This week was all about planning for a streamlined blanket-making process. As mentioned in my last post, I fell into some new fabric opportunities that I couldn't say no to when I popped into Joann's. Here's the way I've been planning blankets in the past:
The end product comes out something like this: So it turns out well, but with quite a bit of waste. My process definitely needed some revamping.
For contrast, here's the new process I've come up with this week.
Now actually making these cuts is going to have to wait for next week. But in the meantime, let me entice you with some pictures of my fabric choices. I've got five different sets of coordinated material and will be making three blankets with each set (so long as I don't screw anything up too badly.)
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I THOUGHT I was set on the piano goal. I even ordered two books of sheet music: Best of John Williams and Phantom of the Opera. BUT then I had some time to kill after Social Science CSET on Saturday, so I went into Joann's for some curtain ties... and came out with $230 worth of snuggle flannel for $80. (60% off new cute fabric designs I haven't seen yet! + 10% off total purchase including sale items. Tell me you could resist that??)
The truth is, I am probably going to end up pursuing BOTH of these goals. But for the purpose of this assignment I will report on the baby blankets. I spent some time doing competitor research on Etsy, looking for comparable items, prices, and other sellers' overall trends of success. There are really two types of successful sellers for this type of product: those who keep it relatively simple by creating one listing and then allowing customers to select color options. When the item sells, it automatically renews the same listing, which has major benefits for listing ranking, search exposure, and overall traffic (for example). Chances are she has bolts of fabric in each color on hand and makes the blankets to order. Unfortunately, this is not something I can make work with my existing materials. But it would be a good idea for the future. I know this strategy works, because it is how I have become the top seller for wine cork planters. The other strategy is to go more custom and more detailed, like so. They have the quilts pre-made and each quilt has its own listing. (She actually only has two quilts advertised right now, but it looks like she has had more in the past that have already sold, and she takes in a fair number of custom orders.) This shop has really made a specific niche in terms of colors and style, which is also something that I can't necessarily do right now thanks to my existing materials. Average competitor cost for blankets similar to what I am looking at doing are going for as little as $25 and as much as $60. Since I am not Walmart (nor do I want to be) and I do not yet have an established sales base for blankets, my aim will be to fall somewhere in the low-middle end of that. I need to time out how long it will actually take me to make a blanket set start to finish before I calculate the exact price, but I'm thinking somewhere in the $40 range with low shipping costs. Did you know: slightly higher upfront cost and low shipping creates higher perceived value? People are more willing to pay $42 + $3 shipping than they are to pay $37 + $8 shipping--even for the exact same product. I'll post some pictures of my lovely new fabrics and my specific plans for them next week ;) Brainstorm time. I have three options I am toying around with for this 20% project. Option 1: Baby Blankets for Etsy I'm a little bit of a fabric hoard, especially when it comes to Snuggle Flannel at 70% off on Black Friday the last three years in a row. The problem is, I rarely end up doing anything with it due to time demands, and now I have accumulated nearly three large bins worth of coordinating fabrics that will [someday] be stripe quilts with matching burp cloths for me to sell in my Etsy shop. If I choose this option, it won't be so much "Learn to make a striped baby quilt" as this is something I already know how to do. Rather, it would be about streamlining my process to greatly decrease production time and learning market best practices to give them a good chance of actually selling in a pretty competitive marketplace. Questions to consider:
Option 2: Learn to Play Phantom of the Opera, Jurassic Park & Star Wars In high school, I taught myself to play reasonably well on my mother's beautiful Baby Grand. I had a repertoire of around ten songs anyway, but my progression got cut short when I moved out and came to learn that most apartments don't come with pianos included [wtf mate?]. I've taken advantage of the last few days off to do some much needed deep cleaning around the house, including my bedroom. In true if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie style, this led to a complete rearrangement of our bedroom furniture and the fortuitous rehoming of my sadly neglected keyboard. of I bought this guy some eight/nine years ago back when I had time to myself and money that didn't need to go to after school daycare. And he has gone completely untouched for about half of that time.
Now that he is in sight and in mind once again, I would like to shake off the rust, start playing proficiently again, and even learn some new music that I have always wanted to be able to play. In high school, I was able to finger out the melody to these iconic songs by ear, but specific sheet music was a lot harder to come by back then than it is now and music is not exactly something that comes naturally to me. Questions to Consider:
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