To PDF of not PDF: that is the question. Well, a question. Probably not the question.

In the year in a half that I've been selling patterns, I've physically carried more than 650 patterns down to the post office. In the beginning, I hand traced each one but I ran out of gusto (and time) after I'd traced my way through more than 400 metres of paper. About a year ago I found a lovely large scale printer which I've never, ever regretted doing. But quite often I'm asked, 'Can you send it to me as a PDF?' and the answer has always been no (unless they have access to a large scale printer in which case it's yes). But yesterday my print reorder came like this:

Sodden box courtesy of DHL, ripped box courtesy of fury

I knew that the order was coming so I stayed inside my very small house all day WITH THE CHILDREN ( yes, this deserves capitals and bold and italics) to accept the delivery. When Steven came home from work in the evening, he came bearing the box that had been left out in the rain. They hadn't bother to ring the buzzer. Here is the stack of prints with their wet cardboard-stained folds and edges:

Vintage tea-stained patterns

My lovely printers have lived up to their lovely reputation and sent out another box today, but it's made me question again: should I be offering PDFs?

Personally, I'm not a fan of PDF patterns unless it is something I require urgently. The last one I ordered was two hundred pages, and there's no way I'm going to print all of that because a) that's insane, b) I never have ink in the printer and c) that's insane. So let's say I just print the pattern pieces and read the tutorial on the computer screen. The means I either have to use my Jedi mind tricks to memorise all of the instructions or I have to continually tromp back and forth between sewing machine and computer. And let's face it, if I'm on the computer anyway, I should probably check my email and my Facebook and my blogroll and then tell everyone how much I hate PDFs on Twitter and then everyone will be all 'LOL, me too!' and suddenly it's 3AM. And the pages and pages of pattern pieces I printed? They all need to be taped together in a very intricate fashion and then cut out. Or cut out and then taped together intricately, I can't remember. Hold on, let me check the computer.... I've found that although PDFs are quick in their virtual delivery, they are decidedly unquick in practice (at least at the first use).

There's some things I really like about paper patterns:

• the excitement of receiving it in the post
  
• the physical presence of the instructions by my side
  
• the ability (should I be feeling mental) of cutting the pattern right there and now
• dare I say it??... paper printed patterns and instructions just feel more professional
  

But the case for PDFs still intrigues:

• once I spend 1,000,000 hours cutting all my patterns into little tiny pieces and scanning them in I won't need to go to the Post Office in the rain any more
• they're easily stored on my computer so I can work from anywhere without a suitcase full of paper, likewise they are stored on the buyers' computers and they can print them at will
  
• some consumers want things now and don't like waiting for the post
  
• costs will be kept down (and profit maximised) by lack of printing and shipping costs
• they sell very, very, very, well (although a disturbing number of people sell them for about £1.38 and thereby do all designers a major disservice, themselves included... but that's a whole different post)

So, what does everyone think about PDF patterns? I know some people like them but I do not. And if I didn't go to the Post Office every evening how would I get my 15 minutes of peace from the dementors?

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The Great Big Fabric Licensing Debate

The question of whether a crafter can sell products made with 'licensed' fabrics is one I see often. Anyone ever see a statement like this on a selvage?


This is a fairly common thing to see, particularly with regard to 'licensed' fabrics and particularly for fabrics more than a couple of years old. But is it actually true? Can a designer sell a fabric (or any supply) to an individual but then stipulate what it is used for? Companies like Disney, Warner Brothers, and professional sports teams all have a history of stipulating 'personal use only' on their fabrics. And, in a way, that is semi-logical as cartoon characters and team names / logos are copyright. I can't start printing my own Disney fabric. Technically speaking I can't even sell derivative works like Hello Kitty appliques I made out of felt or screenprinted t-shirts with movie names on them. But what happens if the companies themselves sell yardage of fabric featuring trademarked / copyrighted things? Can they restrict its use (which suggests that although you bought the fabric, they still have ownership) or by releasing it into the market do they forfeit their right to say how it's used?

I researched this quite a bit when I was starting out and it was even more contentious at that time. Beyond the big corporations mentioned above, even smaller fabric designers who didn't use trademarked characters or logos wanted to restrict usage. In late 2006, Amy Butler climbed down from her original limited use policy as did Heather Ross, after there was considerable uproar within the crafting community and it was pointed out that the law just did not support it. American case law says that businesses cannot restrict usage if they themselves are the ones that release it. From the First Sale Doctrine:

"The whole point of the first sale doctrine is that once the copyright owner places a copyrighted item in the stream of commerce by selling it, he has exhausted his exclusive statutory right to control its distribution."

Justice Stevens, delivering an opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court in the case QUALITY KING DISTRIBUTORS, INC. v. L'ANZA RESEARCH INT'L, INC. (96-1470), 98 F.3d 1109, reversed.

Added to several cases that have been brought to court and decided in favour of the person using licensed fabric, or settled out of court because the fabric supplier was most likely going to lose, it appears that it should be permissible to use licensed fabric to make items for sale. But that does not stop auctions being shut down on Ebay or Cease and Desist letters being issued. Corporations can rely on their relative wealth and size to intimidate people into thinking that they can't use their fabric for non-personal use.

But what about in the UK? I couldn't find a single court case to clarify what the position is here. I do know, however, of at least two people within the UK craft scene who have been told by a very well known British fabric brand that they cannot use their fabric for things they planned to sell. And they probably won't (as I wouldn't) because of the potential for Drama.

So what do you think about the licensed fabric debate? As far as I'm concerned, as long as you are clear that you are in no way affiliated or officially sanctioned by the company (e.g. by saying 'made with so-and-so fabric' instead of the more ambiguous 'so-and-so product') that you should be able to use fabric that you legally bought for whatever you'd like. I do feel more uncomfortable about re-purposed things, like if a designer screenprinted a tablecloth and you cut it up to make dresses. But that's just me. What does everyone else think?

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer so nothing I say here (or anywhere else) should be taken as legal fact. But my Dad is so I have his clever genes. I am also not incriminating myself for making the Care Bear hoodie if that was Bad Ass because Kirsty bought the fabric and hired me to sew it. Do not bother to sue me.

Further reading:
Pretty much the Bible about fabric licensing is here on Tabberone
Also, very handy 'Fabric and the Law' tag on True Up.

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Feeling perverse

Firstly, thank you all for your advice, comments and votes as to whether I should do the Country Living show. I really appreciate you all taking the time to help! I really, really want to do it in my heart but I've been looking at it objectively over the weekend and have some interesting conclusions. Well, interesting-to-me conclusions:

• In the month since coming back from the States, I've sold more than seventy patterns, but less than ten garments. By that rationale, I am more in demand as a designer than a maker. I have patterns up to 7Y/8Y in testing, and a bunch of new designs that I haven't had a chance to put on paper yet. Given that I only have to do the work on patterns once and then they take care of themselves, the best use of my time is to be developing more patterns.
  
  
• I was caught out big time this summer when I used up almost all of my fabric making things in specific styles / sizes that didn't sell at the terrible fairs. No more fabric, too much inventory, loss of flexibility to make things to order. For example, I have enough of a specific fabric for two coats and, under pressure for inventory, use it to make a jacket in 18m/2T and 3T/4T. What if someone wants a bigger size or different style? Not only can I not do that, but if those coats don't sell I have neither the flexibility nor the sale. This will be a problem for me until I start buying fewer designs of fabric, but in greater quantities.
  
  
• In my desperation to 'make enough stuff' for the fair, after finishing something I've actually caught myself thinking, 'I hope no one wants to buy this' because it would take away from my inventory. That's perverse thinking. Likewise, I'm getting emails everyday from people wanting me to make things for them, but I've been thinking I shouldn't because I need to make things for the fair. Again, perverse thinking... turning away actual business now for the prospect of business later.
  

I know that I'm turning down a chance to be uber-successful but as Emma asked, am I ready to be more busy than I am now? Things will be a lot clearer next year, Jamie will be at school and Maia at nursery and I'll have a full year of planning behind me. And the decision not to do the fair has nothing to do with this:

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How did I not know about this?!

After a mostly agreeable photoshoot with the kids yesterday afternoon, I spent the remainder of the day updating my Etsy shop with all my Ready To Ship stock. It's soooo laborious going through each one individually and by the time I'd added more than thirty listings, I was ready to (insert your own melodramatic behaviour here).

Then I saw a twitter: 'wow, so glad i found etsyhacks, makes supply listing SO much easier" and I was intrigued. I went over to Etsyhacks and found that if I installed Firefox and a couple of other programmes that I could make subsequent listings based on existing listings: No copy and pasting descriptions, no re-tagging 14 things, no re-categorising, no shipping profiles. It's all carried through, except for the photos. Whilst I wish that I had known about this yesterday morning, I'm happy that I can use it to finish filling up my shop with greater ease.

Now that I've been chanting 'shop, shop, shop' I'm sure you feel subliminally compelled to check it out for yourself. Click on the links below to see dozens of cute pics in the relevant categories. Ignore that Jamie makes a camp 'hands on hips' pose in most shots, I'm just grateful he let me take some pictures at all. Hopefully my shop will be fully stocked tonight, although I've discovered that a second Maia photoshoot is required....

Peasant tops

Organic T-shirts

Tunics

Dresses

Coats and Jackets

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Let's get stigmatised! Or not.

A couple of weeks ago, Steven and I were looking at the Sustained feature and he noticed the price of the jacket at the bottom of the page.

Steven: '£110?! That's a lot of money!'
Me: 'Isn't that what you paid for your Luke 1977 jacket?'
Steven: 'Yeah, but that's a brand.'

Has anyone had a conversation like this, even with someone who can see the amount of time and effort that goes into making things? After completing my diatribe as to why a handmade jacket should cost more than a mass-produced one I've been giving this question a lot of thought: When you buy something, what is it that you are paying for?

Is it the craftsmanship? By and large, my experience of handmade goods is that they are of high quality. Properly priced handmade goods tend to be made by people who take themselves seriously and have confidence in their craftsmanship. We are not paid on the basis of how many items we can churn out in a shift as people in factories are (quantity over quality), we make and sell in low volumes so customer satisfaction is paramount (quality over quantity). If you are a small business with a quality issue, your sales base will shrink as you lose repeat customers and word-of-mouth sales.

Is it innovation and design? The handmade sector has a definite advantage over factory made in this respect. We offer small batch runs (or even One Of A Kind and custom orders) and we are more likely to change our designs often depending on available materials and 'creative vision'. I like the fact there are only five orange bird print coats in the world (in three different countries no less), my customers like that too.

Most simplistically, when you buy from big business you are paying for the 'brand' and this means the name, the image, the marketing strategy, the warehouses, the design team, the overseas production, etc. But on a more fundamental level, what you are actually buying is credibility. To a lot of people, a 'brand' equals validation; the fact it even exists lends itself credibility. It makes you think, 'For this to be a brand, people must buy their things. People buy their things because it has value. I will pay money for this (I might even pay a lot of money), because it is a brand and other people must do the same for it to exist.'

So what can you do if you want to be taken seriously? In short, do everything that a brand would do (at least superficially):

• Give your business a name, this is now your brand. Think about the connotations of your name-- would "Amanda's Handmade Baby Clothes" make potential customers think I was professional? If you're stuck, treat it like you're naming your rock band. Do they make any sense?! No, and you don't have to either.
• Get a web presence, or at least a dedicated email address with your company name in it. Buyers would like to be able to contact you at businesslikeperson@properbusiness.co.uk much more than they would like to contact you at amandalikestoparty@hotmail.com. If you don't want to set up on your own, join a selling platform that will give you your own shop. I've found that sites specifically for handmade goods like Etsy or Folksy are better suited for me than Ebay. You are in a crafting community and your buyers expect (and appreciate) that they are handmade goods.
• Get labels on your products, you will immediately gain credibility. This is less expensive than you think (I buy sew-in name tapes), or you can even make your own with iron-on printer paper or a stamp and twill tape.
• Get a logo. Again, you don't need to do anything fancy. I just have my business name in a special font and bright colours. There are plenty of free font websites to have a play about with. Or, pay a very reasonable amount to a graphic designer. There are hundreds on Etsy alone who will make you logos, banners, avatars etc. and grant you instant professionalism.
• Don't underestimate the power of swing tags. Everything in a shop has one, your goods will look much more credible with them. It's subliminal. All you need is a hole punch and a bit of creativity. Hand tied ribbon or twine looks very pretty but a tagging gun is cheap, easy to use and very quick.
• If you're selling at a fair, get a sign. Or bunting. Anything that draws people in and announces your brand.
• Most importantly, get thick skin. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has heard someone say at a craft fair, 'I'm not paying that much for something handmade!' (Italics used to denote disdain). They are not your target buyers and never will be.

I'd love to know what other people's thoughts are about being taken seriously as a maker! Or any tips you might have as well :)

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Tarting up my sidebar

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you for making it into the body of my post as that is probably the least alluring title in the history of blogging. You must be very bored dedicated, I commend you.

Now, you might have noticed that I've been making some changes to my sidebar:

• Gone is my 'What Brings You Here?' poll:
  
  
  It is very interesting know that 83% of my readers are self-interested and / or mysterious (optimism + curiousity + something else). Apologies to the real-life people I ignore in favour of blogging, and I'm sending a thank you into the ether for the three people who found themselves here through mishap or misadventure (but stopped long enough to tell me). As far as schadenfreude, glad to be of service! In all seriousness... an honest-to-goodness thank you for your votes, I really appreciate it!


• I've added an RSS feeder type thing. Ever wonder what one of these are?
  
  I've seen this button or allusions to RSS over on proper blogs. And then I was over on KitschenSink's blog yesterday and she was posting about it and I thought, 'Hmmm, I'll have me one of those'. I still don't completely understand it (at least not enough to explain it to you without sounding like a numpty), but rest assured, it makes me a proper blogger now. If I understand correctly, you can sign up and your feed will collect my posts so you can read them at your leisure. Or immediately, preferably.


• I've added a storefront for my patterns, right in my blog. Now you never need to leave. This is a new widget through Paypal, it was a total frickin nightmare to install and looks a tiny bit crap, but it took me all day to make so it's staying for now.


• Finally, being narcissistic business-minded, I think everyone should know about my blog. But I'm not too great at the whole 'come over and see what I wrote!' thing so I joined Chic Chick Media, which is a cross-promotional blog button for women bloggers.
  
  
  When you join, you write a brief description of your blog and put it into three categories. Then you display the button on your blog (also choosing three categories) and everyone is cross-promotionally happy! It's still early days, but looking at my Google Analytics about ten percent of my current traffic is coming here through these links. They may not be staying, but they're coming. So it's one to watch perhaps...


• Oh, and I've removed my sleep counter. Don't worry, I don't need a widget to remember.

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For what it's worth

Probably one of the hardest (and most personal) decisions when you first start selling your handmade goodies is how to price them. Do you use formulas based on materials and an hourly wage? Study going rates of what people are willing to pay for similar things and follow the trends? Are they plucked from the ether? Trial and error? Consult your Magic Eight ball?

It's incredibly common when you first start selling to set your prices too low. You're not established, you worry that people might not buy your things if your price actually reflects your time and effort. Maybe you see how cheap things are on the High Street, and think, 'Why would anyone buy my ten quid t-shirt when they can buy a five quid one from Tesco's? I'm going to have to price mine at five too...' And even if you're comparing your things to other handmade goods, you might think, 'They're established, I can't charge the same amount because everyone will buy from them...' and you make your cheaper price tag the differentiator to try to generate business.

None of this thinking is bad or wrong, it's almost universal when you start out. I've only been selling for nine months, and when I started my prices were generally 50% to 100% lower than they are now. Sure, I sold a lot of things because I was cheap but I was hardly clearing any profit and was selling myself short. And probably pissing off other makers by devaluing handmade. In my experience, people buy handmade because they value handmade, not because it happens to be the same price as something mass manufactured in the developing world.

How should you determine your prices?

Materials are really your bottom line, you should at least try not to sell something for less than your material costs. Unless of course you're doing a loss-leader to generate more lucrative sales, in which case you won't need my advice and I should be reading your blog instead. If you have to sell at a loss to get rid of it, either your materials are too expensive or it's just not desirable enough. *feeling mean* It's worth saying though, that if you physically have goods that are already made, eventually it's better to sell it for something than keep it for nothing. Decrease your price gradually until you have a taker, re-coup some of your investment and learn from it. I hardly keep any stock now, because I don't like having things hanging around not selling. I'll make it once, list it, use the same materials to make other things, and thereby cover my back and make it more likely that my materials aren't sitting around either.

But what about time and labour? I personally don't have an 'hourly rate' rule. If I did, I'd have some crazy prices. For example, I could probably applique fifty t-shirts in the time it takes me to make a complicated three layer jacket. Materials nonwithstanding, should I therefore price my t-shirts at a fiftieth of the cost of my jackets (supermarket prices) or inflate the prices of my jackets to fifty times my t-shirt price (designer prices)? It wouldn't make for a very homogenous brand if I did either of those things. The key for me is to spread my time and profit over a lot of different designs. My ratio of time to profit might be poorer for complicated things, but they are what drive people to my shop, and increase sales overall... including things that have a higher time to profit ratio. As long as it doesn't ridiculously undermine the value of my time (and of course covers the material costs) if a particular item sells at a particular price then I'll generally go for it.

How do I determine the 'particular price'?

Probably the most important factor for me when determining prices (and indeed deciding which designs it's worth pursuing) is the going rate. And that's not just the going rate for all sellers of a similar item, but the going rate of my items (because I'm special, my Mom says so). I have been suitably nervous each time I've increased my prices, but sales have increased as well. That just proves to me that I have been underestimating my product worth. Of course, it can go the other way too. You might think your stuff (especially if you're basing it on an hourly rate) is worth more than people are willing to pay. For example, what if I decided to stop buying blank t-shirts to appliques and sewed them myself? It just wouldn't be worth my while, because an extra two hours to make a blank t-shirt to applique is unlikely to impress a buyer enough to spend twice as much.

It also goes the other way though. One thing that's always quite shocked me is the price of 'boutique' children's clothing in the States. Most commonly seen on Ebay (but also Etsy to a certain extent), they are listings like this one:

The listing is only the dress, none of the accessories. It does have a lot of applique work to be fair. So what do you think... what's it worth? Well, according to the seller: $325 or best offer. I've checked out her feedback and although she hasn't achieved this price for any of her recent sales, she's having an awful lot of sales at around the $100 mark . I always tut when I see the prices that 'boutique' clothing sells for, but their value is based on what people are willing to pay.

If only I had the stomach to make such things, I could be raking it in too...

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