My babies have gone ...

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

I just re-read some of these and I really am out of date, so I'm making a resolution to try to blog more often again.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

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

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

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

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

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.