How To Make A Sewn Tutu

It was not originally part of the business plan, but Bourgeois Baby has received many requests to carry girl's tutus.  Initially I did a few hand tied tutus- simple and easy, but there was really nothing special about them that required much skill.  So I began to play around with making a sewn tutu, and finally came up with a method that makes a fluffy tutu with an elastic waistband encased with costume satin.  I find that these sewn tutus give a professional look and are easy to put on and take off.  You can even add embellishments to the waistband like a bow or bling.

Here is a material list:

There were a few informational graphics that are handy to keep.  Standard tutu sizing is here.  You will notice that I mentioned in the video that I was making a newborn size tutu and cut the strips at 10 inches.  That is just a habit of mine- cutting a 2 inches longer than the recommended standard length to allow for some error during ruffling and serging.  You don't need to do that, as typically this also gives me tutus that are a bit longer than standard.

Ok. The Math!  Really, don't be afraid of this.  I came up with these calculations based on the average lengths I would consistently get during my test tutus.  Your machine may differ, so I highly suggest that you adjust this based on what your machine gives you in terms of ruffles per inches.  (And don't hesitate to contact me if you need help figuring this out.).

 

Would love to hear your feedback (this was my first video tutorial) and see your creations!

 

My Little Movie Star

I've been working on more videos for my company, and trying to market our more edgy products.  I would say the most "racy" items is the Retro Tattoo print.  I absolutely love it, and with vintage style tattoos being so popular it seemed like the right fit for our bibs, too.

The video was shot in Nashua, NH at a local tattoo shop.  Tattoo America has been in the southern NH region for ages, so it was a natural to want to shoot there.  The beautiful actress happens to be my little Vera.  She did such a great job.  And she just loved "getting" tattooed!

You can check out the video here.

What do you think?

Where Does The Time Go?

Time, as you get older, goes by so quickly.  You blink and a month goes by.  Age certainly gives a different perspective to time.  I can vividly remember school years dragging by as a kid.  Now, a week feels like half a day.

And so, here is why it's been difficult to get to the blog.  With Vera keeping me more busy than ever, and Bourgeois Baby growing faster than I imagined it would by this point (not complaining by any means!!) I get very little down time.  My work hours are whenever Vera is in bed (typically by 7:30pm) til many nights 11pm.  It is not enough time to keep up the pace.  I do have a sitter who comes 2-3 days a week for a few hours, and Vera has been in camp for a few weeks this summer to give me more time.  And yet- there still isn't enough.  The only reason why I am writing tonight is because my car is packed up with Bourgeois Baby gear for the Boston MommyCon event.  I figured I'd tinker since tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I could get to bed early.

On that note, I bid you goodnight.

Catching Up

Ha ha. Not really.

While I await some business files to come through, I figured I'd punch out a post.  My first thought was to write a post about something that has been swirling in my head for some time- something I've come to of late call "The Mom Conspiracy"- but that would be so long and involved I can't get into it now.  But I will write that post sometime, just not sure when.

Instead, I'm thinking of all the projects I want to get to, but I have come to not be able to sew or knit for myself or Vera or anyone else for that matter.  In other words, all my crafting these days are strictly business related.  This is by no means a complaint- it's great to be busy and getting ready for some large expos and sales campaigns for Bourgeois Baby.  But I do miss doing something just for fun.

For myself, I bought a couple of patterns for winter wear.  Hopefully I will get to them before next winter.  The first is the pattern by See & Sew B5909 in view B.  Someone in a facebook sewing group I am in posted her pics of her finished product and it was just so lovely!  It looks like a super easy pattern to whip out in an afternoon, but I have not found a fabric that I like for it.  The suggestions are a fleece, boiled wool, or berber fleece.  I haven't found one that I like.  Wool would look nice but I am afraid it will make my neck itch.

The other pattern I have waiting is Simplicity 3568 in view C.  I have a lightweight sweater knit fabric with a Nordic pattern with reindeer, snowflakes, etc.  I like the cowl neck line, and the fabric I found on major markdown is very funky.

I also have an apron cut out waiting to be finished.  The fabric is a lovely orange with blue fabrics.  It's vaguely vintage looking.

I've also been working on tutu construction.  There are so many tutorials out there, and so many ways to construct one and I have not found the way I like best.  This started with getting ready for the Bourgeois Baby Photo Shoot, in which I made 4 tutus in less than 24 hours.  Now that I have some time I am playing around with it, I am trying to perfect the best way for me.

And here is a shameless pic of me at my fabulously new sewing machine.  It's so awesome.  And has so many features I've barely touched an quarter of what it can do.



Weeee!!!! Wielding so much sewing power!

Looking Ahead to 2014

Like so many at this time of year, I am looking back on the year while simultaneously looking forward to the next one.  I can certainly say 2013 was not a bad year at all, but of course I'd love for 2014 to be even better!  I have a list of things to do over the next week or so and one of them I've been thinking most about is goals for my business for 2014.  At this point, I only have one specific goal so far; a modest one of that.  I plan to gain a wholesale account every month, as well as increase my general retail online presence.  SEO is so complicated, and Google seems to change things up as soon as my rankings improve.  This is also at the same time as Facebook decreasing the organic views of business pages posts in hopes to push business to "boost" their ads for more views, which for a small business is tough.  So obviously I need to come up with some more ways to increase online visibility.  I do think that Pinterest is going to be the way to go in 2014, and now that I am improving my product pictures, it only makes sense to increase my business use of Pinterest.  The picture with this post is my latest edit.  I think I will have to re-photograph my products (ugh....) to finalize this current edit to get the lighting very even, but I think this current version is the way to go.



Latest edit of my American Moose New Baby Bib at Bourgeois Baby.  You can find it via my website link above or to the right.

On a personal note, I don't typically do the traditional resolutions.  But I do aim for more positive actions that are realistic to my day to day life.  For instance, I hope to read more.  I love reading, have always loved reading, so much that it was my source of calming anxiety when I was dealing with a troublesome husband and struggling with postpartum depression.  But as those things improved (thankfully), I let the reading every night for a minimum of 30 minutes before bed slip.  Combine that with night time being my only work time now that Vera doesn't nap anymore (I still am not over this transition- it sucks!!), and I think I may have read 2 books this whole year.  Before, I was 2 books a month!  I have so many excellent books on my shelf, not to mention a growing list on my notes app on my phone, that I need to pick it up quickly.

Is there anything special you are doing?

Well, I'm Wrong! (Something my husband doesn't hear often)

My last post went on and on about license character infringement and how it relates to the handcrafted small business person.  If you haven't read it, go and do that now.

This past weekend I was doing a local event with Bourgeois Baby and had the pleasure of meeting Stacey of Three Monkeys Cloth Diapers (check out her stuff....SO CUTE!) and we chatted about licensed character products.  Her understanding of using licensed characters in clothing, cloth diapers, etc, was completely different than mine.  She said that so long as you don't name the product the licensed name, then you are fine.  I really wasn't buying it, although I had seen items on Etsy like "Cat in the Hat Inspired Shirt" or whatever. I needed to research this more myself.

Tonight I was digging around the internet and found this page about the use of licensed fabric.  So it seems that it is totally fine to sell items made from licensed fabric.  I found the Tabberone website every interesting on various topics, and got a chuckle of their comments on the Uninformed Mavens of Etsy.

And I will say it again- I was wrong.  At least as far as it goes with fabrics.  As much as I like Hello Kitty, don't expect her to show up on my business website.  But it does open up possibilities for other things in the future.

License Infringement

Because I had been on Etsy (with an entirely different product than what I do with Bourgeois Baby) years ago- shortly after Etsy was just initially gaining some momentum on the internet- I had been very aware of a lot of the no-no's small handcraft businesses were doing.  These things, for whatever reason, stuck with me- not because I was doing them- but because I was surprised other people were.

A huge legal no-no is selling product using licensed images or characters by other companies.  And you see it all the time.  It drives me bat shit crazy, actually, for several reasons. But before I go on, what is considered licensed images or characters?  Think Disney characters (from the originals all the way to movie characters in Pixar films), Sanrio's Hello Kitty, Thomas and Friends, etc.  Large corporations own the sole rights to these characters and do sell certain rights for other manufacturers to make merchandise, they do legally pursue companies who use these characters without permission.  And I can tell you that virtually no small handcrafted business can afford the licensing fees.  Many of these small handcrafters buy their materials retail, which does mean they can buy things with these images legally- but for personal use only.  Making another product with these licensed images and then selling them for a profit is illegal.  And these companies have come down on small business people on Etsy and the like.

Here's a very common example I often see: A small business owner makes little girls hair accessories.  A big seller are the Hello Kitty hair bows and barrettes.  And of course they sell well!  Hello Kitty is very popular, the ribbon with her image is readily available almost anywhere you can buy ribbon, and the person making them shops at her local chain craft store.  Each bow may cost her less than a dollar in ribbon, and factoring in labor, etc, she charges around $5 per hair bow or clip.  No biggie, right?

Ya, it is to Sanrio!  I'd imagine that all they need to do is have their legal team write up an official cease and desist letter- but they could potentially sue for license infringement and fees on sold products to date.  This will crush a small business.

So- besides the fact that this is a no-no for the reasons states above- I have problems with it beyond that.  Here are those reasons:

• It makes other handcrafted businesses look cheesy when, in fact, there is nothing cheesy or cheap about handcrafted products.  Handcrafted products are a labor of love.  Detail and care was put into EACH item made.  For instance, every fabric layer, every stitch, every label....you name the part of any of my products- has been painstakingly cut, sewn, pressed, packaged, etc by my own hands.  Other than a sewing machine- there is human touch and work put into every piece.  I take huge pride in this, and when I see handcrafted using materials that are not legit to resell- it is so irritating!
• It makes handcrafted business owners look uneducated.  When you started a small business, didn't you do research first?  Did you look up laws pertaining your items, read different forums to get an idea of your market?  I am always surprised to see that some people do next to nothing to set up selling their wares and think that is all there is to it.  I did months of research, learning all sorts of retail and wholesale aspects of small business, not to mention as much legal stuff I could get my hands on.  Why would I put all the blood, sweat, and tears into this endeavor to have it threatened by some legal snafu?
• It provides no individual creativity.  When I think of handcrafted- no matter the type of product- I think of some type of creative angle to it.  Coming up with products using someone else's (or company's) image or character really isn't that difficult.
• It may hurt your competitors.  Now, when anyone (including myself) starts a business of any kind- we want to be the best.  We want to be THE place for the widget or whatever it is you sell.  Of course, other people sell widgets, too, and we want to outsell them.  That is business in a capitalist society, after all.  But I do think handcrafted is special.  The market we sell to is much smaller than traditional retail.  However, there is a place for all of us.  I really do believe that. Handcrafted often has something different to offer.  But when the business next to you is selling similar items but with these very popular images- what do people go to?  They go to the familiar.  And buying the illegal, licensed product hurts the handcrafted business who has the very cute hair bow with a kitty image that is not Hello Kitty.  And when the familiar licensed image is sold as "handcrafted", the real handcrafted original item gets the shaft.  These businesses may think they are helping the handcrafted movement because they are moving product made by them with illegal images and therefore getting handcrafted into more people's hands, they are really doing a disservice to handcrafted business in general.

 

I recently exhibited at the Boston Christmas Festival.  I loved it.  It was busy, but I got to meet lots of talented artisans and handcrafters.  Bourgeois Baby products had made their way into more markets than the southern NH area (even Germany and Iceland!!).  It was my first year there, and as part of the application process, I had to prove my worthiness to be in their show.  So it was disheartening to me to see these types of products in some of the booths.

Of course, I don't go telling the people who sell these items all of this.  I don't feel it would be proper etiquette of me to introduce myself, my business, and then follow it up with "By the way, you know that selling these Hello Kitty hair bows are illegal, right?"  Perhaps they really don't know....but I also don't want to make any business enemies. 

I guess this is why blogs are a good thing- I can just vent it all out here.  And as far as my Hello Kitty example- I am just using that one as it seems to be the easiest to make the point.  I am not writing this post with any specific business or person in mind- there are so many of them out there I don't actually remember any by name.

And on that note- /vent.  Much happier to have gotten that out!

For an update on this post, go here.