…is pretty much what keeps me busy these days.
So I announced on this blog a few months ago that I was opening an Etsy shop selling crib bedding- Dnile Design. I thought I’d put my sewing hobby out there and see if anyone was interested. I figured I’d leave it be and if I got the occasional sale, great. A little extra money coming in. I planned on having maybe a sale a monthish.
Three months later, I’ve had almost 40 orders, one side of our playroom has been transformed into my studio, my mailman knows me by name, and credit card companies have started sending me applications in bulk. There are fabric scraps and random threads constantly stuck to our clothes. My arms are covered in burn lines from bumping into the iron while prepping fabric. Most nights and naptimes find me at the sewing machine with Genius mixes of Guns N Roses and Americana blasting from the iPhone dock. Things are a little busier than I expected. I’ve had to raise my prices once already to slow down orders.
This is definitely a good thing. It’s nice to have something concrete to work with a tangible end product and feedback. I love being able to be home and raise our kids while they’re young but as any mother will attest it’s not exactly the most gratifying job day to day. It’s often dirty and frustrating and full of negative feedback usually in the form of a scream. In fact at the moment I’m alternating between typing this and stopping Rhett from swatting the Christmas tree with a broom. Being able to think and create for someone and then hear how much they love it is feels really good. And of course, the money is nice, especially with two house payments and preschool to pay for.
Now I need to look ahead and decide where to go with this. I’m right at the brink of getting more orders than I can keep up with. I’m doing zero advertising or social media networking because I don’t want to bump up sales. That’s tough because I also have this natural inclination to do those things and grow my business as large as possible. BUT I’m limited in time and production capacity so I need to accept that this just isn’t the time for it- not while I have munchkins that I love in need of my attention. I’m thinking of raising prices again but at the same time I don’t want to have a product that normal people can’t afford. We’ll see where we go from here.
In the meantime here are a few photos of recent orders:
State of d'Nile 
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