Expandable Storage Bags finished

 Christmas Fayre progress report 1

Hi all you lovely crafters out there. 

Well as promised I am crafting and showing as I work my way toward the Christmas fayres.

Over the last week the sewing machine has been out again and I have made 10 shoe bags (or expandable storage bags to add to my stock. This was one of the bags I decided to include on my table but only had 4 remaining in stock. 

I had to remind myself of the sewing sequence for them as I had not made them for a year, so I took myself on to YouTube to watch my favourite sewing lady. Her Chanel is called Christine’s Home Affairs. Of course nowadays you have to sit through 4 lots of adverts to see a video, or pay to remove advertising (and I am too tight for that), but Christine shares so much of her time and information it is a pleasure to watch her videos. She also shows you how to bulk sew, and how she prices her items to sell, so for anyone starting out there is a lot to learn here. 

I started by selecting the fabrics I was going to use and cutting 10 bases. 

Next I needed to cut scraps for the handles and zip ends. I am not a lover of sewing in zips buy putting a tab end on them makes them neater and simpler to insert, so worth the effort cutting out.

I tried to get a production line going but found it difficult to sit at the table for more than a couple of hours and the bags were taking more than 45minutes each, so I split the load into a 2 to be finished on the first day and then 2 lots of 4 to be sewn over the next 2 days. 

So here I am 3 days later with 10 finished expandable storage bags, ready to tag and bag. 

 These will be added to the stock list and I will check the next items to be made. It is surprising how the months creep on you. At the beginning of the year, after checking my stock and deciding on the bags and gifts I wanted to make for 2025, in my head I had structured the months ahead with a line up of makes to do. Needless to say these well made plans did not come to fruition and I found myself at the end of August starting the process again.   

During the process of tagging the bags I will need to work out a price. My sewing and crafting is not a business, it is a hobby and I do it for pleasure and to raise funds for my local hospital, even though there is no need to make a profit, pricing is very important. I think most craft sellers will agree. Overprice your goods and people will look but not buy. Underprice and they will not buy as the items become devalued. So although a profit is not the main issue, pricing is. At craft fayres people come with an expectation to get the unusual, hand crafted items and most are prepared to pay a  premium for the this, recognising the work and individualism in the item. Underprice and they may decide your items are not the premium product they thought they were. So I find pricing my items the most difficult part. The price is decided by the price of the fabric, zips etc, and the time it takes to make. You also need to factor in to your price where you are selling. If I sell in my home town I have to take items that have a better margin as prices have to be kept low to make the sells, whereas the Christmas fayres I am attending I can take any of my makes. 

These bags take me 45 minutes on average. And I get approximately 3 from a metre of fabric plus a 15” zip. I am charging them at £7.50. I am making money on them provided I do not factor in my time, and this is where it gets tricky. My time is obviously worth something, but I am not a professional, and there are a lot of bag makers out there, so whilst I would like to charge my time at £20 an hour (as this includes the maintenance and purchase of tools packaging and presentation costs, in reality I often end up charging an item at £5 for my hourly rate. So whilst £7.50 does not cover my time I hope I will have other items at the fayre with better margins to make up for this, as I believe this is a price that will give a better number of sells . 

Bags labelled with “Sew Useful Bag” tags and Handmade with Love price tags

Well on to the next make.

Happy Crafting 

Dee