"Are you going to sell these on Etsy?"

I often get asked for a business card or if I'm selling when Madeleine is out and about in one of her dresses.

I always thank the person and tell them no, but for the few that push why not, here's why.

Let's look at an example.

Madeleine's little Star Wars dress

1 yard of material cost me $10 at Joann's

Button $0.50

Thread $2 for a spool

We are up to $12.50

It took me 45 minutes to make the pattern.

Then 10 minutes to cut it out.

And about an hour to sew it all together.

20 minutes to drive to the post office.

At $10 an hour that about $25 worth of labor.

The dress would currently be priced at $37.50.

You might be thinking "Eh, that's a little high, but I would still totally pay that much for a cool dress."

If I did this as a job (and I know since I technically have my own business), taxes would take close to 25%  (self employed people have to pay double social security and medicaid) of that. And etsy takes an additional 3.5%

That puts it at $48.18 and with shipping this dress would be around $50.

Most people don't want to pay $50 for a dress, even if it's a really cool Star Wars dress.

At $10 an hour, I'm getting paid around the same amount for a lot of unskilled labor. I want to remind people that sewing is a skill. It takes lots of practice and it's hard work. At $10 an hour, I could barely support my family on my own income, if I had enough sales to work full time. I should honestly be closer to $12-$15 based on my skill level. A master seamstress should be much higher than that.

The thing is many people don't see it that way. They see it as me ripping them off. Walmart and Old Navy sell dresses for less than $10 a dress. They think my prices should be closer to those stores. The truth is that those clothes are not made by people making a living wage. They are also people that are trying to live in America on American prices. They need $120 a month to live in a 3rd world country and they are not even being paid that.

I cannot live off of $120 a month. I cannot and will not try to compete with those wages. The things I make are not in the same class. They are unique, fair trade, and produced in a 1st word country. They are not mass produced, with unsafe, unpaid labor in a 3rd world country. To ask me to work at 3rd world country prices isn't worth my time. 

At the moment, I rather make milkshakes or work at Anthropologie.

The truth is homemade is no longer the "cheaper" option if you are not doing the work yourself.

Having a friend do it for you for a discounted rate is something you should be very grateful for and hopefully you realize just how much money they are saving you. It's the ultimate employee discount. The main reason it is cheaper is that you are getting free labor instead of very cheap labor plus a bit of a mark up. Free labor isn't free to the person that it doing this for you. Economic teach us that no matter what time is a limiting factor. That friend is giving the limited hours of their life to help you with a project for free or pretty close to it. Be grateful for it.

For more reading of other crafters on this subject, you can read here from a knitter (I actually really love this one)  and here about a doll maker.

Anyway, that's why in general I don't sell to people that I don't feel like crafting for. If you're my friend, you might one day find a message from me asking if I can send you something.  And if you don't receive that message, I would be more than happy to make something for you, just make sure you are willing to pay me a fair price.

**By the way, I fully aware that I could streamline the process of creating a dress. I just also realize that I would have other cost that I didn't factor in (like marketing, driving to the post office, buying another sewing machine etc.). The price would probably only go down a bit.**

Halloween costumes

We had our church Halloween party today! We were more than ready for it. Unlike last year, I actually finished more than a few hours ahead of time. (Probably helped that this costume was simple enough to do in 5 minutes.) Madeleine got two costumes this year, because Matt deemed the first one, the paper bag princess, too cold to wear outside. So I made her a dragon cape to wear with it.

If by any chance someone wants to duplicate this, I have a few tips for you. First of all it's really just a bag with three holes cut out of it. I reinforced all the cuts with packing tape on the inside of the costume, which prevented it from ripping. Another thing that helped was the arm holes were between the bottom of the bag and the first crease. I found in my trial costume that if I did it a bit farther down it ripped a lot faster. Also a few people asked me how I got it all poofy like a princess dress. I just tied the center with a ribbon.

It was ridiculously easy. The cape was a lot harder though.

link

This was my inspiration for the cape.

  If I had to make it again, I would have magically had a serger. The ends frayed and curled on the green fabric and the gold was a bit slippery. I had to use a really large seam allowance to make it work. Thankfully, I didn't use the stretch silk otherwise it would have been a lot harder. Also, I would have measured Madeleine better. The cape is a little long on her. The front covers her hands a tiny bit and it bugs her.

But all in all, I'm very happy about the costumes! She was so cute to watch running around collecting chocolate. When everyone had run out of candy she started asking people to open it for her so she could eat it.

New Clothes for Sophie

With Madeleine getting her canines in, life has been very dramatic. Tears, fits, violent outburst, the whole deal. So yesterday after poor Sophie was angrily thrown into an ice cream bowl (I wouldn't give Madeleine more) and then later yogurt, I decided Sophie needed more than one pair of clothes to wear and her hair washed. After Madeleine was asleep, Sophie and I stayed up late to work on some more wardrobe options.

We had bought some newborn outfits and then I refitted them for Sophie. 

Doesn't her hair look so nice and clean?

This morning when I was taking pictures, Matt was teasing me that I love Sophie as much as Madeleine does. After all, I can sew clothes for her and Madeleine can't. It was a lot of fun though, and I did enjoy make Sophie look cute in new clothes. I have always loved dolls, and so I let Madeleine get a new tiny Mooshka doll. She already has a larger soft doll, but this mini doll has been a big hit.

Do you have any favorite dolls or toys?

Some DIY in Goobie's room

So last time I posted, (Matt did the last post) I talked about putting a twin bed in Madeleine's room and hating it. Since then we all have added our own talents to the room to help it feel more homey.

I made the pillows.

This pillow was made from fabric I already had. I bought it at a garage sale here in Princeton for a quarter. Can't beat that!

This pillowcase was already made, but I freezer stenciled the design onto the pillow. It was my first time trying it, and I love how it turned out!

Matt's and Madeleine's contributions are on this side of the room.

Madeleine's was clearly the art work. It photographed a little weird since the windows were open, but Madeleine was reading a book so I didn't want to shut them. I really love having these finger paint paintings on the wall. They are so bold and really brighten up the room.

Madeleine's favorite part of the room (and every other kid or baby that goes in there) is Matt's DIY.

He made these space shuttles models and hung them on her ceiling. He loved putting them together and seriously all the kids love looking at them. Even the two month old baby who was over this morning couldn't stop staring at them. Madeleine points to them whenever she is eating, and she frequently tries to trick me into picking her up by them so that she can touch them. What I like about them is that they are so light that if they fell on any baby or kid, the child would be fine. That's actually a big criteria for anything that goes into Madeleine's room, so I'm grateful that Matt put something that was safe and really cool.

Trendy Tot: Inspired by Kate Spade

Twice a year there is a conference of the LDS leaders and they speak to the LDS church for a total of 10 hours over two days.  Matt and I both look forward to these weekends, but neither of us are the best at listening or staying awake the whole time without some type of plan to keep us busy.

For the first two hours, Matt painted a plane model he worked on, while I made Goobie a dress.

We have a Kate Spade shop right across the street from our favorite milkshake place and our wonderful library. A few weeks ago we were walk by the store on a very cold and windy day. I was "a bit" bitter about the cold weather. When I turned the corner, the window display was bursting with lemon yellow and it completely turned around my mood, and since then I've desperately craved some type of lemon clothing in my life.

from lifeunsweetened.com/

Yesterday when I went to Joann's, I found some lemon print and immediately knew I needed to make Madeleine a dress out of it.

I love how it turned out. I used this free pattern. It was easy and simple to make.

Now we have our own little sunshine wandering around our home as we listen together as a family.

Making stuffed animals

I made a goal a month or so ago to be more creative.

With everyone buying the cutest little dolls and stuffed animals, 

I figured I'd give a shot at making my own.

Pattern here

Bunny out of a recycled t-shirt.

Pattern here

This cat is my favorite.

I really love him.

Pattern here 

I just got a few more books from the library on how to make dolls.

Hopefully I'll get around to making more soon.

These each took about the length of one foreign film.
I just need to get my house clean again first.

Crochet Collar

I'm not big into crocheting, 

but I've been eyeing crocheted collars for a while.

I think they look pretty cute,

and it only took the length of "You've Got Mail" to make it. 

One of Madeleine's anime eyes smiles

The hardest part for me was guessing what size Madeleine was.

She was already in bed when I started on it.

So here is the front and the back.

I'm pretty happy about how it turned out.

The pattern I used was this one.

I only did the first 4 rows though, 

because I didn't want it be too chucky on Madeleine.

Tada!

On another note, it was sprinkling snow this morning.

Winter is on it's way!

Calvin and Hobbes

I don't know if you all remember our living room from way back when.

But there was a big blank wall across from the photo wall.

Completely blank.

I kept bouncing ideas off Matt about what to do about it.

He hated all of them.

Like I thought a huge mirror would be cool and it would bring light in.

But he shot down calling that it would fall and kill our Tiny.

Then one Sunday, he said, lets paint something on a canvas.

Sweet!

Something abstracts since we both can't draw.

Then we were talking about colors...

and again we couldn't decide.

Matt and I then started to discuss things that we actually like.

Movies, quotes, music, books, comics.

A comic?

Black and white goes with everything,

and both of our childhoods were shaped by our love of Calvin and Hobbes.

So we got started.

We found canvases on sale,

and I eye balled which canvas I thought was closest to scale.

(I was pretty dead on too!)

Then armed with a few sharpies,

we got to work.

Here is a picture of our living room now.

(I changed up the shape of the photo wall too. I like so much better now.)

So right across from the photo wall is our comic strip.

And last and not least, here is a close up of our cold baby.

Giveaway

I've been on a toy kick on pinterest.

With Halloween over, Madeleine's 1st birthday and Christmas are coming up.

I'm not a big fan of a whole bunch of toys around the house that she doesn't like.

So I figured I'd shop around.

I found so many I love from Europe.

Like this little bunny.

Unfortunately, shipping from Europe is a bit more expensive.

So I decided to make one of my own bunnies. 

I made a few changes. But I think I did a pretty good job.

I actually loved making it.

It was so much fun piecing it together.

And then the actual hand sewing was wonderful too.

I love my sewing machine, but it is a very different experience than by doing it by hand.

So because my baby doesn't need two...

I'm giving one away to whoever wants it.

I'll even mail it to you.

(Well as long as I can send it with normal flat rate shipping)

Usually on blogs, the blogger has some type of requirement to enter.

Here's mine.

Leave a comment telling me what toys you think are cool for Tiny Creatures 

or a fun DIY craft.

I'll have Matt find me a good random number generator,

and I'll select a winner next week.