community of dyers

Greetings! My husband and I have a small business selling batiked clothing, and a few toys. We vend at a few local events. We have a 10 by 10 tent that we use for outdoor events and we usually have at least a 6 foot by 4 foot area at indoor events.

I am looking for ways to arrange our goods for sale at craft fairs that is attractive and effective. How do you display your wares? Any ideas or hints would be most appreciated.

Right now we just have a few portable hangers. The clothes just get lost on the hanger.

We have adult clothing through 3x, children's clothing and I'm also working on maternity and nursing wear.

I'm cross-posting this to a couple forums 'cause I need info FAST! Apologies in advance for any inconvenience.

I am excited to have been offered MONEY (!) to do a tie-dye session with probably 50-ish kids (8-10 years old) so they can dye plain shirts to wear for a workshop. They'll provide the space and the shirts (adult assistance is already on my list to ask about, but I assume they'd have liability issues if they weren't supplying adults to a particular ratio, plus they're expecting families to be there), but ask if I can do, well, everything else, including bringing dye and chemicals and supplies (bottles and rubber bands), showing the kids a few basic designs (I'm thinking hearts and spirals and stripes - should be plenty!), and probably a HUGE LOT of squeeze bottles. LOL In return I can also bring lots of business cards and get exposure thru the families, and my experience with this organization and its demographic indicates a higher-than-usual amount of disposable income (PC way to say mostly people with way more money than I have, although that doesn't take much! LOL). Odds are there'd be a fee the kids/families would pay for the event that would go at least partially to me (and toward the tees).

I hope this is the right forum to post this, but I'm really curious how others price finished pieces. I really haven't done much customer work other than gradation dyeing people's baby carriers... the price on that was pretty much set by someone who started doing it before me and it's really been quite profitable. However, I'm getting a little sick of it and wanting to branch out into other things, especially clothing. I've also had some interest in quilter's cotton yardage. I have a general idea how much it costs to dye them.. costs are lowered when I only dye once a week and wash all together, too. But how do you price your time and creativity? On one hand, price it too high and nobody would buy it..but on the other, price too low and you are kind of devaluing what you do. I should note that I'm a hobbyist here and not really doing this for actual income... that's what my "real" job is for. But on the other hand, it's not something I want to do for "free" either.

I had an email this evening asking if I could dye some sweat pants for a teen and replied that it should be OK.

So.....where the heck are the white, all-cotton (or at least MOSTLY-cotton) sweats, WITH pockets AND elastic at the cuffs?

Have I just lost all my blank-finding brain cells? Or are they sitting in front of me taunting me with their ease of location? LOL

Cheers,
Deb

Dharma Trading Company now has a link for info on CPSIA on their front page! It's in all-caps in the left margin. See their page entitled Lead in Children's Products.

A thread was started on Etsy about the possibility of many "natural" materials possibly being exempted from the lead testing requirements, such as cotton, silk, I think maybe wood might have been on there. (I can't find the link to the Bloomberg News article, but it was reported on and isn't a "he told me that he said that she said" kind of deal.) Using "natural" dyes was one possibility being discussed, assuming that undyed cotton was OK'ed but dyed cotton was not, so dyeing with natural lead-free dyes might be a way around it.

I know that "natural" isn't always synonymous with "safe," but I've forgotten a lot of the specifics I found out when I was exploring using natural dyes over Procion MX, so here I am asking again.

Im trying to figure out how much it REALLY costs me to make a dyed item. Has anyone here done the REAL math and not just estimates? One of the things I have to do is open a brand new 1 pound jar of dye and slowly measure out how many teaspoons of dye I get from the jar. Before I do this, has anyone done this? I really need to figure out how much the dye costs me for each item, im just estimating - which is not so great.

Thanks and please keep me in mind in your prayers, things are really intense right now over here (and my husband was called to fight).

~Elisheva
www.jobshuk.com/groovest

A lot of Etsy sellers are buzzing about legislation from the US Consumer Products Safety Commission that requires stringent testing of all items sold for use by children - and depending on which version of which post you read, ALL clothing for anyone regardless of age - for lead and phthalates (I think I spelled that right...?). This extends to the small business and hobbyist clothing-makers, who would also be required to have independent lab testing done on their products to ensure safety for children.

I'm a parent, and of course I don't want my kids chewing on or wearing toxins, nor do I want anything I make to contribute to the ill-health of another living being, but the cost of testing is going to far outweigh the cost of the garment by a huge factor and those of us who prefer to follow the law will be out of business when enforcement goes into effect. The terms of the new law take effect in February of 2009.

Do any of you guys try to outsource by hiring sales reps. to help get your stuff into stores that arent in your area? Im trying to find people to help get my stuff overseas. Even getting into stores here is really hard to break into.

how do you go about getting your stuff out there and noticed?

~Elisheva
www.jobshuk.com/groovesters

I just got my acceptance to my first market in two weeks. As I prepare to add to my existing inventory I was wondering if anyone had input as to what items and what patterns are most popular. I will only be able to do about 20-30 more things before the sale. This is our town's once-a-month market days and is focused on the unique artisanal flavor of our somewhat liberal Texas town

So, what items sell best--baby, kids T's, adult T's or more unique things like placemats, dresses, napkins?

What Colors are most popular--more tradtional rainbows, chromatic themes, earthtones, brights, pastels, tiger stripes?

I have been making tie dyed shirts all summer to help make money for school. I have only sold a few to my friends but I'd like to actually make money, not chump change,LOL.
I am making the shirts this year with rain water that I have collected in huge garbage barrels. That way I don't use water that I'd have to pay for and it is helping the environment. Not to mention the colors are so much, brighter than using tap water. I havn't uploaded any pictures of them yet, but I will be soon...as soon as my mother learns to use the internet, LOL.
I think the rain water is a good selling point, so in that I still have to use some tap water to rinse them but they are all dyed in the actual collected water.

Having just gone through an excessively complicated set of emails just to sell one piece of silk to a woman who lives an hour away... I think I might need an Etsy shop.

If you have an Etsy shop and have opinions to share about Etsy... please post. I'd like to know the inside scoop before entering my credit card number.

Thanks!

okay! I have a bunch of questions...Do any of you have workers that you hire to help with the process? If you get an order for 60 items for one store and then 100 for another...how do you fill those orders if its just you? it took me about 8 hours (the entire process-mind you) to make 60 large bandanas...actually it took longer than that because I cut the fabric myself. If I needed to do more than that and then even more than that...how do you do it? Do any of you hire help?
the other thing that is boggling my brain is how a tie dye business becomes a real full time la-dee-da corporation. I know that there are companies in the states that fill thousands of orders or who do the concert tee-shirts and whatnot. how do they fill these gigantic orders? Are they done by machine? Do they hire workers and teach them how to dye perfectly?

I've been dyeing a few years now, and gradually I've gone through what I imagine is the usual amateur crafter spectrum:

--dye for yourself
--dye for friends
--dye for friends who then pay you for your work
--dye and sell a few things, then a few more things
--dye and actually take things to an informal neighborhood market to sell

I've done all this without really considering the business aspects, because frankly, my net profit hovers around $0. I do it because I like to, and haven't sought out the cheapest sources of supply, et cetera, that would allow me to make more money from what I do.

Well I just shut down my shop for jewllery and tie-dyes. Back at work after 3 years as stay at home dad and an un-successful stab at doing my own thing. I really would have thought that being one of the only tie-dyers here in Germany would have helped, but I guess now I know, why there are none around. I was in the basement yesterday and was surprised at the equipment and dyes I have collected over the years. I hope I will feel like dyeing again some day, but I need some time off from the colors.

....Will post some pics of my most recent stand at a local art show. Broke even, but 220 Euros was real expensive for a weekend! That's going rates over here. What do y'all pay over US way? OK, alittle off topic, so Paula, you can move it, if you see fit and yes, us Germans use alot of commas 8-)
[THC started this discussion in Hello from new member, under Member Talk; I'm taking the liberty of quoting the last part of that message here under Business and Legal Issues to encourage ithis discussion to continue.... -Paula]

I'm looking for custom labels/ tags to sew onto my finished garments.
Has anyone used anything like this? Any suggestion for manufacturers?
My "real job" has a division that makes promo clothing and I asked them but they get custom tags from Canada and the minimum order is 2000, so no luck there.

Thanks everyone!

It's taken me a few days to dare poste about this, but seeing that I've watched it happen several times in a row lately, I have to say something. It bugs the daylights out of me, so I'm going to rant a little. Just because something is being done doesn't mean that it's right, that it's ethical.

Is it legal, a copyright violation and downright unethical to copy or link to the image of another artist's work and post it a different venue without their permission? If you did get their permission, were they also made aware that you are doing it expressly for the purpose of your own gain?

As an example, if I post a picture of my work to this board, I am choosing myself to show that piece of work in a certain context and am able to choose just how far I am willing to to go in sharing information. It wouldn't give you the right to re-post it somewhere else without my consent.

1) i know i do not need an ein number for my company for it is just me but the thought of using my social security number for expenses scares me. any thoughts?

2) i am reading a book on small business start ups and it seems like filing to be a sole proprietor has some major downfalls in that i can be held accountable for unlimited liability when it comes to business debt.

should this be a huge concern or not? am i over thinking?

roby

Howdy y'all,

Returns has never been an issue for me before until recently. But I'm thinking I now need a standardized return policy. Which I will post on my website at some point... since I'm not actively selling anything from there it's not a big rush.

Anyhow... here's my story: I took a silk scarf I'd done to work to show off. A gal I sort of work with (she's on a different shift) asked for a specific color. So I made a couple and took them to work. I figured if the color was wrong, no big deal... she wasn't under any obligation to buy them. Well, she loved them, snatched them right out of my hands and said she'd write me a check before she left.