We Are The Burps Queens

[Pedal Pusher]

Here are some burps that my daughter found in a trendy boutique. They were 25.00. I say they don't have anything on us. Wish we got 25.00 for ours.
1055

1056

1057

1058

Donna

[kidzbizz]

Wow maybe some of us need to contact that shop owner and show them so of the burp cloths that have been shown here.

Judie

[Pedal Pusher]

I never understand it. I took some to a craft show a month ago and had them priced at 10. Didn't sell any.

Donna

[kidzbizz]

I started making a few for shower gifts and got orders from those. I was selling mine for $12.00 each.

Judie

[Pedal Pusher]

Wish I could find a boutique like this that would give me that kind of cash for my stuff.

Donna

[Granny313]

Wish I could find a boutique like this that would give me that kind of cash for my stuff.

Donna

Don't We All?

[Sew So Happy]

I sell mine for $10, also. That seems to be the magic number for me. I can't believe people would pay that much for something you wipe up baby puke with!:)

[kidzbizz]

I started out at $10 and one day I quoted $12 and the girl bought 3 of them lol. So my price is $12 now. I also did a design and name on crib sheets and told the girl $10 for those. She bought the crib sheets and still paid me $15 for each

Judie

[fun2sew]

I sell mine for 12.00 or 2 for 20.00
When I make them I stitch a couple at a time with the same design so I just need to add a name or trim to save time!
I have good luck with these prices!

[StitchinGrandma]

The board hubby and I used to moderate until this Summer had tons of young Moms/Moms-to-be and they all were going NUTS over polka dots, stripes, and toille designed fabric on almost anything they could get their hands on for babies. They saw those things and would pay anything for them as long as there was a monogram too. $25 doesn't surprise me at all because for many of those girls "boutique" is the key word they loved throwing around because it is some sort of status thing with younger moms now. I don't understand that myself because when I had kids I looked for the best quality and cheaper prices items.

[Lisaa]

LOL, I'm working on an embroidery open house invitation tonight and just went back and added the word "boutique" to it after reading this post. I, too, sell my burp cloths for $12 and that's my magic number.

[StitchinGrandma]

LOL Hopefully that will do it for you Lisa and double those sales. ;)

[PlaynInPJs]

Vicki you are sooooo right about the boutique thing.....sometimes it makes me sad to see the money they waste in these boutiques and have to have the very best of everything.......if they would just be a little thrifty maybe they could stay at home with their kids. Lorie

[Sew So Happy]

Vicki you are sooooo right about the boutique thing.....sometimes it makes me sad to see the money they waste in these boutiques and have to have the very best of everything.......if they would just be a little thrifty maybe they could stay at home with their kids. Lorie

Keeping up with the Jones might be what put us all in this economic crisis! A little creativity on their parts would give them the boutique look and save them money at the same time!:D

[StitchinGrandma]

Keeping up with the Jones might be what put us all in this economic crisis!

I've been saying that for months now. Everyone has to have THE best house, car(s), huge campers they can't afford, go out to eat every night and spend as soon as they get their paychecks because they may have some friends that can afford those things.

[PlaynInPJs]

You took the words right out of my mouth!!! All you have to do is drive down any street and see all the atv's,trucks,trailers,boats, houses and all the toys for sale. The only thing we woman need............. is the BEST machine we can afford!! lol Lorie

[for my kids]

I agree....my most expensive "toy" is my machine! LOL... I pd cash for my travel trailer and it cost less than my machine!! It is an old vintage airstream..we fixed it up and love the thing...you don't have to have the newest things to get the best quality or the most expensive...I gave a friend of mine a whole basket full of embroidered baby things for her baby shower...the girls freaked out thinking "you must have spent a fortune" the boutique here sells burps for 18-20...very simple not as detailed or as cute as our stuff here...I have an aquaintance that is about to start up her own beauty parlor and she wants me to put in a corner for my embroidered stuff...think I'll call it "Cindy's boutique" LOL

[StitchinGrandma]

Cindy ~ I think you should name that "For My Kids Boutique" ;)

[idesign]

Just got back from an out of town baby shower, and got raves over bib and burp cloths I made. I had to laugh over "boutique" as the magic word to sell our stuff, and think you are right. Of course, the boutique owner has to pay a huge amount of overhead, so we can't expect to sell our things for the same amount, but we can pat ourselves on the back for our thrift and creativity.

I "drive" a nearly new Babylock BMP6, but the cars in our driveway are nothing new or great. I'd much rather drive my embroidery machine!

Carol

[Pedal Pusher]

Lisa will you explain the open house thing?

[StitchinGrandma]

Obviously I'm not Lisa but I used to have a craft sale open house on my front porch near the holidays so peple could come by whenever they wanted during the hours I had that open. They would come to purchase gift items and some would place orders or things that had already sold out. I loved doing those much more than any craft shows because I could run it for any amount of time period from just one day, or a weekend, or even two weeks and it was during times that I was home and could still do my daily things. It worked great for me.

I liked the weekend though much more than an extended sale since I could have a nicer set up with homemade cookies and coffee/punch they could have while shopping. I had my porch decorated for the holidays with Christmas music playing to get the shoppers more in the mood and the free cookies offered was fun too. Some people actually placed orders for my cookies even so I made more money from those too back then.

[idesign]

Vicki, you have such good ideas! I suppose you have a reputation from years of doing this, too? I bet people love attending your "porch sale". It sounds like a lot of fun, and a great idea! How did you get the word out, especially the first time?

Carol

[PlaynInPJs]

I live in a small town in the country and people have these sales all the time.....especially close to christmas. Normally you can advertise in the local paper for "free"......I love them, you get alot of ideas and see what all the local crafters are doing....my friend shears sheep, tints and spins the wool to make socks.......also lots of quilters. Lorie

[Lisaa]

My open house is next Friday. I've sent out evites to everyone I know e-mail addresses for and will also pass out printed invitations to everyone else. I'll have several of my items on display in my home, photos of items I've done in the past, and my fonts and embroidery designs in a notebook for people to choose from. I'll have a few items for immediate purchase but mostly I'll take orders since everything can be personalized. I'm selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, throws, handmade and embroidered pillows, key fobs, travel mugs, Christmas ornaments, burp cloths, towels, etc.

This is the first one I've done and I'm nervous trying to get everything ready in time! My son is in school but I have a two year old at home. She goes to part time preschool so I have to squeeze in all my work when she's at school and after the kids go to bed. I'm actually going to another embroidery open house today to scope out my competition!!

[kidzbizz]

This sounds great. Let us know how it goes.

Judie

[StitchinGrandma]

Vicki, you have such good ideas! I suppose you have a reputation from years of doing this, too? I bet people love attending your "porch sale". It sounds like a lot of fun, and a great idea! How did you get the word out, especially the first time?

Carol
Carol it's been years since I did any of this stuff and back then (about 10 yrs ago) most of mine was hand painted craft stuff as my ex-husband was a woodworker. We both did things for sale. He did a lot of scrollwork that was very pretty and then he cut out tons of things for me like ornaments and things I could paint and glue pins on to wear. I also hand painted tshirts and sweatshirts. Most people wanted to order decorated cakes, cookies, or my homemade candies I had for sale too. I limited myself on cakes because of carpul tunnel though or I could have made a lot of money. I had to turn down a lot of people because of that. :(

Like Lisa and Lorie said ~ letting everyone you know and even those you don't in any way you can find to do it. Back when I was doing it there was a special area in our school newsletter that was sent home with the kids in all grades where they allowed craft sales to put a small ad in for free. That was probably the biggest one. Our school district is just now utilizing the internet more but you might also check in your area to see if the school has a public part of their website for community events that you could put a little blurb there. Also, our local tv stations have free advertising on their website so you might check that as well. There was also a group of women that rented a small log cabin in town and we used that for a small one day only craft sale. It was very cozy because of the log cabin helping to make it more homey like. We split the cost of that rental and each provided a certain number of homemade holiday cookies and had coffee for free for everyone to have as they shopped. But, knowing that was going to be drawing a lot of people I also had flyers made for my space at that sale advertising my open house sale so those that didn't have money that day could take those and come to my sale a few weeks later. We also have a free newspaper that is delivered to every home within about a six county wide area and they charge a very small fee for ads so I placed a few there to run in 2-3 sections of that paper for 1-2 days a week. I placed that ad in the rummage sale area, for sale area, and then the notices area to hit people that only read certain parts of the ad section.

My open house is next Friday. I've sent out evites to everyone I know e-mail addresses for and will also pass out printed invitations to everyone else. I'll have several of my items on display in my home, photos of items I've done in the past, and my fonts and embroidery designs in a notebook for people to choose from. I'll have a few items for immediate purchase but mostly I'll take orders since everything can be personalized. I'm selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, throws, handmade and embroidered pillows, key fobs, travel mugs, Christmas ornaments, burp cloths, towels, etc.

This is the first one I've done and I'm nervous trying to get everything ready in time! My son is in school but I have a two year old at home. She goes to part time preschool so I have to squeeze in all my work when she's at school and after the kids go to bed. I'm actually going to another embroidery open house today to scope out my competition!!
GOOD LUCK Lisa! I'm sure you'll do great! It sounds like you are getting the word out and are doing great a planning.

[PlaynInPJs]

Good Luck Lisa....I sounds like you have a good assortment of gifts and having the sale this early will give you lots of time to embroider the personal gifts. I like the idea of a book with all the things you have done and can do........but most of all have fun. Lorie

[idesign]

Thanks for all the ideas. Good luck to those who will be doing these sales, and let us know how it goes!

Carol

[Granny313]

Lisa - Good Luck with your sale. I had thought of doing this last year, but time slipped up on me. My daughter also has "home parties" with her hair bows, etc and I send my book and samples with her to take orders. You may want to consider this also. If someone books a party then she gives them 10-20% off of their order. You would be surprised how many people she has contact her. Just an idea for you and everyone else.

Debbie

[Lisaa]

Thanks, ladies! I need all the luck I can get!!

[grniys]

I have to admit, cute burp cloths is one of the biggest reasons I wanted an embroidery machine in the first place. When my dh and I lived in NC we would go to this waterfront town and they had an expensive baby boutique there with burp cloths that looked like the ones in those pictures for $25+ each. I wanted them soooo bad, but was not willing to shell out the cash.

I figure the cost of my machine is more than justified by all the money I'll be saving by not buying expensive burps but making them myself. ;)

Lisa, good luck with your open house! That sounds like a lot of fun!

[haydensmom]

Wow $25? That's insane!

[danamom4]

My open house is next Friday. I've sent out evites to everyone I know e-mail addresses for and will also pass out printed invitations to everyone else. I'll have several of my items on display in my home, photos of items I've done in the past, and my fonts and embroidery designs in a notebook for people to choose from. I'll have a few items for immediate purchase but mostly I'll take orders since everything can be personalized. I'm selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, throws, handmade and embroidered pillows, key fobs, travel mugs, Christmas ornaments, burp cloths, towels, etc.

This is the first one I've done and I'm nervous trying to get everything ready in time! My son is in school but I have a two year old at home. She goes to part time preschool so I have to squeeze in all my work when she's at school and after the kids go to bed. I'm actually going to another embroidery open house today to scope out my competition!!

How was the open house? We would like to hear all about it. Sounds fun.

[LK]

I would love to have an open house next year and would love any tips that you ladies have to offer. I think after reading your posts that I should increase my burp cloth price to 10 because I have only been charging 8 a piece. How much do you ladies charge for kitchen towels? I have a hard time pricing my items because I am a bargain shopper and will only buy something if it is a great deal. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

[lotto64]

I'm a newbie, but I get $8 ea. for burps,havent done kit. towels yet. If they look really fancy, lots of trim and sewing on the seams (I saw a pretty one done with contrasting thread in a blanket stitch that really accented the design) and the quality is excellent, then I'd price those at $10. A lot depends on what the market in your area will bear. My philosophy is if I do it too cheap, it's not worth it cuz I won't make anything. Therefore, below a certain price, I will not turn on my machine, unless I choose to do it as a gift.

You could offer some more simple burps (smaller designs in 1 color, less stitch count) not trimmed out to the hilt for $8. That would help those who have to be budget conscious.

[dixiechicken]

I have to admit, cute burp cloths is one of the biggest reasons I wanted an embroidery machine in the first place. When my dh and I lived in NC we would go to this waterfront town and they had an expensive baby boutique there with burp cloths that looked like the ones in those pictures for $25+ each. I wanted them soooo bad, but was not willing to shell out the cash.

I figure the cost of my machine is more than justified by all the money I'll be saving by not buying expensive burps but making them myself. ;)

Lisa, good luck with your open house! That sounds like a lot of fun!

Me too!! I got a few things before my son was born with his name on them. I LOVED it. But no way would I pay 25 buck for a burp cloth!:eek: That's why I decided to do my own stuff. I think I might add "boutique style burp cloths" to my description of stuff I sell. See if that works!

[lotto64]

I've seen much cuter things on these boards! We have some talented folks. Gee, pay me $25 for mine!! LOL I must work too cheap-mine are only $8 each, but I'm getting started and only have done a few. I do have an order to put names on a set of towels that a lady is giving for a gift. She's buying and bringing me the towels, and will come pick up. I'm only charging $5 per towel, but I'm trying to build business now. My little town, people can't afford really high prices; the $25 burp would dry rot on the shelf!!!