Local Craft Fairs

[loves_funeral_song]

I just recently started sewing as a hobby, and I've decided to join up with a friend of mine who crochets to rent a booth at our local annual craft fair. It's in October and with limited free-time (I have a one-year old who is ALWAYS keeping tabs on me) I'm trying to get a lot of things done. It lasts for three days so that means I'll need to make plenty of inventory for those three days!

Do you think people prefer to buy things in sets/pairs? I plan on making some sets for nurseries (pillow pair, curtains and blanket) and bedrooms, and maybe even sets for dining rooms (placemats, runners, napkins) and such. Plus, I'm going to make just seperate pieces for fun. I'm even considering sewing up a few Halloween costumes because Halloween items are huge sellers at the craft fair! I want to keep things fairly simple, though, at least this year. If it's a success, I may go again next year.

Do and of you have local craft fairs that you attend or even participate in? If so, what sorts of things do you look for and/or make? 3nodding  

[damnatio memoriae]

Hey Loves! Thanks again for the sewing help. I switched out the thread and I'm sewing again!
As far as sets goes, I like to have the option to purchase individually. Maybe you could sew sets and price them separately, or maybe you could sell like things together, i.e. 4 place mats could be sold together and sell the matching seat covers separately???
Try and read your customers. If they seem like they don't want to commit to a set then break the set up but charge them more for the individual piece. You could just price things like that too, like 4 for $15 or 1 for $5.

Here's an idea for a Halloween item (modeled by my baby whee ). This one booth was selling these things like hotcakes to everyone who had a little girl. They look pretty easy to make, just some velvety cloth, stiff liner, feathers and ribbon. I bet you could make a pretty penny!
 

[DecemberFlower]

I'm not terribly involved in anything local, so I have no idea when or where there'd be local craft fairs. I also don't really know what would sell well around here. I dye yarn and fiber, and I spin yarn, and while that works well online, I don't know if there's a large enough local scene for it. I think trying to plan for something like that would be a bit of a risk for me.  

[loves_funeral_song]

damnatio memoriae

Hey Loves! Thanks again for the sewing help. I switched out the thread and I'm sewing again!
As far as sets goes, I like to have the option to purchase individually. Maybe you could sew sets and price them separately, or maybe you could sell like things together, i.e. 4 place mats could be sold together and sell the matching seat covers separately???
Try and read your customers. If they seem like they don't want to commit to a set then break the set up but charge them more for the individual piece. You could just price things like that too, like 4 for $15 or 1 for $5.

Here's an idea for a Halloween item (modeled by my baby whee ). This one booth was selling these things like hotcakes to everyone who had a little girl. They look pretty easy to make, just some velvety cloth, stiff liner, feathers and ribbon. I bet you could make a pretty penny!

I want to sew some seperate pieces as well, but you do have a good idea. I'll keep that in mind when the time comes. ^_^

I would love to sew some Halloween pieces! If I get a better sewing machine, I'm going to try my hand at sewing a few costumes, because Halloween items are huge sellers. They sell so many of those princess hats at the craft fair, too! I've seen them for as much as $12 for really small ones.  

[loves_funeral_song]

DecemberFlower

I'm not terribly involved in anything local, so I have no idea when or where there'd be local craft fairs. I also don't really know what would sell well around here. I dye yarn and fiber, and I spin yarn, and while that works well online, I don't know if there's a large enough local scene for it. I think trying to plan for something like that would be a bit of a risk for me.

The only reason I know about this craft fair is a few years back, a friend of mine's family rented a booth there to sell some things they had made. I went everywhere online trying to find information for it this year and finally found it. I'm no good at selling stuff online, or else I'd be doing that already! Not to mention, my local area os chock-full of little old rich ladies, and they all love things hand made. 3nodding  

[Silver Mist]

Another good idea if you enjoy doing stuff like curtains, etc, is to print off some decent business cards for the fair. Then, if people are redecorating, and want stuff made out a certain material you could hand out cards, and maybe get more work out of it off in the near future. ^^

I am also looking into setting up with some friends at an outdoor flea market sort of deal. One of my friends has visited the flea market the last 2 years and saw a ton of booths selling hand made items, so we figure its good place to start since booths are so cheap. So, good luck!  

[loves_funeral_song]

Silver Mist

Another good idea if you enjoy doing stuff like curtains, etc, is to print off some decent business cards for the fair. Then, if people are redecorating, and want stuff made out a certain material you could hand out cards, and maybe get more work out of it off in the near future. ^^

I am also looking into setting up with some friends at an outdoor flea market sort of deal. One of my friends has visited the flea market the last 2 years and saw a ton of booths selling hand made items, so we figure its good place to start since booths are so cheap. So, good luck!

I planned on getting together a mailing list of addresses and e-mail addresses so that I could announce that I have new stuff for sale. I was going to get a cheap notebook and just have people write names and addresses in it. Business cards can get pretty pricey (well, for me they can, cuz I'm po').

I wished the craft fair wasn't the only local event around here that did stuff like this, because I really think it'd be a lot of fun to make some extra money to support my hobby. I just hope my booth is a success!  

[Aki Yasu]

I have a friend who works craft shows and she has noticed that mothers/older ladies like to buy sets, and younger people like to buy one or two items rather than sets.  

[loves_funeral_song]

I'm thinking of sticking with handbags for the craft fair now. I'm getting pretty good at sewing tote bags and I'm going to make bags with handles (those premade ones and get some of those metal handle-thingies and such and so on) and maybe some misc. items for variety.

I'm going to buy Halloween and Christmas-themed fabrics too, because it's so close to those holidays. I might sew them in sets, you know, like small-medium-and big bags. They'd be great as gift bags, too!