a flurry of movement

You know how when you meet new people, one of the first questions they ask is what you do for a living? Ever since leaving my job as a grocery-store-checker in the Summer of 2009, I've answered that I work from home, doing hand-sewing and selling my creations through Etsy, but I've always felt like a bit of a fraud when saying it. Sure, sewing at home and selling the results is what I do with the majority of my time, but I've never made a living wage doing it. If I were single and living on my own, I'd have to have a more traditional day-job as well. It's still only a supplemental income, if we're looking at it from a purely financial standpoint. It's more tangible than that, though, from a personal and philosophical standpoint.

It's nearly impossible to make a living wage through a small online shop filled with handmade goods. A very small percentage of the people who do this sort of thing are able to live off that income alone. Granted, I don't have the overhead that a brick and mortar store does, but my fabric collection took time and money to grow to its current size. We built a house with an extra bedroom partially as a computer room and partially because I needed a studio to work in. Each item I make takes a decent amount of time to draft, trace, cut, and put together. If it's an item that needs hand-stitched button holes, then shit just got real. This is a time-consuming endeavor, for sure. Three years in and it's starting to come together into something real and rewarding.

My brand is becoming more than just an etsy storefront, it's becoming an extension of myself. My aesthetic is unmistakeably Jasie. 2011 has been a year of tremendous growth for me and my sewing in that my vision for what I want Soft & Cozy to be has hit its target like a guided awesome-seeking missile.

This has been a year of many firsts for my business.

• I was asked to be part of a group Holiday Sale at the Hand Work Studio, which is an exciting artist co-op just down the road from my house. It was a great event to be a part of and it gave me the opportunity to make some great contacts, get some exposure, and be a part of something that is just bursting with creative energy! I decided going in that as long as I broke even on my booth fee, I'd consider the sale a financial success - That happened with my second customer, twenty minutes after the doors opened. Anything after that was a bonus, I figured. I ended up walking away with another dozen sales by the end of it!

• I also signed up for several time-slots in the alcove at the front of our local Food Co-op, a space they let local cottage merchants reserve for free. Since there was no fee, any sale I made was a profit. Granted, I didn't make many sales, though once Thanksgiving had passed and people were in gift-buying mode, it definitely picked up. The main benefit of being in that space was the exposure. A LOT of people stopped to talk to me about what I do and many took a business card, which is always a good thing. Even if it goes to the bottom of their purse and they don't see it for months, I'm up in their brain and they'll remember my stuff the next time they see it.

The crowd at the Hand Work Studio's Holiday Sale

What a turn out!

• And this brings us to business cards - I finally invested in some this Summer. It was about damn time. I went with a local printing company (warning, their website is straight out of 1998. Yikes), rather than moo or vistaprint or any of those online business card places and although it was a little more spendy, they had great service and I was happy with the results. Local businesses for the win!

• The biggest opportunity I was given this year was to teach hand-sewing workshops at AoT. Not many people learn how to sew by hand in this day and age and for me to get to share something that I am passionate about and proficient at was a great amount of fun. I taught two different patchwork projects and got to hang out with some really neat people while doing it! We even got a shout-out from a local radio show during our last class, since we let them know we were listening in. There's nothing like listening to Fugazi and drinking champagne while sewing away with a great group of local ladies. I'll be continuing these classes in the new year, hopefully every month, and we'll be branching out into other forms of creative crafting. Stay tuned.
  

Me in full-on instructor mode. Check out that level of focus. ZAP!

And they're deep in it too.

As 2012 grows closer and closer (seriously, why does time move so much more quickly as I age?! This Winter has been such a blur and when did Fall happen?) I'm honing in even more specifically on what I want for Soft & Cozy and my sewing in general. I'm most excited about some new products I'll be integrating into my inventory in the coming months - there will be more wearable patchwork goodies as well as some new home decor items that are SO me that it's scary. I look forward to sharing all of this and more with you.