Wow! As I scroll back through the Sewspire feed, I am so pleased with the number of new bag designs I was able to introduce to our community this summer.
Amongst my favorites are the Magical Unicorn Glitter Bag, Ultimate Commuter Tote Bag, Grocery Tote, Yoga Bag, Waxed Canvas Messenger Bag, Market Tote Bag and my newest design, The Lifestyle Tote in a PDF and available for instant download. That's a lot of great content, that for the most part was totally FREE to you as a subscriber.
I know many of you have had much success making and reselling these designs. I love that! For those of you who are considering selling your finished Sewspire projects I really want to encourage you to price those pieces so that you are generously compensated for your time and talents. For example, if I were selling my Lifestyle Tote in my Etsy shop, I would price that at $156 plus shipping. That calculation is based upon the materials and labor I have invested in producing the bag.
That being said you may be wondering how or WHY I would in turn offer the written tutorial to our community for the ultra low price of $3.99 (I must be crazy!) The answer is simple. We have many talented subscribers who will partake in the offer and thereby the cost is divided amongst a large population and the price is much lower as a result. Think of it like buying the patterns at wholesale or even better, like a sewing cooperative where everyone pays a little and gets a lot!
Moving forward, I hope to produce more complex patterns and designs to present in the same written format and will be saving the shorter projects that are easier to make for our traditional start to finish video format. I hope that works well for you as I believe this will offer our growing community a nice balance.
If you are new to the channel and bag designing, I suggest you begin by making a few of my simpler bags before attempting the more complex PDF tutorials such as the Original Messenger Bag and the Market Tote.
On Saturday we will be making an updated version of the three ring binder cover and in the weeks that follow I am enlisting all of you to help me create an amazing craft show display for an event I am participating in on September 15th. I am really looking forward to working on the display and think you will find this craft show series to be a lot of fun as it will involve many small projects and we will have the opportunity to talk more about pricing, sales strategies and happily accepting rejection (yep, not everyone is going to want to buy your products, it's a fact and you can handle that with grace and gratitude, I promise.)
Until we meet again, please know, the creative genius in me will be celebrating the creative genius in you!
XO,
Andrea
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To be featured as a Creative Genius use #Sewspire or @Sewspire on our Facebook and Instagram. Visit sewspire.com for detailed instructions on how to sew any of the projects featured.
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Featured Creative Genius: Cheryl Shook's Bucket Style Convertible Bags
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Featured Creative Genius: Linda Joy's Yoga Bag
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Featured Creative Genius: Rita Nelson's Magical Glitter Bag
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Featured Creative Genius: Hayley Wain's City Slicker Tote
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Featured Creative Genius: Alex Gaud's Three Way Divided Caddies
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Featured Creative Genius: Gwen Dowell's Six Pocket Tote Bag
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Upcoming YouTube Tutorials
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August 25: Three Ring Binder Cover / Organizer (full video, FREE)
September 1: Part 1: Fabric Covered Ladder & Craft Show Display (three part video series, FREE)
September 8: Part 2: Fabric Covered Ladder & Craft Show Display
September 15: Part 3: Fabric Covered Ladder & Craft Show Display
September 29: The whole cloth quilt I turned into a bag (PDF, Instant Download, $3.99)
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Congratulations to this week's happy mail winner and featured creative genius Gwen Dowell! (To claim your prize Gwen, simply reply to this email with your mailing address and I will ship your gift.)
If you would enjoy receiving a handmade gift in the mail I invite you to subscribe to the Happy Mail list.
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Andrea's Fabric Picks of the Week
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As mentioned, last week, exciting changes are coming to The Fourth Seam and as part of that I will soon be discontinuing the $9.99 Read Only membership option. If you would enjoy consuming the content on your own schedule grab that Read Only deal before it is gone forever.
In September, I will be introducing small group sessions in which we will move through the content together and set weekly goals to grow your Etsy shop. It's going to be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to sharing my Etsy expertise with the group while creating a valuable support system for those who participate. If you would like to be amongst the first to know about these new opportunities to work with me please add your name to my mailing list at The Fourth Seam by clicking here.
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