roving, yarn, spinning wheels, and knitted items that are available for sale. It looks like a great place to check out a spinning wheel if you're thinking of getting one, and they feature new pieces monthly that local individuals have created up on their wall. In fact, I really liked the way they feature those pieces - they've installed gilded molding up on the wall, which becomes a frame for each piece.  

Seven Seas Canvas is devoted to making (and repairing) custom boat covers. There aren't many people who make custom boat covers in the US, and visiting his studio was a special treat for me: my parents (in Virginia) bought a cover for their Tazer sailboat from him (in Oregon) while I was in college.  To randomly happen upon his custom studio was delightful.

Canvas makes a great base for embroidery.
Especially for this highly detailed scene.

Although he focuses on making boat covers, he'll make almost anything with canvas. In fact when I wandered in, Chris Calvert, the sole proprietor, was working on a hammock. He was kind enough to show me his industrial sewing machine and a bit of how it worked. (I've read a lot about industrial sewing machines, but I've never been able to touch one before.) I was really impressed Chris and his willingness to take some of his time to answer my questions.

Given the amount of canvas that he goes through... he might be a really good source for buying it for my own projects. The next time I want to use high quality canvas (like nautical-grade quality), I think I'm going to contact him for a quote. Maybe he'll be able to give me a reasonable price for a few yards.  

Product Photography

Photography is a skill. And most individuals who sell online can probably say that our photos got better over time. In my case, my first sets of photos left much to be desired - particularly when you compare them to what I've done most recently. I normally don't try to show off my worst looking stuff. But here are a few examples from my studio and why the photos are better or worse than each other.

1) Bluebird Banker Tote Taken with Olympus Stylus with inadequate light.


What it has going for it: the embroidery details are in focus. The colors are more or less true.


What's bad: I had to use the flash because I didn't have enough light.  This lit the embroidery details unevenly and caused glare - both with the thread and with the fabric background. (It was before I bought some clamp light fixtures with daylight spectrum CLFs.) Add this one to my list of products to re-shoot.


2) Baby Girl's Pirate Shirt Taken with an iPhone in natural light.

What it has going for it: Natural light allowed the colors to photograph true and with far better results than above. (That said, there was a slight shadow across the bottom of the image, so the lighting situation could still be a lot better.)


What's bad: You really need to use a better camera than an iPhone. The iPhone didn't give enough control over the focus of the image. Please note that the towel in the background is in focus, while the embroidery details are blurry. The sensors also rendered bright pink of the shirt funny and washed out the whites, though this might have been due to file compression. While I'm at it, I'll address the staging: The towel isn't terribly professional and there are some wrinkles that should have been smoothed out before the photo was taken. This was from a quick, informal photoshoot. I should take the time to go back and re-do this one too.

3) Seahorse Tote Bag Taken with Olympus Stylus in natural light.
One of the things I've been struggling with is whether to showcase gorgeous embroidery details in the first image or to give an overall view. My items are special because they are embroidered (not silkscreened), but embroidery is something that shows up best when you have a detailed close-up shot.

However, if you get too close, you loose any sense of what the item is or how it can be used. I staged this item to try to show what the item is (tote bag), how it fits into your life (use it for books!), and how it's special (close enough that you can see it's been embroidered).

Now admittedly, the lighting on this could be better. Embroidery can pick up some beautiful highlights and show off dramatic color if done right. However, I wanted to show what I was able to do with my Olympus right before I upgraded to a digital SLR camera.


4) Hedgehog Baby Bib. I uploaded this one last night after re-photographing it. Here's the before and after:

Before

The before image was taken with the Olympus Stylus. The image is too dark and I placed the bib against a brown background (not recommended for baby items - people like bright, cheerful, clean-looking photos for baby stuff). The after image was taken with a digital SLR camera. (And no, you don't NEED to have an SLR camera to take good product shots, but it makes it so much easier.)

I didn't have access to good indirect light at the time of shooting, so I lit the bib using daylight CFLs. I also used Photoshop to remove the background and to juxtapose a detail shot with an overall shot in the same image. I removed the background partially because this was a white on white image. I could have exposed the image longer, but then the bib edges would have started to get lost. I added the detail to try and show how mice my items are up close.

After

The detail inset also makes the image more colorful. This is especially nice for a baby item that has a white product against a white background. I suspect I will be going more in this direction in the future.

A Review of My Futura Sewing Machine

The Singer Futura is a sewing/embroidery combo machine, and as an embroidery machine, it's a really low end one at that. It's not too bad as a sewing machine, though there are machines out there that are far better.

How is it for Embroidery?

My Futura was best with small designs using few
colors, but hooping baby clothes was a pain.

It works, but I found it really limiting. (Says the woman who decided to start an embroidery business.) It doesn't trim jump threads, and if you loose power in the middle of an embroidery job (one of your kids unplugs it), it doesn't remember what stitch it was on when the power went off - this, despite needing to be hooked up to a computer in order to embroider. You also have to re-thread it for every embroidery color change, but this is true with all single-needle sewing machine/embroidery combo machines. I don't really recommend the model I have for embroidery. However, my exact model of Futura has been discontinued, and Singer came out with a new one with some improvements. It may be that the new one has fixed a lot of the things that bugged me about my old one, but I wouldn't buy it again without a bit of research.

Durablity?
Any Singer made after the 1970s or 80s uses plastic gears inside. It makes the machine lighter, but it also means that the gears wear out more quickly than metal parts.  Computerized sewing machines came out in the 90s. According to my local sewing machine repairman, computerized machines often have fewer issues because they use a circuit board to control fancy stitches and have fewer moving parts. Though I think he may have been talking about machines with computer boards AND metal innards given that he was attached to a Bernina dealer (which uses plastic gears).

Either way, I haven't had any problems with my machine yet. Except for one or two occasions where I've allowed too much lint to build up under the bobbin case and it's messed up the tension. Cleaning and oiling the machine is easy to do at home.

Ease of Use? 
It's very easy to thread and use. It has a drop-in bobbin with a clear cover so it's easy to ensure you don't have the wrong color loaded in the machine before you start stitching. Bobbins are clear plastic too, so it's easy to see how much thread is left on the bobbin. It's also very clear what stitch you are on. If you turn the power off and on, it doesn't remember what stitch settings you were using during your last session, which has its pros and cons.

It doesn't have auto-tension, so it's good to test out what setting works best for your project before you begin. And on really delicate or lightweight fabrics, I recommend holding the bobbin thread for the first few stitches to help with the tension and to prevent any fabric from getting sucked down into the throat plate - though this is true for almost any machine.

Fancy Stitches?
There are a lot of built in stitches on the Futura. However, I pretty much only use the straight stitch, zig-zag stitch, and automatic buttonholes. I tend to break out the serger, the embroidery machine, or a specialized foot for my sewing machine before I use a fancy stitch. If you really like fancy stitches, there are other machines on the market that have far more than the Futura.

So If I Were to Buy a Sewing Machine All Over Again, What Would I Get?
To be perfectly honest, my mom has an old metal body 1970s Bernina. She always manages to load the bobbin wrong on it and doesn't use it. I plan on offering her a trade: my shiny, 2004 Singer Futura for her 1970s Bernina. I don't really use the Singer's fancy functions; I want the durability of the Bernina's metal gears.

You Want A Vintage Machine? 
Yep. A lot of people who sew frequently love the vintage machines and seek them out because they can be real work horses. I even know a few specialty sewers who seek out the REALLY old machines (think hand-crank or foot treadle) because they give the sewer more control over the timing of the needle penetrations, which allows them to get super-accurate sewing results. Once you figure out how to clean up and maintain an old machine, it can last for almost forever, and you can get a good 1980s Bernina even on a limited budget.

If You Must Have A New Machine
Ok, lets say that automatic buttonholes are a must. Or being able to do a fancy decorative stitch.  Or a machine that will thread itself because you can never seem to get it through the needle eye. See if you can go to a store or a dealer that will allow you to test drive your machine first. Here are some things to consider:

Being able to add embroidery is a great perk for a new machine.

1) Easy to use and thread? (including the bobbin, and how you raise/lower the pressor foot)
2) How does it handle different types of fabric? (try it out on really thin stuff as well as something really thick - you may need to supply this fabric yourself for a proper test)
3) Automatic buttonholes and other stitch functions?
4) Advanced features such as trimming thread for you, automatic tension control, or embroidery
5) Price (including that of any future repairs - Kenmore machines can old be serviced at Sears because Sears controls the supply of parts)

Brands
If you're not going to do much sewing, then anything that has the features you need ought to work. Get what your budget allows and feels natural to work with. Here are a few notes about some common brands.

If you need fancy features, such as computerized embroidery, the following three brands are considered the most advanced, reliable (and expensive):
* Bernina (considered most reliable)
* Huskvarna/Viking
* Pfaff

Based off my experience with their sergers and embroidery machines, I'd also be personally happy with the following company:
* Brother/Babylock

More Budget-Friendly Options:
* Elna
* Janome
* Kenmore (be prepared to take it to Sears for repairs)
* Singer

About Sergers

To make these Halloween bags, I used all three machines:

1) embroidered the orange canvas fabric

2) serged the raw edges

3) sewed in handles and the black and white lining  

What is a Serger? 
Sergers, also called overcast machines, finish raw edges. They are particularly useful for finishing the raw edges of knits. Look inside any t-shirt and you will see a serged raw edge on the sides as well as a bottom hem that has then been turned back and sewn down - probably with what's called a cover stitch. A cover stitch looks like two rows of parallel stitching from one side, and a zig-zag of several threads on the back. On an overcast seam, the machine cuts the fabric with a little blade and then does a sort of zig-zag-like stitch using 3 or 4 threads around the cut edge. Both seam finishes are designed to protect the seam from fraying or raveling. It's especially useful for knit fabrics of all kinds and woven fabrics that fray, shred, or ravel.

Some machines will only overcast, some machines will only cover stitch (though these are usually industrial machines), and some machines will do both. Most sergers will also allow you make rolled hems on lightweight fabrics - though they may need to be threaded slightly differently. Sergers are also less maneuverable than sewing machines. They do best on long, straight seams. On a sewing machine, you can easily turn on a dime and then go backwards, or go easily around curves. Sergers will go around curves and can turn sharp corners, but it can be a little tricky. And since sergers Industrial sergers (such as those made by Juki) are configured differently than home sergers, which allows them to get into tighter places.

Originally, I was going to buy a less expensive serger, until I talked to my mom and a few other people. Sergers must be threaded in a very particular order or they simply will not work correctly. A lot of people I know have to reference their manual every time they need to re-thread their machine. (My mom, in fact, just gave up on hers and sold it to someone else while I was still a little girl.) From there, you may have to serge a few test strips on scrap fabric to get the tension right (depends on if your model has auto-tension). The babylock machines have both auto-threading and auto-tension and can do both overcast and cover-stitching. I figured it was worth getting a machine where I could spend my time making items instead of fiddling with the machine's settings.

This pillow was made entirely with my serger. 

As an example of what a serger is really capable of, I recently made a pillow entirely with my serger. I used the cover stitch function to decorate a central satin panel. I used overlocking to insert lace to some duponi silk, then attached them to the satin. I also added pre-made piping using a piping foot. On the back, there's a zipper (again, added with my Babylock serger). If I had wanted to, I could have easily ruffled the lace with my machine as well.

Sometimes I have trouble deciding whether I love my serger or my embroidery machine best.

Since Christmas

The holiday season is always crazy for me. There are craft fairs to go to. Gifts to make for my family (such as the sweatshirt my son is wearing). Gifts that various people ask me to make. And last-minute requests of all kinds in addition to all the usual stuff. Once the crazyness ended, I was able to enjoy a little bit more time with the kids and even remembered to grab the camera for a few shots.

Wearing one of my sweatshirts, of course.

You'll notice my yard consists mainly of dirt, weeds, and kid's tempera-splattered fence. You can probably blame Gavin for much of the current status of the yard. Gavin ...and the local shade trees, gravelly soil, the winter weather, and the fact that I found and removed an entire bolt's worth of buried weed block fabric when I moved in.

Once New Year hit, it was back to business. I feel like I've put in a ton of orders in the past two weeks:

* An order for more thread and stabilizer
* A dedicated bobbin winder that can wind off of king cone spools for free standing lace
* At least 4 separate orders for blank shirts and totes for client orders.
* Customized catalogs that I can hand out to business clients

Normally I don't have quite so many boxes arriving within such a short time frame. (Particularly since I thought that the beginning of January would be on the slow side.) In the past week, I've noticed that the UPS truck has at least 3 different employees that work my route, depending on the day. Is it normal to notice just how many UPS employees are working your street in a given week? 

It may sound odd, but I still get excited when I get boxes - even if those boxes are full of things that are ultimately going to go to someone else.  So every other day or so, it's been a bit like Christmas all over again. My most recent bit of excitement is a box I received with the following canvas totes:

The totes are really sturdy, have an inside pocket with a heavy duty metal zipper, and came in several different colors. Some are natural canvas while others are black, pink, or butter yellow; the trim/handles are generally navy, black, or charcoal grey. I'm trying to decide what to do with them. They strike me as a bit nautical somehow, but it might be best to reserve them for monogramming at fairs. The totes also come in two different sizes. The one at right is about the size of a typical purse, but I also got a couple that are a larger beach tote size.

Every now and again I'll get something to test it out and see what a given product is like so I'll know whether it would be worthwhile to recommend them. The totes are a bit of a test. At the same time, I also decided to test out a backpack: 

I've had a chance to take it out of it's protective plastic bag. It has lots of compartments and little pockets to organize things, including a laptop sleeve. However, it also looks fairly shallow, like it wouldn't fit much more than two textbooks if you also used the laptop sleeve. I'm not sure how many people would want this particular backpack. An elementary student probably wouldn't need to haul lots of books so the size would be right. But how many elementary students need a laptop sleeve? Maybe a college or a high school student - though I personally stuffed my backpack to the brim when I was in school. I think I need to show it to a current high school student and get another opinion. 

So far, I don't think I would recommend it to many people.  I am not saying that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It's a nice, very well-made bag. However, I think it would suit the needs of a very narrow group of individuals - like maybe a young professional who needs a comfortable way to transport their laptop and a few other things with them to and from work.  It's a pity I don't like it better because it's not worth the shipping to return it to the wholesaler. *sigh* At least I know what to tell someone if they express interest in this particular bag. I also have a benchmark to compare with when I look at catalog descriptions mentioning cubic inches in the future.  That means this wasn't a total loss. Sometimes the boxes are less exciting once I've had a chance to thoroughly inspect what's inside.