Diary of a Wannabe WAHM

All Over, Red Rover

2009-06-17T17:11:00.003+09:30

I've told a few people privately, but here's the public announcement. I'm winding up Waggle-Wee Kids. It's not going to happen immediately, (because I have the site paid for for a while!) but I'm going to start sales or start using some of the stock myself (yes, my daughter needs some new nappies). And there are some things like ProCare and bamboo velour that I will continue to supply - they're hard to get, but don't take me effort to make up and have as stock.

So what I wanted to talk about here are some of my reasons.

The main one comes down to moving on. I started designing nappies for a reason, I couldn't get ones to fit my first daughter. I enjoyed developing the new side-snap design, but when I came to time to test it and start producing it the fun wasn't there. My little one is toilet aware, we won't be using nappies for more than another year or so, so my interests have moved on and I want to sew things for my girls.

Which is where we come to the second reason, time. There are lots of different elements that go into running a business of this type, I can identify at least four.

Stock production - yes, it takes a long time to sew a nappy. And if you don't produce your own you have your own set of problems - finding suppliers, ordering stock, keeping track of levels, differentiating yourself from your competitors, ...
Packaging and posting - It doesn't sound like much, but it does take time to pull an order together, check it all and send it out.
Store maintenance - again, this actually takes a long time. To photograph your stock, clip, crop and otherwise pretty-up the pictures, to load them, to write the descriptions, if you have 20 different products to put up you're looking at hours of work.
Marketing and advertising - I know these are two different things, but for a one-WAHM show they can be treated together. In a business driven by word of mouth it means time to get on the forums and talk to people, not just market to them. It means time to find the different places you should be advertising, because surprise, surprise, websites don't find you, you have to go out and find them. Of course you could pay someone to do your marketing for you, but then you need to ask yourself some hard questions about what you are getting out of the business and where you are going with it. (In short, have a business plan, which you should have anyway.)

So my position at the moment is I don't have the time to do all four, and I don't want to take it to the level of outsourcing. So better to take my time and wind it down now, so I can use that time to do things I enjoy more, like playing with the new sewing pattern program I just bought.

I do have another project I'm very excited about, but I'll post about that later. I thought about it and I will be continuing this blog about my new journey.

Twitter

2009-06-09T12:37:00.006+09:30

I'm writing this instead of sewing, and I really do have an order to put together. Probably a good reason to be transitioning to a writing based business!

I'm fairly new to Twitter, so I'm definitely not writing this as a guru or to tell people how to use it to make lots of money. In fact in one way it could be considered a bit of an experiment - to see how many new followers pop up once I tweet it and what sort they are, and to compare it to my stat counter to see how many actually come and read this post.

For those who don't know about Twitter, it's a form of 'micro-blogging' that is only allowed to be 140 characters, designed to be done from a mobile phone. I noticed it with a lovely lady called WAHMBizbuilder, the first person I started following (by the way, I'm WaggleWee). I use something called 'Tweetdeck' but I've heard good things about Seesmic too. I have it open on my laptop and it continually checks for my twitter and facebook updates, so I don't have to visit different sites. I much prefer Twitter, I find all the things about 'Sarah-Joh Flossen scored 2,414,235,213,452,245 on Bubble Hex Stratis' on Facebook annoying. Anyway, you follow people to see their updates, and people follow you to see yours. I find it brilliant as a WAHM - 140 characters is about what I can fit in between the kids, it's a gentle form of advertising that fits my budget, plus it's nice to feel you have someone to talk to!

There are lots of different ways to use Twitter, with some people I've known around for a while I use it to message and chat. I tweet my blogs, just to let people know that I've written something new and they have the choice to read or not. Other times it's pure advertising - most of my followers are in the same sorts of businesses and we all have young children, so they're interested in my business and I'm interested in theirs. It's not spam, because I'm choosing to receive it, but personally I find it a bit boring if all someone is churning out is advertising - it's social networking, so there should be some chat as well. RhodesTer has a good analogy that it's like a party, you can network but if you don't chat a bit people will find someone else to talk to. But there are also people who are searching the network to get as many followers as they can, then basically posting constant advertisements. There are even programmes that will find thousands of people for you to follow by some sort of keyword search, I assume in the hopes that some of them will be polite and follow you back so you can get paid when they click on your links. This is where it gets interesting.

Last night I wrote a blog on Family-ing called Money, Money, Money - Wealth and tweeted it. Today I've had all sorts of people suddenly start following me, many of them finance type people rather than Mums. Which is great, I've had a look at them and some I've chosen to follow, some I've left, a couple I've blocked. Why the different responses? Firstly, I know from stat-counter a bit about the people who are visiting my blogs, so I have at least some idea if these people have looked at it or if they've just seen the title. But what it really comes down to is their Twitter home page. Some of them are posting interesting links, tips and ideas, and I'm more than happy to have my brain nudged several times a day and hopefully give out a few nudges in return. Some of them don't seem to have much that I'm interested in, but they look like nice people so I'm happy for them to follow me. Some of them are just in a competition to get the most followers, with tweets like:

"Woohoo! 16,000 followers already. This program rocks!"

or

"I'm aiming to get 20,000 followers in 60 days, will you be one of
them?"

Let me think about that. No.

I actually find it quite insulting. Can you really be interested in what 16,000 people have to say? Can you even read that many tweets? (It's one every 5.4 seconds even if we all tweet just once a day.) Or do you just want to use me to make money? Oh, and the lady who joined Twitter 18 minutes before she started following me, her first tweet was thanking someone for helping her set it up (it's so difficult to choose a username and password) and has "Twitter expert" as part of her profile? What do you think? If she hasn't even bothered to read her own profile I don't think she'll read mine that carefully. (I'm guessing she actually has more than one account, which begs the question of what she does with the others.)

It's an interesting challenge for the network at large - at what point will we all drown in the guff? My hope is that if those of us who want to connect and talk to other people keep blocking them, they'll end up fenced off in their own little world. All tweeting to each other, and never realising it because they never read the rubbish coming in. Then the rest of us can ignore them and continue the party.

I have a little prediction to make, mentioned above. I'm going to tweet this post, with some label like "Twitter, followers and spam." So I predict I get a whole heap of new followers tomorrow, mostly of the "Twitter expert" variety. Some will have good links and tips, and I'll follow them because I'd like to learn how to get the most out of this new medium. Several will be blocked. I wonder how many will actually show up here and read this?

ETA - seem to have the first one already!

Newborn Outfit

2009-06-02T10:39:00.006+09:30

Finally got the little outfit done for one of my friend's new baby. She is actually about 9 weeks now! They grow so quickly! No photos on because she's going away, but she got a one-size side-snap minkee pocket in gorgeous Raspberry Slush Benartex Minkee, I think this one is my favourite colour.

Then I made a little minkee pinafore. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get newborn measurements? Most of what I could find was for knitting, or it gave a length and a weight. How is 9lb supposed to tell me how big to make the armholes???

Anyway, the dress is very simple, it snaps at one side and has a button on one shoulder so you can slide the baby in rather than trying to get it over their head. Then you tie the ribbons at the front or back, voila!

She's a lot bigger than the doll, but you get the idea.

I tried several different ways of finishing the minkee, which was very painful. If you've ever sewn a fabric with a pile you'll know, firstly it's very thick, but then it moves around. You aren't putting fabric to fabric, but the little hairs can bend and move, so it's very hard to line up and pin. I didn't bother with hemming - far too thick. I thought of facing but wanted something simple and given how long it had already taken me, quick! I really wanted some satin binding, but couldn't get any here - remember I'm in the middle of nowhere :) I then made a binding out of some lovely soft fabric I have here, but it was way too hard on all the tiny little curves. Satin stitching just didn't look good, it stretched the fabric (which would have been nice on the hem) and the pile showed through. I know there is a product you can get to stop that, but middle of nowhere again. In the end I did a line of decorative stitching a little back from the edges, minkee doesn't fray so it is just for looks. I'd still like to work out a better way, (maybe this is my excuse to buy a binding foot) but I think the gorgeous fabric speaks for itself.

I think I'm in love.

2009-05-26T22:45:00.005+09:30

Well, there was a radical change in direction, and I'm in love with the currently final side snap nappy pattern. It'll probably change a bit more with more testers, but this version fits both my 1 year old and 3 1/2 year old, and I happen to know a couple of newborn clothy bums who are getting presents. Hopefully they will be ready by Friday.

Front

1 year old

3 1/2 year old. I'm quite lucky because she toilet trained almost 2 years ago, but she thinks trying on nappies for me is a cool game :)

While going through I discovered another version that missed the photo call, so that's what, 15 distinctly different patterns I've trialled. There were three radical changes such as changing from front to back pocket opening, changing how the wings go, and the final version which is fully topstitched. Then all the other versions were fiddling with the wings, crotch and spacing of the snaps. Plus the decision that they'll all be mostly minkee to side step the wicking issue, plus I like minkee!

I have no idea how this compares with other people's design process. There are some who I think have possibly done a lot more versions, and some I'm pretty sure have done a lot less. It depends on what your design requirements are and how many times you change your mind!

Now I just need to practice practice practice sewing them, and get them tested by a wider audience.

Side Snap Odyssey 2

2009-05-23T23:19:00.005+09:30

Back to designing, which I left here. After using them a bit I realised the snaps needed more support, so this was my chance to do some topstitching, which is the look I prefer anyway. So:

7. With topstitching around wings.

8. Changing the back and wings, and using some minkee :)

9. More wing changes.

10. And more changes.

11. More minkee

12. This is pretty close to a working design.

13. So I did another one to the same pattern but only in minkee, and discovered the wings are extremely difficult to sew in a napped fabric rather than cotton.

It almost sounds like I'm there. Unfortunately the legs just aren't working. I never had this problem with Widget, but Midget keeps getting wet around the legs even with non-wicking fabrics. And if she does, other babies will as well. So while I really like the way I do the legs and think it makes a nice feature out of the inner, I'm going to have to change it. I'm currently sewing one which is topstitched all the way around to keep the inner in and the outer out, and will continue the saga when that's been tested a bit.

Side Snap Odyssey Part 1

2009-05-20T21:40:00.007+09:30

I thought this might be interesting for anyone who is thinking about designing something to sell. This won't necessarily translate into other areas, but it will give you an idea of the fiddling that is required. Or that is required if you are picky and change your mind a lot.

One of the things you have to identify is your point of difference - what is it that will make people want to buy your product? This doesn't have to be a feature of the design, it might be your availability, your price, your service, or something else. For me, I only got into nappy making in the quest to find something to suit my girls, so the design is paramount. We generally only wear nappies and a t-shirt, so I'm after a particular look that to me is cute.

To fit my girls' thighs it has to be side snap. I can't stand the idea of them growing out of a nappy rather than wearing it out so it has to be a one-size (OSFM, I hate the OSFA label with a passion). I like a nice little triangle bum shape, a trim fit and cute fabrics.

Bear in mind these are all 'working' nappies, they are a bit worn for nice pictures! Plus I trial sewing techniques as well as patterns, so some of them are funny shapes because I've tried out a different way of putting it together.

First attempt, too wide in the crotch, short in the rise, generally too small.

2. Pretty frill effect on the legs, trying out the fabric, didn't wear well at all.

3. Crotch much trimmer, still a bit short but very useable. Still trying to get the pocket opening easier to sew, I keep ending up with a raw edge.

4. Christmas nappy. Nice shape but a bit baggy, each wing is a different snap width to compare them. I quite often do that on experiments - make each side different so I can see which one works better. There was a fairly large break in here while I trialled them and decided whether to continue.

5. I love this fabric. Settling into a design I like, but I don't like the way the wings are pulling.

6. The front runner at the time. There was a lot of fiddling with the front wings to try to get one large enough, this is the first that comfortably fit my eldest, now 3 1/2.

At this point I didn't do any more sewing for about 3 weeks to give all of them a workout. There are many more to come!

Survey Part II

2009-05-13T20:54:00.004+09:30

Wow a long time between posts, but it will all be busy now. I've been distracted by a very ill family member so the business has been on the back burner.

A wrap up of some of the individual comments and suggestions from the survey.

There is a strong feeling that people buy two sorts of nappies - the plain, go with anything, go anywhere, serviceable nappies, then the splash out, wild, funky, embellished ones.

Labels are important. Not only for reliability, but there is a whole positive feedback cycle happening, where for resale only certain brands go well, so they get double the exposure, so they are more popular, so they get more word of mouth, and it goes on. I'm not going to get into why they got big in the first place, I assume they're good nappies and deserve it, I'm just saying my survey shows that feedback loop is very, very strong.

Some of the other suggestions - I'm definitely working on the store layout, this one was a bit rushed to get ready for the GDUNH, when I start selling side snaps it will definitely be a bit re-organised. I also have ideas for a boys section to match the girly things, unfortunately it has been put on hold while travelling and getting the new pattern up and running. Now testing takes a while, so while that is happening hopefully I will get some of the other ideas made.

There were some great suggestions, combined with people's preferences I'm going to start heading towards more fancy and embellished nappies. I've tried being middle of the road because that's the sort I like, but that seems to be the smallest market segment. There'll still be some there, but I have a huge minkee order coming from a co-op and it's a good excuse to do some of the embellishment that I enjoy.

An interesting idea was to do an AIO/2. I've thought about it with my snappi pattern, but it wouldn't work the way I want it to so I didn't go into it. But with the side snap pattern I think it would work, that might be somewhere to go in the future.

Survey part 1

2009-04-09T23:07:00.002+09:30

So some of the basic results from the survey:

Most respondents have all sorts of nappies, then pockets are the most popular.

Again most have all sorts of closure, then front snaps. I'm surprised that side snaps are least popular on their own, possibly people try the others before their baby's shape changes, or it may be that most of the workhorse brands (baby beehinds, bumGenius etc) are velcro or front snaps. Even terry flats are snappi-able, so people are obviously spending a lot of money with these sorts of nappies.

For outers, respondents preferred plain for their workhorse nappies, special fabrics for going out, and embellishment for parties, although some wanted invitations!

The things that influenced people when buying are:

Reliability,
price,
longevity,
cut,
fabric,
looks,
closure,
manufacture,
availability,
sizing and
resale.

Not surprisingly, minkee is the most popular outer (and my US co-op just got a great deal on it!), then velour, prints, and dying. The Aboriginal prints were interesting, you either love 'em or hate 'em. Although it could be more of a case of 'they're lovely but I can't imagine them on my baby's bum' as one person said.

There is absolutely definitely a side snap version coming! Although looking at the above results a front snap/velcro version would be more popular, but this is where the individuality comes in. I'm definitely not going to compete with Baby Beehinds or Itti Bitti, and as I said I think that's what's causing the results. And front snap won't fit my girls and velcro is just plain dangerous, so how could I design a nappy with no models?

I'll discuss some of the comments and do more analysis next time.

The fruits of creativity.

2009-03-29T15:21:00.003+09:30

I wrote an earlier post about the creative process, here's the doll I talked about for Widget. I was originally going to put a gathered bag underneath the skirt, but she decided she just wanted a doll.

The advantages of a big fabric stash, that's raspberry slush minkee at the front.

It has to have wings, and the hat is because handsewing hair is painful.
Getting a hug (and it can't be lost!).

Being used!

Very Clever

2009-03-19T22:42:00.004+09:30

This is such an astute use of SEO and the internet I've got to tell everyone about it! Huggalugs leg huggers are running a promotion where you get free leg warmers if you comment about them in a blog or forum. Now I only have a basic understanding of the net and marketing, but you've got several things happening here.

Firstly you have the direct impact of lots of Mums saying how wonderful these leg warmers are. Even if people know it is for a competition it has a psychological impact, plus if people think about it they know you wouldn't want something crap even if it was free (I hope!).

Secondly you have the word of mouth when they give the leg warmers out and people start wearing them, so they're seen by a wider community than just the web.

Third, you're going to swamp the search engines. While everyone is saying good things about huggalugs leg huggers in order to get them for free, every time someone googles "baby leg warmers" guess what is going to come up?

What a very clever marketing strategy. Now isn't it lucky that I really like Huggalugs leg huggers? I have several pairs that I use for my girls and they are brilliant. They are great to protect my crawler's knees, to throw in the change bag and they are soooo cute. And if you'd like to get some for free I'll let you know, unfortunately I need an email address. So PM Dash at either Nappycino or the ABA!

The Creative Process

2009-03-15T09:19:00.003+09:30

I've been thinking a lot about this lately, especially designing the new side snaps, but I thought I'd use a non-nappy example.

Step 1: The Problem
It has been driving us mad for months that Widget will come up to us and grab our shorts or shirt, standing right on top of us and pulling our clothes. Or she will do it when you're trying to walk. It doesn't sound like much, but try it for a bit!

Step 2: Define it a bit
I've been watching her, it's not just pulling on our clothes but rubbing the material between her fingers, she does it to her own clothes, dolls, the couch cover, anything around her. She will keep doing it to the point of not being able to carry things or hold my hand because both hands are occupied rolling the material back and forth.

Step 3: Basic solutions
Give her something to play with! But that won't work, she already has various bits of fabric, doll wraps etc, plus she'd lose them when we go out. Obviously clothes are convenient.

Step 4: Start brainstorming the little problems one by one.
Comparisons: have several different fabrics joined together.

Patchwork
Mola (sp?) - I don't think this would rub very well, and it would be too thick.
She loves the free-form embroidery writing.

Rubbing: need to have floating bits for her to rub

Taggies
Ribbons
Butterfly/Fairy wings
Skirts
Arms, legs, hair

Losing it: needs to attach to her somehow

She loves bags.
Around the neck
Clip or snap to clothes

Step 5: Start putting complex solutions together
OK, I think something around the neck is best, so arms of some sort. Hugging? ooh, that could be a fairy. And she could have a great skirt made of all the pieces!

Step 6: Practicalities
So what would the bottom look like?
Would it have legs?
What will I make it out of?
How will I make it?
The answer to most of these comes from experience - I've made dolls before, so how did I make them. What materials do I already have that I could make it out of.

Step 7: Making it sale-able
Most ideas stop at step 6 and move into production/testing. There are many things I make for my girls that I don't try to sell in my store! Generally things like clothes, hair accessories, toys. If I was going to take this one further I would have to look at extending it because it's very specific.
What is my age group/market?
How broad is the market?
How would I make something that would appeal to a boy?
Could it multi-task? I mean, how many parents would buy a really specific toy like that?
Are there any safety considerations?

Testing and Production
Or maybe that should be the other way around. I find the first time I make things there is a lot of fiddling, drawing, changing of ideas half way through, ...
That's a whole other story!

Frustrating

2009-03-12T11:51:00.003+09:30

Don't you hate it when you get all enthusiastic and ready to work and then can't? FIL is extremely ill and has been given weeks to live so we will be spending a lot of time visiting interstate. Don't get me wrong, he is a lovely person and I'm extremely upset, but that's exactly when I like to get into the sewing room and shut the door. It's wonderful to visit people in general (obviously not in these circumstances) and have the girls see all their relatives, but I hate not being in my own house.

I got one of the side snap versions done for Midget before we left so she is currently testing it. It's fitting well so far, plus it fits Widget who's three and a half. And a good friend is due any day now, I might have to borrow her little one ... I cut out another as well but didn't get a chance to sew, this one is top-stitched. I love top-stitching and want to get this one to work, but I have a terrible feeling it will wick. So we'll see next time I get to sew.

And I don't even have my normal list of ideas here to add to! So:

Cat silhouette on the purple minkee (girly)
Snow leopard with paw print.
Leopard face
Ribbon nappy
Spiral around shorts (boy)
Play capes for boys (and girls, but there's not much out there for boys!)
Kimono/Tie vest

Just because she's gorgeous!

2009-03-08T21:19:00.002+09:30

These are of my little girl in the reverse dyed set I made for her. The nappy has a heart tie-dye design, and the same fabric was used to reverse applique the shirt (it seemed appropriate).

Survey

2009-03-03T19:22:00.003+09:30

So now I have most of the re-organisation done and I have a survey up. It's interesting seeing people's responses so far, looks like the side snap design I gave up on the started again then put aside will be starting again.

It's amazing what you can find on the internet, this site allows you to set up a professionally formatted survey and does the analysis for you. All you have to do is not make mistakes with your questions (like I did, but it was easily fixed). It's good to know what people think, rather than guessing. In fact how else can you run a business?

Minkee!

2009-02-23T20:07:00.005+09:30

So I've done a lot of the rearranging and getting things up, I think there are still some descriptions to write and things like the maxi-wraps to put up. I have also got the minkee organised, as well as just straight minkee I have a

Raspberry Cream

Raspberry Slush on the body of the nappy with Cream minkee for the wings.

Grapes and Lavender

Grape variegated minkee on the top and wings with lavender knit fabric for the body.

Red and Apricot

Red minkee on the top and wings with apricot knit fabric for the body.

2nd Collection

2009-02-18T16:16:00.005+09:30

Australiana

There's a lovely fabric shop about 5 hours down the road that specialises in Aboriginal prints. They are all done by Aboriginal artists who have the choice of an up front payment or they can take royalties as well, then turned into fabric designs. These are just a few I got when I was there last time.

Step 1

2009-02-16T22:49:00.005+09:30

So what's the plan?

First, I'm not stressing about trying to guess what people will like and completing a lot of nappies. So I'm doing all the fiddly bits and getting them ready to put together, but won't actually put them together until later if that makes sense.

I'm doing several collections of outers, here are some from the first,

'Reverse Dying'

Irony

2009-02-14T17:03:00.002+09:30

Yes, it's been a long time.

I put a lot of effort into advertising the store last year, and with a(nother!) non-sleeping baby it was a hard grind. It didn't cause fights with my husband and he was completely supportive in giving me time, but it was obvious he wasn't happy and felt I was putting too much pressure on myself.

I had a great time over Christmas, I actually got some things sewn for myself and had a ball doing things like making hair clips and scrunchies for my girls. It was so relaxing and fun to sew different things for my family. So I announced that I was going to scale back - not shut everything down, but not push it either and just let it trickle off.

The next day I got an order through one of the things I pushed last year. Then another a few days later. Then someone else when we got back home. It's not a flood, but looking at that and the stats on my website I can see that things are starting to pay off.

The store is starting to look a bit bare so I was dithering about what to sew for it, and with the GDUNH coming up I'm wary of overloading myself again. So now I've been thinking again about where I go from here, and I've come up with a bit of a plan for now.

I suppose the moral of the story is it's a marathon not a sprint. So be patient and make sure you will be able to keep going.

WAHMtique is here!

2008-12-06T22:26:00.005+09:30

Well it took a bit longer due to an unexpected trip, but WAHMtique is here!

It is a boutique collaboration of store owners from WAHMania. We're working with different people to create sets, so there are a variety of things like toys with paintings or clothes with nappies. We have a different theme each month, and this month was Christmas.

There are still a couple of sets coming as well, Rudolph and some more clothes.

Aaargh, it's almost December!

2008-11-26T22:31:00.003+09:30

December 1st is when we are opening the collaborative store, so I need to get a move on!

These are the fairy wings and skirt to go with the painting, the wings are double sided and it's a frilly skirt with a drawstring. I need to get some modelled photos, but convincing Widget that it's not hers and she has her own fairy outfit is the fun bit!

OK, appliqueing the minkee nappy shouldn't take too long??!!

Real life store.

2008-11-23T22:46:00.003+09:30

Well it took a while, but out of the blue I got a message from the IRL store saying that they'd sold my nappies and did I want to send some more :) They requested more gender neutral ones, which I found a bit hard because that's what I thought I'd given them.

But I think part of it is having things suitable for little babies, because a lot of their customers are still pregnant so they want something sweet. So here are the two tone nappies, mostly neutral but with a bit of something different. I'm really happy with the way they turned out. I think the apricot ones in particular are a bit girly, the yellow ones would have been good but someone already bought them. So we'll see how these go.

What is success?

2008-11-09T19:59:00.003+09:30

I've been open a bit over a year now, and I've been reflecting on what my goals were and whether I've achieved them. Trying to decide what is success?

Financial - I haven't broken even, there were a lot more expenses than I thought, as things changed and I discovered how addictive fabric is. It hasn't been a complete disaster, although I have to admit I haven't finished the books so I'm not really sure. It keeps being put back behind other jobs such as sewing and being a Mother. I do know where everything is but I haven't finished entering it all. I didn't expect to make a profit, I know most small businesses take several years to consistently be in the black, but it's important to me that it not become a black hole. So this one is iffy. I actually thought I was a lot further down, but things have been going well since the GDUNH and some other marketing has been paying off.
Advocacy - Definitely achieved. I have been doing markets, so have talked to lots of people about MCN. Being a small town it's got back to me, so I know people have noticed or discussed them. Plus I have answered a heap of questions and discussions online, and did the RNW afternoon tea.
Sewing skills - Huge improvement. I'm doing some fun sewing, when I get time, and my knowledge and skills are much better. This is coming out in the side snap pattern I'm doing at the moment - it will be a much more technical pattern. With the snappi pattern the challenge was to do it in such a way that it wouldn't wick onto the tabs and decorative outer, with the new pattern I'm looking at fitting and what makes a garment work in much more depth.
Business skills - Hmmm, some yes, some no. As mentioned I have all the receipts, but my bookwork isn't up to scratch. I have learnt a huge amount about the internet - how it works, SEO, what's out there. I have learnt some marketing tricks and how to define and look for my market. I am still hopeless at organisation and time management.
Enjoyment - Again a yes and no. I'm enjoying sewing, although it is frustrating when I'd like to be making myself a skirt and have 6 nappies to finish. I'm enjoying getting nappies out there, especially if they're repeat customers. I'm enjoying experimenting and trying new designs. I'm a bit hard to please - if I have lots of orders, I get stressed. If I have no orders, I get stressed. If I have lots of nappies sewn, I get stressed because I haven't sold them. If I sell them, I get stressed because then I don't have much stock.

Sometimes I love it, sometimes I really regret it because life would be much easier if I didn't have any pressure on me, and I hate the thought of having spent all that money and not getting it back. On the other hand, if I didn't have it I would probably just read in my free time and get bored. And I wouldn't have thought of my future plans without this experience. To be honest most of what's keeping me going is bloody mindedness, then I get an order and I'm enjoying it again.

More sets!

2008-11-03T15:49:00.003+09:30

I love getting the chance to do sets and do something a bit different.

The tiger one has a fringe left along the sides to look like a fluffy tiger face. The Dad actually likes his T-shirt - all the other adult ones I've done have ended up as Mummy nighties.

This is definitely for the girls. At the top of the shirt is a woman and her coolamon, collecting the bush tucker. The nappy has something similar on the back, but a different plant. The shirt would look great with a nice brown belt.

Is it weird to want to co-ordinate with your baby's bum?

Collaboration - How Exciting!

2008-10-26T21:57:00.004+09:30

It's really exciting, I'm involved with a group of WAHMs who are starting a collaboration. And it's not just nappy WAHMs, we're mixing it up a bit to get new ideas.

The first one will be in December for Christmas. I'm making a minkee/bamboo velour fitted nappy to go with some clothes. I'm deciding which red minkee to use, the plain or the beautiful variegated one. It will depend which goes better with the clothes, but I'm also experimenting to see if I can applique on it, or possibly do something with other colours or fabrics.

And I'm possibly embellishing a shirt and/or bib to go with someone else's nappy, I can't wait to get photos of what they're doing so I can get creative on the shirt.

The one I'm working on now is to make a gift set for a little girl, with a fairy picture and I'm making fairy wings and a skirt. The wings will be like these, blue and purple, and the skirt will be blue with ribbons and embellishments in the purple. I've just found some cool instructions for making really nice flowers and suffolk puffs, it will be a really girly fantasy skirt.

Re-usable Nappy Week

2008-10-19T20:33:00.003+09:30

Along with my very supportive husband, I just ran an afternoon tea for Re-usable Nappy Week. I put up a couple of posters and DH told the pregnant women he works with, plus I put it out on a forum and playgroup and half a dozen women and one dutiful father-to-be turned up. That's pretty good for such a little town!

Widget ran around with another toddler and DH looked after them, and Midget was a great little model and let people practice putting snappis on her.

This is just about every nappy I own spread around on the floor, including the really sad one I made for the recycling challenge. That one had to go as it's the only AIO I have, plus I mentioned frugal nappying and making your own.

There were a couple of nappies I had just washed that morning, and of course the bamboo hadn't dried. But that's really just an opportunity to demonstrate how a stay-dry liner works, because it feels dry while the rest of the booster is damp.

They all had a good play with the different nappies, and I made up "Show Bags" as well. Lots of information, including web addresses, a pattern, the ANN brochure, a snappi and some cool magic cloths. So they can have a look at it at their leisure afterwards.

The minkee cover was a big hit, as was the pink chinese brocade and tiger.

I feel like I should run a little competition - how about some magic cloths for anyone who can identify the nappies in the photo :)

My time is worth more than bamboo (even velour)

2008-09-20T12:23:00.004+09:30

So the thing you have to understand is that I'm mean. Not nasty, and I contribute to various charities, but scrape the last smidgen out of the Homebrand margarine type of mean.

It's one reason I make OSFM nappies - I can't handle the thought of them growing out of them, and my poor little baby is in her sister's hand me downs. (Although the fact that they're going strong after 2 years is good.) She is getting some new ones now, and not only because she's a guinea pig for side snaps.

So making the most use of my fabric is important to me and I keep just about all the scraps, even the tiny ones. That's been good, because several times I've thought of something to use them for later. Unfortunately it can be a false economy too. When I make inserts I've been cutting them all to the same size and trying to overlock around them. It doesn't work, not only are there different thicknesses at different places, some of the fabrics are stretch and some are woven. I always end up with bits that overlapped wrong or bits that didn't get caught, then spend way too much time trying to fix them because I don't want to waste them. I know there is a simple solution, I just haven't brought myself to do it before.

So this time I cut the microfibre layer slightly smaller. Rather than trying to line everything up I just put that one in the middle so there was hemp and bamboo sticking out all around it. Then all I had to do was overlock around the microfibre and all the rest is trimmed. Voila! Everything is caught properly, no fiddly trying to line it all up, no having to redo bits, only one set of threads to weave back in.

Of course next time I'll cut the microfibre bigger (because it's cheaper :)) but this time it was already cut so I couldn't. But saving so much time and hassle was definitely worth a bit of double sided bamboo terry.

Oops

2008-09-10T20:33:00.004+09:30

I did an interesting training session today on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I'd heard about it a lot, but didn't realise how exactly search engines work. Afterwards I did a search for pocket nappy, because that's what I sell. Well 12 pages later and I still hadn't come up.

I've been checking, but for the wrong things. I've been looking for things like my brand and snappi, rather than the standard searches new customers who might be interested in my nappies but who didn't know me would use. While I have Pocket Nappies on my site, the button is an image, so not searched, and it's not used in my title descriptions. Ironically I've recently been making it worse, because I stopped doing detailed descriptions of each item. I thought that seeing there is a picture right there people didn't need me to tell them that it was green, or purple, or had flowers on it. And they don't. But Mr Google does.

Luckily the store manager has a quick way to change titles so all of my products have just been renamed to reflect what they are, not just the different fabric outers. It will be interesting to see how quickly, or if, it works.

WAHMs, professionals and dressmakers

2008-08-30T09:03:00.003+09:30

A bit of a philosophical ramble inspired by two things I read this week. I've been writing it for a few days, finally got to finish it!

The first was an article saying that women shouldn't call themselves WAHMs if they want to be taken seriously, unless it is an important part of what they do. To explain a bit better if you are a writer, or a computer tech, or a florist, who happens to work at home and have kids, then you shoud call yourself a writer, a computer tech or a florist. I agree completely.

I have still made the decision to label myself a WAHM because it is a selling point in what I do. Who wants to buy nappies designed by someone who isn't a mother? But normally from the customer's point of view there are some disadvantages:

Your order taking longer because someone got chicken pox.
Possible sticky fingers.
Being down the priority list.
Being lost because work is being done in 10 minutes here and there.

These are problems every WAHM has to decide on, and each one will put the balance between work and family where it suits them, which is not necessarily the place the customer wants it. Personally I try to avoid most of these problems by offering mostly in stock items, not customs. I've been burnt as a customer myself having to wait weeks for orders, so that one is important to me. I do have a sticky finger problem, because Widget adores anything to do with sewing or photography and will make off with anything not nailed down. So the occasional nappy which is accidentally left within reach has to be checked very carefully. And I do occasionally forget an email, but I have a system for them and hopefully I'm catching them.

The second comment was said by a customer to a dressmaker. After ordering a custom fitted and designed dress for her daughter she complained about the price, saying "You're not a professional, you're just a dressmaker."

As someone who would one day love to own ANYTHING custom made I was shocked. How can something that is unique, something that fits perfectly and was designed to enhance one person's features possibly be not as good as something mass produced?

Obviously quality comes into it. This is the bit I worry about myself, because I'm NOT a sewer from way back. When I'm sewing 4 layers of knit fabrics together the hemp terry has a tendency to stretch, and I just can't convince myself that the snappi tab being uneven at the end is that important. I'd like it to be straight, and I have recently thought of a possible solution to that particular problem, but it's not going to stop me selling the nappy. If others disagree that could be a problem for me.

So what makes a professional? I've been musing on it, this list isn't exhaustive but applies more to me.

Time. There are two aspects to this

- Time to do a job uninterrupted, whether that be sewing or answering emails or uploading new stock. Because interruptions DO affect quality.

- Time to do enough that you are a serious seller. There is nothing more annoying than a shop with only 2 products and a heap of sold out signs (actually there are lots of things more annoying, but you get the idea). They may be beautiful, but it's a hobby rather than a business.

Quality.

For me nappies are a practical item. They have a job to do, so they have to be of a quality to stand up to it. So seams that are dodgy, fabrics that wear quickly, or snaps that won't do up properly are out. It may sound obvious, but surprisingly I have bought a few of these and it's not the sort of thing you can tell until you use them. I really should let the seller know, I'd like to know if there is that sort of problem, but somehow I've never got to it.

The next step up is having all the snaps lined up and tabs exactly even. Something I definitely aim for but worry I don't get, but it wouldn't put me personally off a nappy if it still works. It also depends on the nappy and my "problem." If I just need a fitted nappy and it doesn't have to be pretty or have a particular closure then I'll be picky. If I need something unique I'll be more forgiving. I'm also forgiving of things I have difficulty with.

Then there are other things that I think are more likes and dislikes rather than quality and have to be looked at with an open mind. For example I really like topstitching, I think it finishes the nappy beautifully. However it's not possible with my design or it would put holes in the pocket! Same with overlocked nappies - some people love the frilly look, to me it just looks unfinished.

Service.

This one is linked to time, because it's the time to answer emails and queries, have products ready, pack them nicely, answer queries, and do follow-up.

So am I professional?

My answer would have to be no. I aspire to it and I would like to be, but there are lots of things going against me. To get more time I would have to put my kids in care, and that's not going to happen. To get better quality I would need more time and practice. And I would have to expand the business so it's worth it to put in that time, effort and resources. And to expand I would have to look at advertising, working with other people and getting that side-snap design up and running!

On the other hand, I've always been realistic that I won't be doing this long term. It's something I enjoy and am passionate about while my kids are young, but it's also a place to learn and make my mistakes and plans before I move into the business I really want to be in.

You are not your market

2008-08-19T21:59:00.002+09:30

That's what I was told at an e-marketing seminar, and it's so true.

I'm coming to the conclusion that my children and my taste are both radically different to the rest of Australia!

So, some changes - most of the markets I do are mainly kids and people wandering around on a weekend, they don't carry a lot of cash. So I'm making up little things to add to the stall that cost less than $5, selling a few of those will probably be easier than nappies and also quicker to make!

The real life shop is a different market again. Some of the feedback from them was that people wanted more neutral nappies, which confused me because I'd given them mostly gender neutral prints. But after thinking about it I realised a lot of their customers aren't parents, they're pregnant. My nappies are one-size, so I tend to look at outers that suit older babies or toddlers, because they will only be little babies for a few months. But the people shopping there are preparing for their tiny little newborn, so they want sweet prints. I think I've got a solution, I have some solid knits in mint, mauve, apricot and lemon, the traditional 'we don't know what we're having' colours, and I'm going to make the bulk of the nappy from those but with the top and cover flap in a co-ordinating print. That should make them more appealing to parents-to-be, but still work once the babies grow out of the teddybear and rattle stage. I was planning on doing some nappies with the different fabrics anyway, it's just been moved up the priority list.

I was working on a cover next, seeing as I've introduced the fitteds and am using them myself. Much easier for people to have everything in one place and know that they will work together. However I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and admit that snappi nappies are just not popular and dust off the side snap design I was working on ages ago. Obviously other people don't have the same fitting issues we have, or have different things they look for in a nappy. I'm getting a bit sick of the "snappis are too complicated" idea. Personally I can do up a snappi in about 2 seconds flat on a wriggly bub, but getting velcro on properly or finding all the snaps takes me ages. But I don't say they're too complicated, I just accept that I'm not used to them and it will take longer. But, to quote the title, I am not my market and the customer is always right. My private opinion can remain unchanged, but as a business I'm going to have to listen, not tell people they're wrong.

To-do list

2008-08-11T11:07:00.002+09:30

I can't believe it has taken me this long to get one of these going! So simple, but so powerful.
I started one a few days ago and have got so much done. Rather than thinking I don't have time to do anything or aimlessly surfing while feeding I have managed to get lots of the little ten minute jobs done. It's in the book with my sewing/marketing ideas and whenever I think of another thing I just add it on the end. Being able to tick things off feels really good, it makes me realise I am doing things even if I can't see them. And writing things down as I think of them means they actually get remembered and done.

I'd love to have a timetable and dedicated business time, but I can't see that happening soon, everyone else in my life is too unpredictable. So instead I'm keeping track of when I do things, even if it's 10 minutes to answer an email, and recording it. Just another way I can see that I am getting time, rather than resenting that "I never have time for my things!"

Being self-employed is backwards.

2008-08-01T13:06:00.002+09:30

Bear with me while I try to explain what I mean. When I had a job there were deadlines and schedules, things were done as a result of something else. So for example I had a deadline to write reports, they were the result of the work done during the term. Or I'd have a deadline to get a unit finished, or if I was going for a job there would be a deadline on the application. And once the deadline had gone and the work was done it was over, sit back and relax.

WAHMing means I set my own deadline and put my own pressure, then sit back and hope. I've just spent a really intense week because I wanted to get my new fitted nappies up in my store, plus I wanted to re-open on WAHMania. So I've been working past midnight and I'm exhausted. But I don't have anything to show for it, and it isn't the end, it's the beginning. Now I have to see if any orders come out of it. Plus I can't sit back, I have to get on the advertising roundabout and tell everyone they're there. So blogging, forums, newsletters and I want to start writing articles as well.

So here's today's bit of advertising :)

The back of a painted bamboo velour fitted.

The front of one with a quilting cotton outer, showing the bamboo velour in the wet zone.

The fit of a natural velour on my toddler. She's having a ball being a model for me!

Another painted one just 'cos I like it.

How cute is this.

2008-07-27T23:43:00.004+09:30

Some of our friends are having their first baby. They are the sort who restore their own cars, build hot rods and Granddad is a mechanic, so we made them a family set as a present. They're originally DH's friends and the ideas are mostly his, the execution mine (although he wouldn't buy me an embroidery machine so we got that done).

Did I mention they're having a girl?

Size 00 mechanic's overalls

DH is a bit sick - yes, that is an Amorall badge on the bum.

The whole set. The front of the adult shirts say Mum and Dad, the backs have the 2 appliqued hotrods. I can just see Dad in a pink shirt!

My babies have gone ...

2008-07-18T22:28:00.003+09:30

Well, they're gone. This is the first time my nappies have been out there for people to see without me there to explain or answer questions. I am relying on people working in a shop who have no idea about MCN to explain and sell them to future parents who also have no idea about MCN. After we left them there I was so nervous I was actually shaking. In line with my new positive spin I keep reassuring myself that they are running a business and they wouldn't have taken them if they didn't think they would sell. It definitely makes me feel like an amateur!

I spent the weekend creating packaging and I'm pretty impressed with how it worked. I didn't want to put them in plastic, that sort of defeats the purpose. This way they have all the information they need like care and materials, plus they have a little blurb like "real" (mass produced?) products, but people can still have a good look and play with them.

Front and back of the packaging.

The band is slotted to fit around the nappy.

I tried to give them a selection of different prints, mostly unisex. And hopefully the name is distinctive enough that people will look it up if they want something different.

My husband went back later (to pick up the plastic tub we forgot after browsing in the store) and they already had them up, so he got a photo of them on display for me. Now it's just time to hope ...

So much happening

2008-07-13T12:03:00.005+09:30

I just re-read some of these and I really am out of date, so I'm making a resolution to try to blog more often again. This is thanks to my wonderful, incredibly supportive husband. I was getting very negative because I'm basically having to start all over again after pulling back when I was pregnant. He pulled me up and has been taking the girls while I sew or do markets and has been giving me ideas. He keeps telling me to use some of the hypbirthing things I did when I was pregnant, that was all about being positive. At first I didn't want to because it's actually hard work to turn around and find positives, it's much easier to just sink down. But in the end it's exhausting to be depressed, so here are the positives happening at the moment.

There's great feedback from my testers on the fitted nappies, they are ready to go and now I just have to sew some :)

I finally found a use for this bamboo! The widget "helped" me paint it ages ago but it wasn't right for what I wanted, now it works really well as the outer of some of the fitted nappies. This isn't actually one of the new fitteds, this is a special large one I made.

That reminds me, I've had some custom work designing a nappy for an adult, it was actually a lot of fun.

I've been doing markets while we are in the city, I've only sold enough to cover costs but have given out a heap of cards and done lots of advocacy. It's funny that the people who are most impressed are the Grandmothers - obviously all those years of using old-style nappies they can see the advantages! DH insisted I use one of these photos, even though I hate photos of myself.

I've got onto WAHMania about re-opening my store on there, I really need the exposure of being on a mall.

And possibly the biggest and most exciting news - I have a real life store that's taking my pockets on consignment! The manager was very enthusiastic and they are going to take some and see how they go, if they go well the store will start to order them from me. It will pay a lot less than selling them myself, but having large orders is way better than one or two at a time. And not having to do the actual selling makes it easier as well.

Hopefully I'll be writing again soon.

Very slack

2008-05-27T17:13:00.002+09:30

OK I've been very slack, but I think I have a pretty good excuse. Our new little princess has arrived and I have been learning how to be a mum of two, one of whom doesn't nap. DD adores her new sister but is your typical enthusiastic toddler, if DD2 makes it to one she will be a tough little cookie.

It has given me a chance to try out the fitted nappies I have been playing around with and I've got them to tester stage, when they've been sent off I'm going to fiddle with covers. I made some beautiful covers for DD2 which are already too small! My gorgeous blue and green minkee! And I even made the small size rather than newborn, she's grown way too fast. I'm really enjoying the challenge of sewing different things again, it's just trying to find time to actually sew. I don't know how other people manage to keep established businesses going through these times, I'm lucky I only have one or two orders to deal with at a time.

I'm also playing around with the shop design. When I originally put it together I went "cute" because it was for babies, but there aren't many of them shopping. I'm putting together a more professional looking format, mainly the buttons and text because I don't have the skill to do much with the code.

Must go, my mistress is calling.

Pottering Along

2008-02-24T20:06:00.004+09:30

I've had fun re-doing bits of the site, I went to a fantastic FREE workshop by the Business Enterprise Centre on e-marketing and got re-inspired to fix things up a bit. I think it's going to be a permanent work in progress, as I get an idea or some new photos to put on.

I had some annoying feedback on a forum that upset me a bit, mainly because I had no right of reply. It must be working with teenagers - I still want things to be fair! There was absolutely nothing nasty or malicious, just uninformed from my point of view, and I couldn't get on and inform them because it wouldn't let me join :) There was definitely some good from it, one of the comments made me realise that I had said something but not demonstrated it, so I went through all my photos and have put some on the site to show it better. The other comment that upset me was just plain silly, so I won't hold something said in idle conversation against someone.

I've never thought my nappies would suit everyone and haven't marketed them that way, it's just annoying if people dismiss them altogether - surely I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of creating something unique if what was already out there was working for me! Believe me it would be much easier to just go and buy some of the popular brands, or use some of the patterns already out there.

But while that and the lack of sales had me a bit flat, I'm back to having fun. I know that no-one is buying at the moment because we're all saving for the GDUNH, and I've been having fun making special nappies and singlets. I've just appliqued the cutest little dalmation, photo added when the computer stops playing up, as well as Tiger Eyes and some little singlets.

I'm getting excited about bub as well, not long to go and I've started my hypbirthing programme. I've sewn a couple of covers but I can't bear to use up any more nice fabric until bub is here and I can see what fits! I'm also making myself liners and recycled pads for PP bleeding, but I really do need to get organised and find everything for bub. I can see this will be another time when I will go away and DH will get everything ready for me while he's here on his own.

Playing with Fitteds

2008-02-03T22:02:00.001+09:30

Well I've got a lot achieved this week, getting a heap of nappies cut and some sewn, plus working on the website. It's been fun using some of the new fabrics and re-organising things a bit.

I've also been playing around with fitted nappies. I thought that seeing I have a new bub on the way it would be a good opportunity to work them out and make some small ones as well. It's been a bit mixed. DH just laughs when I show them to him, they're so tiny. He keeps insisting that they must be for the doll, not even a newborn could be that small. I have to admit they are smaller than I wanted, but just to prove that they are still too big for the doll:

Part of the problem is that I was trying a different way of doing the leg elastic, but I think I'll go back to my normal way. And for some reason when I put the elastic in it makes the inner soaker bunch up in a way that must be really uncomfortable, which may be because I didn't allow enough at the sides. So the doll may have some more lovely soft bamboo velour nappies before I get any to use with bub! Either that or I stick with my gorgeous bamboo terry flats, although then I'll need some good covers ...

I'm Baaaack

2008-01-25T14:38:00.000+09:30

Finally back at home, at least the one with all the store stuff. It's very exciting because the GDUNH is coming up again, so I am trying to get ready for that, plus my stock has been pretty much wiped out. I've been to the fabric shops while I was away (so much for breaking even!) and got lots of new ideas.

I've just done a marathon painting session that DH and DD helped with. At least DH supervised DD while she was painting, which can get a bit frustrating at times. It's rather hard to explain to a 2 year old which tabs should be which colours!

I've done a few T-shirts, I'm going to use one of them as my GDUNH prize and just have to decide which one.

Gumleaves is painted with negative images of real leaves. It's very subtle, but I love the way the colours came out.

Spirals is a small size and hopefully unisex - I'd put a little boy in purple! it's been picked out with gold thread too.

I think this is DH's favourite.

This is my favourite, the colours came out much brighter than I was expecting and the salt effects worked really well.

I painted some fabric for outers as well, so I have planned a huge number of nappies and started cutting out. I'll have to get a few sewn before re-opening, but I'm getting really excited.

Taking a break

2007-12-15T15:13:00.000+09:30

Just for Christmas lol!

It seems like a good time to reflect now I've been open four and a half months.

To answer my original question, I think I should have remained a SAHM with a hobby. Not that I intend to shut down or anything, just there are things I miss and a lot of pressure I don't necessarily need.

I've just sewn a little sleep doll and discovery bag for my nephew (hmm, hope my sister doesn't read this until after Christmas) and am working on a really nice top for myself and it made me realise I haven't sewn anything for myself or DD since I opened. I've had a wonderful time with the top especially because I know exactly what I want and I've made it up from a completely different pattern, making a toile and fiddling around with that to modify it. It's that sort of creative design that I really enjoy, not just following a routine.

It would be nice to have the time to be sewing DD little dresses and making doll's clothes, she's just getting to the age where she doesn't grow out of things every 5 minutes and is starting to be able to dress and undress dolls. I've also had a ball making up a newborn nappy for someone else, that was the sort of problem that got me interested in designing my own nappies in the first place.

On the business side I think I've actually done pretty well. Thanks to a couple of large orders I'm way ahead of where I expected to be, I'm almost halfway to my break even point a lot quicker than I expected. Of course I keep spending more money too! I've got some decisions to make over the Christmas break about which bits to continue and whether to expand some areas. It's nice to have had enough turnover to start filling in some of the gaps in my business plans.

One of the things I need to do is look at how I'm going to get some more of the creativity I enjoy into it.

I've been really enjoying appliqueing and doing extra bits on some of the nappies, and they are pretty much a boutique product anyway, so I'll be doing more of that with little frills and furbelows.
I like doing the T-shirts as well, so I think I'll be pushing those.
I've been asked about fitted nappies, and given that I'm pregnant and now live somewhere they will actually dry I want to experiment with those and with small/newborn nappies.
I still have a half made sundress sitting on my sewing desk, because DD completely refused to try it on. I'll have to finish that and see if they are viable, as well as the two half made sunhats.

Looking at the list, part of the trick is going to be getting far enough ahead on the basic nappies that I can do some of the fun stuff as well.

Customs vs In Stocks

2007-11-28T21:50:00.000+09:30

From a producer's point of view, definitely in stocks.

I used to prefer them as a customer as well, the only two times I ordered a custom it took a ridiculously long time to arrive. One there were various reasons and some communication, the other just didn't turn up for over a month, and as it was my first MCN I didn't know that wasn't normal.

Having said that, there is something special about choosing everything exactly the way you want it, and since I've been open I've been asked for customs a surprising number of times. It's not that people want different fabrics, they want a slightly different product. Which is fine, as a new store I want to know what people are after, rather than telling them what they should be interested in!

But in stocks are definitely so much less pressure. If I don't get the current ones done as quickly as I want, I'm the only one affected. If DH has a super busy time at work so I miss out on some of my sewing time, it doesn't hold anyone else up. I've just experienced this with a custom order, firstly I'd never done anything that big before and completely underestimated how long it was going to take. Then on top of that it coincided with DH having to result Year 11 and 12s, do reports, presentation night, school formal, and a trip to town for our ultrasound (Yay!). But it's finally done and sent off, so that's a relief.

In stocks are also more fun for the same reason customs are more fun for customers - I get to choose them all! It's quite a shock having someone else telling me what to sew! Although this time was good, she just chose the outers and I got to do everything else, so here we have 23 nappies that are all different combinations. That's quite an impressive stash.

(BTW, this is just like being at Uni still. I always got the most nervous after submitting an assignment, sending off orders is definitely the most nerve wracking time. I know they've been tested, I know the nappies work, but there's always this niggling doubt that something went wrong this time.)

Snap sockets, 6 x 2cm start from back

2007-11-18T14:52:00.000+09:30

You know when there is something you consider really minor, how it always seems to end up being huge?

The title is the line in my nappy sewing instructions for putting the snaps on the outer. I use sockets there so they are flatter, there are two lines of 6 snaps 2cm apart on either side of the front tab, and it is important to start measuring from the back of the tab. This is in there because I have done it from the front occasionally, if you've been reading this blog for a while you may remember the tester disaster when I did them all wrong. Actually the pattern has changed since then and it is not as important, but I still make sure I check.

Anyway, to me this is a fairly minor part of making the nappy, in my head it doesn't rank up there with sewing the leg elastic in, for example. But I've just spent several hours snapping away. I have to stand, because of the bench height, and it is really rough on your hands. And it's really, really boring, although my daughter did watch a DVD while I was doing it this morning, and I have sort of learnt to read while doing it.

No other point to this post, I just need a break and there are no emails to read!

Some Practicalities of WAHMing

2007-11-07T14:49:00.001+09:30

Ok, I thought it was time for some more cute photos, and they don't come much cuter than my little girl.

So, the practicalities of WAHMing. Basically you have 4 options.

Daycare or baby sitting, which pretty much defeats the purpose, although some people find a day a week is good. It would also make a difference if you have grandparents around who would love to have them.

Somehow have an incredibly independent child who lets you work ALL ON YOUR OWN. Personally I'm still waiting to have a shower or go to the toilet on my own. I must say DD is getting a lot more independent and will wander off to play by herself, but I don't get much done in 10 minutes here and there. There is also the option that some kids can do their own thing down one end of the table while you work at the other, but whatever I'm doing is usually much more interesting.

Work only when they are asleep or your partner is there to look after them. I do have the most fantastic husband, he loves taking DD in the morning and letting me sleep in, and he puts her to bed at night so I get to start some work at a decent hour. Her naps are also settling down, I can usually count on almost an hour's work, although whether I feel like it at that time of day is more problematical. Hmmm, maybe half an hour. Actually, after I check emails and the forums more like, oh, it's not worth it for that time, I'll just keep looking at this.

Find some way to include them. Getting DD to hold things down while I am cutting is starting to work, although every now and then she feels the need to yank them instead. Painting is much more successful.

Here she is painting the terry tabs that go on my nappies for the snappis to attach to. It is so gorgeous, she carefully straightens them and helps lay them out, then hands me the pins. She tries to pin too, but the little fingers aren't strong enough. Then here I've set her up with all the ones that need to be blue. I chose to go with a paint rather than dye because it is non-toxic and washable, and you can thin it with straight water.

In the background are all the other colours I set up and painted very quickly! And no need to clean up afterwards, I just put the paints away then kept giving her More! More! water and she basically cleaned the containers and brushes. Of course then it dripped all over her and she was Cold! Cold!

Then after we dried and washed them she pegged them all up on her own little clothesline. I should have got a photo of that too, she loves having her own line and always helps hang out the washing. The problem is convincing her to let it dry before bringing it in.

Oh, why is she naked? She's a toddler and it's paint! Why do you think she's naked? (It is high 30s here.)

What a difference a day or two makes.

2007-10-29T19:50:00.000+09:30

I was going to post a couple of days ago, and while it wouldn't have been negative it would have been a bit blah. While I'm officially over the gastro I'm feeling a bit off, and first trimester exhaustion is still a big factor (Yay! I'm pregnant! and I've remembered to tell all my family so I can post it here now!). I've had to accept that I won't just get over it with time, at some stage I'm actually going to have to sleep :) Then DH took DD over the weekend so I could catch up, which was wonderful, but I wanted to go swimming with them :( To be honest, I just kept thinking of all the things I could be doing if I didn't have to run a business (sleep).

But then it started getting better. I went swimming on Sunday, so we got some family time when we were all upright and no-one was spewing. Then I got an enquiry about an order. Then I got a really nice email from a customer. Then they ordered an entire stash!!!!!!! (I definitely need some smilies here) Then there were some more compliments on another forum.

So is this the fifth or sixth time I've talked about the emotional ups and downs of WAHMing? Sorry to be a bit repetitive, I think you get the message.

Excuse me, I'm off to check the fabric stash to see if I have enough to fill this order. And DH is already saying "See? I told you you should cut out lots at once."

On a happier note ...

2007-10-10T23:06:00.001+09:30

Everything seems to be settling down and working itself out nicely, although I've been so busy I haven't been on there much to find out.

The visit to the city was fun, I picked up some Christmas fabrics as well as my new sewing machine. I had one the store lent me while it was off being fixed, and it is great. Whatever the adjustment seems to have fixed all the annoying bits as well and it is now fun to sew again rather than frustrating.

I've got some Christmas prints but I also bought some plain colours to do appliques. These are a custom order that isn't finished yet, but I was really pleased with how they've turned out. The sewing machine even coped with the metallic thread for the tinsel on the tree, which it wasn't doing before. There are matching T-shirts to go with this order too and it's going to be gorgeous, now I just have to stop mucking around and sew it!

Just had to edit to add the completed sets.

Well, that was nasty.

2007-09-28T14:53:00.000+09:30

Been a long time since I've posted, mainly because nothing much was going on. I was just pottering along trying different things. Then I went to check online before going to bed and discovered all sorts of things were happening. I'm not going to say what it was, some people will know or be able to work it out but while it was very over the top I don't think it was anything that hasn't happened before in other industries so you don't really need to know details. I'm only writing about it because this blog is supposed to help people see what it is like being a WAHM.

I suppose I've been a bit naive. It's funny, I've been involved in discussions about stealing designs and copying, but I suppose I had this image that this is a nice little cottage industry where we are all trying to help each other stay home with our children and push our favourite products at the same time. If someone asked I would have said that it is a good thing that there are so many WAHMs out there doing nappies, because all babies are different and the huge range means you are sure to find something that suits your baby. Unfortunately some other WAHMs and even customers don't seem to agree with me and there is a lot of competition that seems to get nasty. And then of course it all becomes tit for tat and gets out of control.

Maybe my perspective is shaped because I have a husband who is able to support me and my business. I am trying to treat this as a genuine business, not a hobby, but to be perfectly honest anything beyond breaking even is a bonus. I've been very careful to set up fallback positions and alternatives so we don't lose too much money, even if I had to pack it in tomorrow. Maybe for other people it is more important to make a profit or they have more invested. I definitely have as much emotionally invested, it hurts when a week goes by with no orders, or when I have lots of people visiting the site but not buying. You definitely start to wonder what you're doing wrong and why no-one likes you. And it's wonderful when I find a link that a customer has put up recommending my products, it pretty much makes up for the bad times. (So I just need a few more of these, hint, hint.)

Anyway, what happened had nothing to do with me directly, but it could impact on me. To me it was unethical, and I was very tempted to react. I definitely don't blame the others who did, a huge part of me agrees with them. However I decided not to, and I just wanted to share some of my reasoning.

As both an educator and as a parent I have to believe that mistakes are to be learnt from, and I have to believe in second chances. I have done stupid things in my time, and other people have given me the chance to redeem myself and rebuild those relationships. So tempted as I am, I have to extend that chance to the people in the wrong here. I definitely don't believe in forgive and forget, I'm far too vindictive and nasty for that :), but I believe in letting people earn back trust. And if they don't, I'll be able to say that at least I tried.

Because ultimately, the only person who's behaviour matters to me is me. I can be angry at other people, but I don't have to look in their mirror or live with their conscience. All I can do is behave in a way that I can look back and say, "Yes, I like that person and I am proud of them."

Re-stocking

2007-09-04T22:40:00.000+09:30

Well that took a lot longer than I thought. Just lots of things happening, so it took me a lot longer to get them sewn than it has. A few silly mistakes as well which slowed things down.

DH has come up with a good suggestion. He has made us a timetable for our work times, family times, times with DD etc. This tells me how long I have every week to spend on the store. I then work out how long it takes to make an individual nappy. This is a bit tricky because I make them in batches, but I can make a batch of 7 or so easily in a week (or at least I can normally). So my target is to make 5 every week, no matter what I sell. This gives me a bit of time left over to do other things like admin, and hopefully if I stick to something like this I won't get caught again. Of course, it would be nice to be selling more than this :) but I don't really want that pressure at the moment. Maybe later!

My other big news is that I have a store on WAHMania. I am doing the admin stuff at the moment, hopefully it will be ready to be activated on Friday. At the moment it will just have stock from the store, but I also have some nice fabrics I am playing with and would like to get at least one special nappy done for the opening.

All's right with the world

2007-08-23T20:35:00.000+09:30

Well, DH came and got us so we are all together again :). It makes such a difference.

And everything is starting to come together, I think I have sorted out the non-payer (the old exploding computer trick (now I come to think of it, half of you will be too young to remember Get Smart)). I got a big order which has just about cleaned me out, she ordered a nappy before and I was about to email and ask how it was going when another order came through, so I guess it must be working! So I am back to sewing nappies, which is nice. I wasn't sure how long it would take before I needed to re-stock.

You know the feeling - should I be saying "I've been open a couple of weeks and I've sold this many! Yay!" or "I've been open a couple of weeks and I've only sold this many :(." After the big order, I'll go with the Yay!

Getting the hooded towels sorted as well, so I will be able to add them to the site and get another newsletter out to my subscribers, then I have to decide what to work on next - is it getting too late for the sleepsacks, with the time needed for testing, should I get the sunhats and clothes going instead? Oh, and then there's the accounts I couldn't do while we were away, I have a huge pile of receipts to sort through. Sewing nappies is much more fun.

Drilling out snaps on soft stretchy fabric ...

2007-08-15T23:57:00.000+09:30

is NOT my idea of a good time. I managed to get the entire thing wrapped around the drill twice, even with someone else holding it for me, and eventually ripped the snap off grrrr. DHs response was that you just need strong fingers to hold it. I replied, you mean we need a clamp of some sort. "No, you just need strong fingers." Darling, you may have strong fingers but WE need a clamp. (Alternatively I could just put the snaps in the right way round the first time.)

So that sleepsack is in a bag until DH arrives to drill out the snaps for me, and I am making one for my nephew's birthday. I wanted to send one off to be tested so I could start selling them, but it will have to be next week.

Bit depressing, the orders have dried up and I have had my first non-paying customer. It was very lucky I didn't send the order off because it was all packed, but my Mum and DH told me off and it was a good thing I waited. I have sent a couple of emails and not got any reply, there is this package sitting there looking at me. I just don't get it - surely if you change your mind it is not too hard to contact someone and let them know? Especially when there is a custom bit to the order. My hope is that they have forgotten to go back to do the direct debit and don't check their emails. So if you are starting to get worried that your parcel from me hasn't arrived yet, contact me! The really annoying bit is that I have been contacted about that nappy, I don't know whether to hold out a bit longer or let the other person know it is available.

I knew that the hunters would dwindle, now I'm having to think of other advertising strategies and have been looking at all the parenting websites. Unfortunately some of them do it in alphabetical order and W is rather far down. Might have to revamp the budget a bit. (Budget? Hah! you need money to budget!) Of course I'm hoping that the people who have bought things like them and start to tell other people about them. The trick is to get enough out there to get word of mouth going!

I do wonder how other people manage that sort of thing. Is it because they have such a fantastic product that people want to tell everyone about it? Do they choose the chatterbox testers who they know will rave about it? Are they a social butterfly and have lots of friends who want to help them out? Well the last one is definitely not me, unfortunately, so I will have to rely on 1 and 2. And now, of course, I will get all insecure and worry that the reason no-one is talking about them is that they don't like them and are just too polite to tell me ;) And the people who are telling me they are great in private emails are just saying that. I do have one lovely public affirmation from a hunter, I will have to console myself with that for a while.

Take care and keep hunting everyone, they really are great prizes and you won't have any competition from me!

Reflections on being open

2007-08-06T20:46:00.000+09:30

Well it's been an interesting week. I am now addicted to the email and am elated when there is something business related but (more often) depressed when there isn't. I know that I am very new at this and my product is very different to most people's so I can understand customers holding off until they see others using it. It is also very much for a niche market, a lot of people don't want to use snappis.

It's interesting having a look at other businesses through the GDUNH. I notice that a lot of the other new places don't have anywhere near the stock that I do. This is probably a good thing, there is less risk for them. The only reason I have so much is because of the way I bought the materials, it had to be in bulk. And with a lot of people going through the store I wanted to have a good range to appeal to different people.

I've been a bit surprised looking at other people's designs and prices. Considering the materials and the fact that it's a very complicated design, mine are underpriced. But see above about new product and niche market, I don't think I can realistically charge any more until I am better known. And I was happy with the price when I set it, so the fact that other people are charging more, good on them if they can get it.

I am all prepared to go and very calmly talk to (read argue with) the manager of a shop tomorrow. I got a lovely new sewing machine, unfortunately it doesn't stop sewing when you take your foot off, which is a bit of a hassle when you are sewing patches, or stretching elastic, or trying to carefully line up decorative stitching. It's record so far is 8 stitches, and it has a few problems winding bobbins and other things too. So I took it back on Saturday and after talking to the manager a staff member said it was a warranty issue and they would have to send it away to be fixed. I was sure that wasn't right, so I rang the ACCC this morning, and I was right. If you are sold a faulty product the seller has to offer you a "suitable remedy" such as repair, replace or refund and YOU get to decide what is suitable. I don't want to be without a machine while it is repaired, so I can insist they replace it. The really silly thing is that it doesn't affect the store at all - it is the manufacturer's problem, they can just send it back as faulty and have it replaced. So the only effect on them is if they upset me as a customer and I then complain to everyone about them. I honestly believe small business would be falling all over themselves to fix the problem, but a big one ??? Wish me luck.

I'm Open!!!

2007-07-31T22:09:00.000+09:30

Well I got the store open and I even have an order! I am having an opening sale and everything is 5% off this week, plus the specials for subscribers.

I have done all my clues for the GDUNH and my husband has just looked for it to check it works, I think he needs to learn more nursery rhymes. Either it will be very easy and I will have to change it, or it will be very hard and lots of people will be frustrated. I think it is very logical, but I know the answers lol.

Well that was surreal

2007-07-29T01:20:00.000+09:30

I just had the weirdest experience.

There is a section on the forum I advertise on where people can share and discuss new stores or products they have found. And I made it on! That was very exciting, but it was so strange to read about myself as "she." A bit like overhearing people discussing you. Luckily they were saying nice things LOL.

Been working frantically and am just about set to go. All the little details like wrapping and postage have had to be dealt with, as well as trying to keep sewing.

I was tossing up about whether or not to put in some of the ones that didn't quite work out as seconds, and in the end I decided to. When I was starting I liked trying seconds, it is annoying to pay full price for something that may not work. So having some where the stitching is a bit messed up or the arm is too narrow won't affect how they work, but there are probably other people out there like me who want to try a cheaper one before buying a full priced one.

It's a bit of a worry but I am getting sick of it at the moment :) I'm sure it is just a combination of single parenting, working until 2am then getting up at 7am and not getting any feedback. And all the boring fiddly bits that I left till later like weaving in the overlocking threads, well later is here. As soon as I open and people actually like something enough to buy it I will feel good again, and I am planning a partial day off tomorrow. This is one of the reasons I stock lots of different things - when I get sick of doing one thing I can swap to something else.

Staying in the city.

2007-07-20T22:19:00.000+09:30

Well, what a busy 4 weeks it's been.

We have been staying at our house in the city and DH has spent a lot of time with our little girl, so I have pretty much been working full time. It's very sad, she has weaned and moved out of our bedroom, and she is happy playing by herself for a bit. She used to be stuck to me like superglue, it is really funny to have her walk away from me. Having a toddler is so much fun (and I'm not being sarcastic there), but I do miss my little baby a bit.

The sad thing is that DH has gone home, while we are staying here for another 4 to 7 weeks. I already miss him horribly, and she has been wandering around the house calling "Da!" It is pretty sad. I am going to have to pace myself - no sewing until 2am, because I won't be getting any sleep ins.

I have been doing some fun sewing, getting some fancy T-shirts ready for my Secret Subscribers' Area. It is almost impossible to find fancy fabrics for boys - it is all flowers or lace. And sewing with metallic thread is a pain - it keeps coming unthreaded and I have to unpick it. I'm going to try to finish the boy's t-shirt tonight, then I can post pics and put a newsletter out.

Then I need to keep sewing boy nappies. It's silly, I have more boy than girl fabric, but when I grabbed some to bring up here I seem to have grabbed all girly stuff. Lucky there is a Spotlight in town! And my labels should finally arrive sometime this week. I thought it was all organised and then got asked to check some of the artwork, and I can't do anything on the sleepsacks until I have the labels. I am giving DH a list of things to post to me, I am going to be flat out getting it all done. I am going to have to open and then keep adding stuff, which is actually quite a good way to go during the hunt month, I know I go back to a lot of stores to see what they have.

Better keep going, it's almost curfew.

I have a store!

2007-07-14T01:07:00.000+09:30

www.waggleweekids.com

The store is up for previewing!!! I am still fiddling around with things, but the basics are there and some products are up.

I have also registered for the Nappy Hunt, my prize is a bamboo velour children's towel. I painted it with sunpaints and put hearts and stars on it as well as salt patterns.

Now I am sewing sewing sewing, I have just cut out another 12 nappies to get done this weekend hopefully, then I can do some more fiddling with the store!

Busy, busy, busy

2007-07-10T10:44:00.000+09:30

So much work, so little time.

I have just done my first batch conversion of pictures and I am in love with this programme. Probably other programmes do it too, but this was the only one I had on the computer I am currently on. I just had to click a few buttons and all the pictures were resized and compressed! I have been doing it all by hand, this is wonderful.

I have been doing lots of painting and have lots of flats ready, still working out the best way to photograph them.

The results are back from my testers and I have made some new nappies which are being trialled. I also checked out the new PowerDry and it works well. I was worried about how thin it is, but DD has worn it a few times now and even with toddler wee she feels dry.

I have used up all of my velour making some towels and sheets. They were fun to sew because I got to use my fancy new stitches. This is what I am going to use as my prize in the GDUNH. It is a gorgeous bamboo velour baby/child's towel. The painting is yellow and orange and it has stars and hearts on it. They only come up faintly because of the technique but you can see them IRL. The front was really interesting - the fabric underneath has absorbed the colour but the nap hasn't, so it has this really shiny look and changes colour if you look in different directions. My daughter has been using my first trial ones and they are brilliant for drying her.

The other thing I am madly working on is my website! Yaay!!! I really should finish the tutorials, but I got impatient waiting for them to load and just dove in. I like playing around with it this way, I now get the principals of how it works so I can work out each step more easily, if that makes sense. I am about to go and upload pictures to it so I will be learning how to put products in. I thought I had brought all my photos off my home computer which includes finished stock and things for the gallery, but I don't seem to have saved them :(. Oh well, it would have been nice to have that bit set up but I don't think I will run out of things to do anytime soon.

Great Down Under Nappy Hunt

2007-06-30T22:16:00.000+09:30

OK, it's coming up again and it has prompted crunch time. I can sponsor through this blog and that will get at least some exposure, especially if I have a form for subscribers.

OR

I can try to get the store up and running by then. It may be doable but it will probably drive me insane, especially as I am currently operating on dial-up (and what I think of Telstra's service cannot be written).

I have lugged the overlocker, sewing machine and a heap of fabric up to our house in the city. So far I have overlocked all the flats, but I am waiting on the paint to arrive. They should be no problem to get done though. I am also doing various inserts, but I changed them after tester comments so there is a bit of fiddling, I think that is finished.

I am holding off doing the towels or sheet sets until I have a new machine, as I want to get one with nice decorative stitches to finish them with. I didn't bring much velour fabric, so I will probably only get a couple of these done.

I am waiting on a quote for labels. Unfortunately the high fire hazard labels only come in rolls of 1000, so if they are too expensive there goes the sleepsack idea. If I don't get them then I will just get plain written labels at first, but it will be interesting to see what the quote is on labels with the logo. If they come back OK then I have to get the sleepsack tested, but part of the testing is the label attachment so it is a waiting game. I can't get the insurance sorted until this is done either, as it makes a difference if I am selling nightwear.

A couple of the testers are still getting back to me, but based on the others there are a couple of changes, and I have already trialled them on DD. Poor little thing only gets new nappies now when I am trying something new! So I will have to test the changes and then see how many I can get put together.

Then of course there is the store itself. I have written up all my information so it just has to be copied and pasted, and this is something I was going to do while I am up here. Unfortunately now I have used this internet connection for a couple of days I can see it is going to be an exercise in frustration, I will have to sit here and finish off my overlocking threads while I am waiting.

And of course the fun things are left until last - MONEY! I have an idea of the prices I want to charge, but I was going to check out various other stores to compare them. So I may be here at odd hours of the night trying to go faster than 14.2kbps.

Luckily DH's eldest son arrived to visit today, and DD thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread. It's funny, he and my mother are the only two she really goes to. But she is having a wonderful time helping him and Daddy in the garden or putting curtains up, I feel like I have barely seen her today. And Daddy got her up at 6:30am and then did her nap and put her to bed. Don't get me wrong it is great to have a bit of time to myself, it just feels weird having so much of it.

Fabric's arrived, I'm leaving

2007-06-20T20:09:00.000+09:30

Well the fabric has made it through customs. This is just the stuff for the pocket linings. There is the most wonderful one called butter suede, the two purple ones. The others are all Malden Mills PowerStretch and PowerDry. They are specially designed as wicking fabrics and I have been using the PowerStretch for a while now, so they should make good linings. And as long as they take to get here, I didn't want to have to do lots of orders!

We are going away again on the weekend, staying in our house in the city for 3 or 4 weeks. I have been trying to decide what to take. Before the fabric arrived I decided to get all my overlocking done, so here is some of the fabric I have cut up. There are 39 bamboo flats, (don't ask me how I managed 39?!) who knows how many bamboo inserts and 30 microfibre inserts as well as enough ProCare for 30 pockets. Then I am halfway through cutting up the hemp for inserts as well, and I haven't decided whether to take the bamboo velour. I wasn't going to because I was waiting on the FOE, but that arrived today so some of that might go in as well.

I am starting to get some feedback from the testers and it is mostly good. They are not having wicking problems and most of them fit well, I have to decide whether to modify it a bit for the ones that don't or put them outside the size range. There are a few problems with the cover flap, it is confusing. I have an idea what to do about it, so it was lucky the fabric arrived, hopefully I will be able to get one done before we leave and DD can test it. I've also had an idea about the inserts, but I can fiddle around with them on holidays. Exciting news - DH might buy me a new sewing machine!!! I kept saying I couldn't really justify it, but he's decided it is just too noisy and he is going to road test some new ones to see if they are quieter. Sounds good to me!

I made a profit!

2007-06-17T18:40:00.000+09:30

I have been selling sleep sacks at the local markets. I worked out all my expenses on them - the cost of the fleece, snaps, and the rent on the stall - then worked out how many I had to sell to cover all the costs. Helped by the sudden cold weather, I am a couple over. Any I sell from now on are profit. Of course, I still have all the other materials and there is my time, but it is nice to know something has paid for itself.

Where philosophy meets reality

2007-06-12T21:43:00.000+09:30

I have to stop thinking evil thoughts about the label man. He has a pretty good excuse, having to go interstate for medical treatment.

It has been part of my personal philosophy for years to support small businesses and especially, living in small towns, it is important to support local businesses. This was one of the reasons I was so excited when I discovered WAHMs. I am trying to build this into my business philosophy as well and deal with WAHMs or small businesses as suppliers, and trying to find ones in my state.

In keeping with this I found a label company that has a local agent and contacted him. Well that was over two weeks ago, the promised samples haven't arrived and my emails have not been answered. My little one has been very hit and miss with her naps so today was the first chance I got to phone him. It turns out that he has been away sick, and since he is chief cook and bottle washer my things just didn't get done.

Another small company I am trying to deal with has just requested my address and is going to send me things snail mail. This is because their website didn't have all the information I was after so I contacted them with questions using the contact us button. I get the impression that they are older or at least not as computer literate, so they are probably going to send me a brochure. And it is fair enough because most of their custom is not web-based, but for me it is a pain because I live in the middle of nowhere and mail is slow.

At this point the temptation to go somewhere else is starting, I know you can get these things on ebay! But this is where philosophy meets reality, and as a wannabe WAHM I need to give them some leeway. I am sure that at some point in the future I am going to mess up an order, something will be forgotten, or my way of doing business will be inconvenient for a customer. So I hope that they will give me the same leeway.

The last couple of days have taught me two things -

Try to set up good systems so that things are so automatic they have less chance of going wrong, and if they do go wrong you can hopefully catch them and deal with them.
Make your product good enough that people will be forgiving. I can't rely on everyone to share my philosophical ramblings.

The business has also given me a giggle today. I made up a toile of my new sleepsack pattern out of an old sheet and took it along to playgroup today to check that my sizing was correct on some smaller babies. Several people started asking about whether I sell polar fleece sacks and looking at the sample. One lady had come in halfway and only heard half the conversation. She tried it against her baby and was obviously a bit confused when she asked "So is this the warmest one you make?" "Um, no. That's an old sheet, it's just to check the pattern." She was very relieved to hear about the polar fleece!

I also got two completely independent compliments from playgroup ladies about my nappies, which they had been using for a while. It was so nice, it's those little things that keep you going.

Who are you and what have you done with my baby?

2007-06-05T22:47:00.001+09:30

Alternative title: Exhaustion really does work

Well exhaustion really does work, she had a two hour nap!

I just went to the best workshop on business planning, and it was absolutely free. If you are thinking of WAHMing, get on to your state small business development centre (whatever they are called) because they have some fantastic things available.
I also got to meet other small business owners in this town and there are a couple that I can see their products going well online, so they were good contacts to make.

I have decided to turn a difficulty into a virtue. If the blind hemming to make it unnoticeable is a pain, I will turn the hems into a feature. Bright colours in twin needles doing a zigzag stitch looks fantastic against natural bamboo velour, and the back is neat as well, especially with off white in the bobbin. And it is so easy. So problem solved!

Beautiful Bamboo

2007-06-04T22:38:00.000+09:30

Well, I finally got the bamboo flats to paint the way I wanted. I know I've said this before, but it doesn't matter how many times I practice something on one fabric, when I change fabrics I have to start again. And I never knew how many variations there were with these paints! How wet the fabric is, how much water you put in the paints, how quickly it dries, whether you wash the excess off, how you set the paint, arrrgh! I keep thinking it would be easier to go with the dyes, I know they give bright colours and are set a lot more easily. And they actually combine with the fabric, whereas the paint coats the outside which sort of destroys the point of nice soft bamboo. But I think I have worked that out and I remember the reason I want to use these is that they are completely non-toxic and DD can play with them as well. She loves painting the fabric. She pins things up, carries spray bottles around, tries to spray everything (I am sooo glad her hands aren't big enough yet) and "helps" put things out to dry. She even has her own brushes and containers and is obsessed with painting with water whenever we go outside. I couldn't resist this photo of her helping.

I think they are going to have to be re-overlocked because they went through a few different processes while I was trying to work it out :). And some of them weren't straight because of the way I dried the fabric after its first wash - it got pulled out of shape. But I have now made myself a template which should help with that problem. Most of them are actually quite bright, I am not sure how well they photograph.

I really like the first one, I have a cotton nappy I did the same way that is just gorgeous. It is actually the same technique as some of the multicoloured boosters below. The green/purple/blue one didn't photograph that well, it is actually yellow and pink with blue sprayed over the top and they have blended nicely, in the picture they just look a bit dirty. The one with all the stripes came out as a nice pastel one, I am pretty sure I can get a brighter version if I set it differently.

The painted ones in the last photo are interesting, They actually work better than the sprayed ones because the brush gets the paint in there, but they are a lot more time consuming than the sprayed ones. I'm not sure what I will do with this.

So what else have I been up to? Hmmm.

Waiting on feedback from the testers, most of the nappies took over a working week to get there, probably about right given where I live but a bit depressing all the same. One of them still hasn't arrived, but that is country to country so I'm not panicking just yet.

Trying to sew blind hems on bamboo velour. I know that it will look much better if I do, and I am secretly convinced that a new machine would have some magical attachment that would make them easy. I don't know if it is because the fabric is thick or if it is the stretch but I am having a really hard time lining up the fold for the needle to catch on the swing (sorry, that will only make sense if you have sewn blind hems). I also need to make them wider, in spite of the little voice in my head saying "This stuff is expensive!" I need to keep reminding myself that ruining it is even more expensive.

Fiddling around with my sleepsack design. I really don't want to give up the opening the way I am doing it - it is one of the unique features that I think is really good, so to give it up means it is just like everyone else's. Oh well, no-one else is using bamboo velour. This is another area I am lusting after a new sewing machine. Just imagine what I could do with the cuffs, neck and opening with some embroidery thread and in-built stitches.

Waiting on some labels. I wanted to go with a local supplier and actually found someone with an NT agent, talked to him and he was supposed to send me some samples, but it's over a week now and they still haven't arrived. That was something I was going to chase up today, but of course DD decided that 20 minutes sucking was all the nap she needed. Oh well, with playgroup tomorrow morning I'll make her walk home via the Post Office and she'll definitely sleep.

I hope.

Labels and regulations

2007-05-21T19:09:00.001+09:30

Well, after the excitement of getting all the testers off it is down to a bit of admin, checking out the regulations for my products.

I already knew the nappies one, that care instructions need to be included but not attached, and that you have to have size labels. I have been trying to find out the nightwear regulations for ages, but keep getting the same information. I know I have to have flammability labels, but it doesn't say how to get it tested or what the categories are.

So I finally found the number and rang the ACCC. It was really funny. At first they thought I was already making nightwear, but when I explained that I wanted to find out the rules before I started they were so impressed they couldn't help me enough. They were really great and got me the info, and then told me where to go to get my other questions answered. Then the lady at the testing lab spent ages on the phone with me explaining things, and even gave me the names of some companies who do the labels I need.

I am going to have to change my pattern, and unfortunately I will lose what I think is one of the good points, but it won't make that much difference. Most people think (and I thought too) that if it fails the flammability test you can just stick a high fire danger label on it, but there are some things that will fail the regulations for this too and shouldn't be sold at all.

Then today I got a phone call from the business licensing people. Apparently they keep records when you register a new business and for a year they will contact you whenever there is a free upskilling course in your area. So I'm booked in for one next week, luckily it's in the evening so DH can look after the little one. All of the bureaucrats I have dealt with have been fantastic, there is so much help out there for small businesses. In fact my biggest problem is finding time to look at it all and working out which bits are important.

It is really weird not sewing nappies. I have run out of ProCare and until my order arrives that is it. I have heaps of other things to do, but I feel at a bit of a loose end. It doesn't help that DH is away and we are sick AGAIN, so she isn't sleeping well and I am exhausted. I have been painting some of the bamboo and am working on the velour. Again, some of that is going to have to wait on the Canadian order, but at least I have trialled it and know that it works. The solarveil has also arrived so I am trialling my patterns in this - you know how you can have a pattern that works really well and then you change the fabric and it goes funny. It's going to take a bit of tweaking to get used to sewing it, so it is good I have the time now to practice.

Several of the nappies have arrived at the testers, so I know it is going to take at least a week when I start sending things out. Now it is just a matter of waiting to see how they go!

Testers are ready!

2007-05-16T23:06:00.000+09:30

These are the tester nappies ready to go. They are pocket nappies that close with a snappi. They are all OSFA, but have been done up differently to see how they photograph. They can fit at least 12 layers of hemp in the pocket but because the snappi pulls them tight you can get a trimmer fit by putting in less layers - it isn't baggy.

All of these have 100% cotton outers, although I plan to use poly cotton as well. The water resistant layer is ProCare and the inners are 100% polyester velour or suedecloth, I will be using Malden Mills PowerStretch and PowerDry as well when it arrives.

Fish with green velour, large fitting.

Shoes with white suedecloth, small fitting.

Red sunflowers with green velour, medium fitting.

Blue and green stripes with blue velour, large fitting.

Purple and gold with blue velour, large fitting.

Pastel flowers on black with blue velour, medium fitting.

Small squares with green velour, medium fitting.

Just call me the human roller coaster

2007-05-16T20:30:00.000+09:30

OK, life does look better in the morning. Obviously I have emotional things going on that aren't really part of this blog, but in a way they are.

It's hard to find the words. You know when you are working you have to get up and go to work and you pretty much try to forget all the personal stuff. It goes in its own little box to be taken out again when you get home. At least that is the way I operate. When you are a SAHM it all sort of builds up and there never seems to be any me time, or you join online forums and talk to other mothers. Or you start a blog and tell your personal secrets to complete strangers all over the world :).

As a hobby sewing is great, it gives me something creative to concentrate on. It is almost like a form of meditation, focusing my thoughts and energies and I feel relaxed and excited when I achieve something. What this week has taught me is that as a WAHM you have to push yourself and be disciplined. Of course I already knew that and it is easy to say, but it has been interesting to actually experience what it is like. There was no deadline except what I set for myself, there is no expectation that I be at my sewing machine the way there is in an outside job. When you don't feel like sewing there is always something else to do, and the nature of being a work at home mother is that they are all legitimate and even vital so it is easy to procrastinate. Deciding where your priorities lie can just become an exercise in guilt because there are so many demands on you.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that even in a job you really love there are times that you just don't feel like it. I think as a WAHM (or anyone self-employed) you really have to have the discipline or the motivation to keep going and get through those times. If it ever takes longer than a couple of days I think that will be my signal to leave. And think really hard about which priorities you will be moving down the list to fit WAHMing in, because it is long term and you can't necessarily pick them up easily.

Although personally, I don't care how far down cleaning goes ;).

They're fixed

2007-05-15T22:11:00.000+09:30

Well they're fixed, and if you didn't know you probably wouldn't notice. And no, it's not really the sort of detail I want out there publicly.

So why did I put it in?

This is supposed to be to help other Wannabe WAHMs, and if I only tell about the good bits then it won't give a real picture.

Now all Mums know that it doesn't matter how sick you feel you just have to keep going, so that won't be news to anyone. I suppose it is good news that my 19 month old can blow the snot out of her nose and now likes the taste of the medicine, so it isn't a hysterical kicking and screaming fight to get it into her. And the testers will be ready to go out this week, even if it isn't as soon as I wanted.

But I'm sitting here writing this rather than sewing because I feel like ****, I've just gone through the budget with DH, she still doesn't talk, and I'm not pregnant. This is probably called an emotional low point.

G'night all, hope it looks better in the morning.

Arrrgh! I don't believe it!

2007-05-14T14:29:00.000+09:30

In spite of us all coming down with some flu type thing, I was feeling pretty good about how the testers were going. I was just about to get some finished while the little one has a nap when I realised I have put the snaps on the wrong place ON EVERY SINGLE TESTER!!! I can't believe it, the instructions I've made even SAY where to put them WITH A DIAGRAM and it isn't as if I haven't done it before. I obviously just got into a rhythm and did them all that way. The sensible thing would be to keep them as seconds and start again, but this is my last fabric until the rest arrives from Canada!
I think I can fix it but I don't know what it will look like. If I drill them out it might look sloppy, but if I leave them there it could be confusing and obvious there is a mistake. Of course I really wanted the testers to be perfect - I mean this is what I am offering to sell. It is purely aesthetic, it can't affect the function of the nappy, and it will be covered up so not even visible when it is on, but you know what I mean.
Sighhh, fingers crossed this works.

Ta-dahh!

2007-05-07T21:01:00.000+09:30

Woohoo! I got back and my logos and some more fabric is here. Here are the fabulous logos, with different ones for different occasions. I have always loved dragons and Kristie has done a fantastic job, making it look cute without being dopey. It is also a bit cute and fairy style and a bit funky, which is good because I can go either way depending on my mood.

And that is the name of the business - Waggle-Wee Kids. It actually comes from my husband, and our daughter's habit of waggling her little bum when she walks. It should really be Waggle-Wee Wear, but there are things other than wearables included, so that will have to be a product line. Every name I chose was either too specific, too broad, too similar or already taken. At least I know no-one else will have anything like this one!

Looking at my to-do list, there is still lots to go. I have got a quote on insurance that seems awfully high to me, although DH thought it was reasonable compared with a business he was involved in. I am off to register the domain name and business now, but the shop will have to wait a bit because I really need to get the testers sewn. I am making a couple of modifications based on the feedback from the one I sent off before, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

This is the big test for me as well - how long does it take me to sew them. It is certainly going to be challenging as DD has a fever and hasn't slept well for the last 3 nights, we started driving at 4.30am to get home, and the last of the furniture arrived so the boxes that had been waiting on it have all been pulled out to be unpacked. There is now a narrow winding path to the change table and everything else piled up in that room. Add to that the usual post-trip chores, washing, unloading 7 weeks worth of shopping (we bulk shop when we are in the city) and several days worth of nappies (You too can use cloth while you fly and drive around the country, staying in 3 different places!). I suppose this is what WAHMing is about - running a business while being a mother. Hopefully it is a good test run for the real thing.

My little fairy

2007-04-24T20:41:00.000+09:30

OK, not strictly business related, but I had to put in pics of my little fairy before I go away for a couple of weeks.

While I was fitting the elastic she insisted on running around in the skirt, she kept pulling it right up to her armpits then it would gradually fall down.

I was squatting down to take the photo at her height, so she had to copy me.

Here she is. It has little wings on the back, too. She was so excited it was finished she had to wear it to playgroup, although I did rescue it from the sandpit.

Weekend Markets

2007-04-22T19:29:00.000+09:30

We have a local market every couple of weeks so I went down with some baby things. No nappies because I am trying to make ones for testers at the moment, but I took some of DDs for a display and had lots of women look at them and ask questions, which was really exciting. I was going to take some of the pamphlets from Modern Nappies but unfortunately their site was down, I will have to make sure and save one the next time I am there.

The velour painted beautifully and I made some wipes. I was using one on DD and had a bit of a panic the next morning - it's gone hard! somehow the paint must have affected it! Until I realised it was actually the food I had wiped off DDs face. The wipe is still gorgeous and soft.

The velour was really easy to use on the overlocker - I have heard that other people have had problems but it didn't roll, possibly I have a different supplier and it is a different knit. Although the lower looper thread broke twice, which it has never done before. I have discovered why threading the overlocker is considered a pain. I almost didn't overlock it because it wasn't fraying at all, but decided it needed to be finished.

The logo is absolutely lovely, it is very exciting, and I am looking at colours and designs for the shop and trying to write up my information and care, so they can just be copied in. I am also waiting with bated breath for the results from the tester nappy I sent off and trying to get more testers made. Actually, I am going away on Wednesday and I thought it was a good opportunity to make a fairy dress for DD. A while ago she liked them in a shop, but Mummy took one look at the price and said "You've got to be kidding! That's just a handkerchief skirt, I can make one of those!" Of course then Mummy saw the price of the fabric ...

It's all happening.

2007-04-18T20:22:00.000+09:30

Well, things are really starting to happen.

I got the courage to send a nappy off as a tester to someone I really respect, so now it is the nerve wracking wait to see how it goes.

I have registered for an ABN and decided on a name, now I am organising a logo from another lovely WAHM, Kristie.

I have even sold some nappies! It was very exciting to make the first sale, and to know that I could produce them in the time limit.

And then today my yummy bamboo velour arrived, so I am going to get some set up tonight to paint tomorrow. Painting is one of the things I can do with my little one around, she loves helping to pin things and painting with water and mud, then she is in charge of putting rocks around the edges to stop things blowing away! The only problem is when she decides to combine the mud and the drying, which is one of the reasons most of the designs are hmmmm, abstract. She also loves the spray bottles, it is just a good thing her little hands aren't big enough to work them or we would have a house that is all lovely colours.

Now what do I have left to do:

Testers, testers, testers! (So if you are interested, let me know!)
Register the domain name.
Register the business name, can only be done 2 months before trading.
Set up the accounting programme.
Organise labels - after the logo is finalised.
Get the shop set up - after the logo.
Insurance.
Actually start building up stock :).
Advertising.

Money, Money, Money

2007-04-14T20:46:00.000+09:30

Now that I have a pattern worked out the big problem is actually time.

I know that to run a business properly it will take quite a bit of time and I am a Mum first, with a baby who isn't the best sleeper in the world. I'm not willing to go into anything if I can't run it professionally, although these may go down as famous last words!

The will I/won't I was really stressing me, because I am enjoying the sewing but don't know if I can lift it to the next level. Do I branch out into clothes for my baby and myself and keep it as a hobby? How many nappies can I actually sew in a week? I know that doing it as a production line will be a lot more efficient than doing one at a time - less swapping around, but until I actually have a go I won't know what it is like. But to do that I need lots more fabric. I live in the middle of nowhere so that means ordering it, and the stuff I want is going to take four months to get here. How do I know what it will be like in 4 months time? How will she be sleeping? Will I still be enjoying this?

I told my husband I was going to leave it and see if I was still enjoying it 6 months down the track.

But then I saw that some of the fabric was on special really cheap. And it will take 4 months to get here, .... Damn, there I go again, will I or won't I?

DH was great.
"If you get the fabric and then decide not to do it, is there something else you can do with it?" "Well, I'm sure there are other nappy sewers who would buy it - it is a pain getting everything from Canada."
"So get it."
"I checked, it will cost $1000."
"We have that in the rainy day account, get it."
So I ummed and ahhed for a few more days, but eventually got it. Wow, I have spent $1000 on fabric, but I know roughly how many nappies I have to sell to get that back, so I am keeping the panic at bay. Now I am trying to get everything else organised so when it arrives it is all set bar the sewing.

Oh yes, the bamboo. It also costs $1000 for just one of the types I want. And the shop that sells both types isn't replying to emails. As an aside, I find that unbelievable - here is someone willing to spend well over $1000 with you and you don't even reply to their emails! And a big order is easier to deal with than lots of little orders, this is exactly what worries me about being a WAHM. It is obviously difficult to juggle everything, there is sooooo much more to it than a nice nappy pattern. Anyway, long trip in the car with DH.
"So why do you need to import it? I thought you wanted to support other WAHMs."
"No-one is selling it here at the moment, there are some places trying to get it in but they don't know when and how much. One of them has had to put it back because of suppliers. If I know these guys have it I keep thinking I should get it because who knows how long it will take to get here."
"So if it is hard to get hold of do other people want it?"
"Yeah, it is just the yummiest fabric."
"Well get the whole bolt and sell it as well."
"But it will cost over $1000."
"We have the money, get it."

OMG, I have over $2000 of fabric on order! Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic, ...

In the beginning ...

2007-04-03T13:24:00.000+09:30

Mum lent me her old sewing machine and off I went. Actually, it belonged to my mother's brother's wife's mother by way of my Grandmother, so it is experienced.
With a funny shaped baby snappis were the obvious solution because they pull up the rise as well as around, but I didn't want boring terry nappies if I was going to all the trouble of making them. So why not put terry tabs on? Ummmm, because they WICK!!!!! So several versions later we had dealt with that problem, created some more, dealt with them, added something else, dealt with those problems, and got something I was happy with. Along the way I learnt to blind sew elastic, sew stretch fabric, sew PUL and ProCare, and WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. Patterns also work much better if you mark everything so it all lines up.

Then I ran out of fabric.

Then we went on holidays for Christmas and 3 days later found out hubby had a promotion which meant moving to another town.
But over Christmas Mum gave me her overlocker, and when we got to our new house all my parcels of international fabric had found us, so I had a great incentive to unpack quickly. In fact, I splashed out and got myself a snap press for my birthday (No, hubby got it, hubby!) and my paints also arrived so here is my beautiful craft area. This is the first time I have had more than a cupboard to store things in, and it is so much fun to have everything set up and waiting any time I want to use it.

"Paints?" You say, "What paints?"
Well I really liked the painting my mother was doing for her quilting fabrics, so I decided to use them on terry flats and wipes, and think big. Hey, if I can add a bamboo range, ...

To WAHM or not to WAHM

2007-04-02T23:07:00.000+09:30

I love being a stay at home Mum (SAHM), but I didn't realise that I have always done something creative so when I finished studying I was going nuts. I spend my days with an 18 month old WHO DOESN'T SLEEP and just wants to be involved in whatever I am doing. So by 8:30 I really need to do something for me.
My little shadow also has incredibly large thighs, so she was in Large nappies at 6 months to fit the thighs that were falling off everywhere else. Even side snaps just looked funny or hung down because the rise was way too long. So I started making my own nappies to fit her.
Now this worked for a while, but like every other creative crafty thing I have ever done, eventually you have enough. There are only so many cross-stitches you can hang on the wall, so many cushions you can use, and you really can't have candles every night when you are as blind as I am. So I started thinking - I can't be the only one out there with a weird shaped baby, can I? I feel my nappies have something unique and there are probably other people out there who would like them.

So the question is: "To WAHM or not to WAHM."

I have decided to blog my journey so other people who may be thinking the same thing can follow me, or add their ideas if they are leading the way.