But will it sell?.....the world of craft fairs

Will it sell? Is it worth the hassle of craft fairs? Will you make money?

Well.......my resounding answer to all of those is "NO"!

The church I used to belong to had a craft fair every October, and the last couple of years, I not only helped make stuff for them to sell but also bought a table and tried to sell stuff for myself. What an experience. I seldom made enough money to cover the cost of my table and it kept me away from making the stuff I really wanted to make.I got pretty "creative" with my own designer logos and tags. My main lines were "Book Bags & Beyond", "Fabulous Fabric Fortune Cookies", "Tea for Two" and "Seasonal Pillow Shams". There were lots of misc. items that didn't fall in any of those categories.......pin cushions, needle cases, bags to hang on walkers, table runners, polar fleece hats, a few small wall hangings, and I sold quite a few lap quilts, but only by special order to friends. Another probolem with selling, is that anyone who makes crafts themselves, just looks at what you did.....and goes home and makes their own. I know because I've done that, too!

Reversable book bags are my favorite thing to make. It allows me to play with making one block and then just turning it into a bag. I sold quite a few....some aren't shown here and I also gave away a lot to friends and family, so it gets confusing!

These are the 2 that I personally carry. They are great for books or for something like carrying your knitting around. The hardest part of trying to sell stuff for me, was pricing it. People do not want to pay for your time. I on the other hand, do not want to work for a quarter an hour. Even small items take time and of course materials! A bag like this takes 2-3 fat quarters plus some batting in the front area and the webbing for handles. I can't sell something like this for $5 even if you CAN go buy something just as nice in a store! That is the biggest problem.....there are handcrafted items being mass produced in third world countries where people are happy to get 25 cents an hour!

This was a bag I made for a friend who is a bird carver. It has no handles in this photo because I was not done with it. Making gifts and making things to sell at the same time was way too time consuming and I wasn't making any real money! I'd rather make gifts for family and friends. Every time my sister bought something from me, I felt so guilty! I do not have the heart of a merchandiser.

My second favorite thing to make are these tea cup coasters and other coasters. All of these were Christmas gifts one year for everyone in the family! I also made tea bag wallets to carry tea bags in your purse.

A lady in a red hat group hired me to make several as Christmas gifts and even gave me the material to make them! I made a red hat bag for a friend, also.

Fabulous Fabric Fortune Cookies!.......seemed like such a good idea when I started making them! I even have little carry-out Chinese boxes left from our daughter's wedding to put them in with a sticker covering up the wedding stickers we had on them! However they are a bit of a pain to make and I never came up with a good closure. I have velcro on them, but think it looks ugly. It is also very hard to explain to people how to fold them! I have a handful of these left. You can stick in messages for any occasion or even tuck in some money for a gift to kids.

These are sure dated!......cell phone pockets for when the phones were bigger and didn't close up! LOL! Later I pushed them as cases to carry your rotary cutter in, or I have a chalk marking set in the one on the left that I carry to classes and such.

Our church craft group specialized in shirts and this is one that I made for the church to sell. I always liked this guy :-) I liked the idea so much I later used it on two other items......

One was this wall banner for my daughter, which she probably doesn't even use, but I think it is cute! I loved the spider and there is beaded fringe on the bottom edge.

I later used the same idea on a pillow sham for my "Seasonal Pillow Shams" collection that never sold.

I made this vest for the church to sell and it actually did! I think I added an assortment of mismatched gold buttons to one side...can't remember. Maybe that was a different vest.

Do you remember making these woven hearts in school at Valentine's Day??? I saw this idea on-line. You fuse 2 pieces of fabric together and then cut out the pieces and weave them together! The pattern in on-line somewhere. They are like little baskets and you can hang them on the the tree and put candy in them.

A couple of the table runners I sold. Some of these photos are before I had a digital camera and are terrible, but I no longer have the items to photograph.

So......I did some digging around to see what I have left-over after all this time! I can't believe that I still have this stuff! Actually some of it was not my best efforts and I know that I do better work now.

I see: 4 pillow shams....I always liked that pink flowered one, but it doesn't go with my house. I put the Halloween guy on my couch last year and I guess I will again this year. He was cuter on the shirt I made originally.

1 fall wall hanging...I had it on a wooden rod, but it needs a hanging sleeve to look better.

1 red polar fleece hat

A pile of bags to hang on walkers which I will probably give to nursing homes. A woman at an assisted living place asked me to make these for a craft fair they were having and not a one of them sold.

1 rather weird red velour purse

1not very attractive Bible cover.....no wonder this did not sell!

5-6 fortune cookies in so-so fabric
Except for the pillow shams, I think I see why this bunch is left-overs!

One baby quilt....tied, not quilted. I wish that I could quilt it now that I have more confidence for simple machine quilting, but it is not stretched tightly enough to do it without taking the binding off. I am sure I will have a friend with a baby to give it to eventually! I even made a rather poor bib and toy star to go with it :-)

My last 4 bags.....I've given away a dozen or more just to get them out of the house! That little green one is very unattractive....what was I thinking?????

One reversable vest......I just liked this piece of velour fabric. The vest is too small for me. It is very soft and at one time it had a piece of old lace made into a pin and attached to it, but must have used it for something else.

Well....that is my experience with the world of craft fair selling and why I no longer do it! It just takes time away from making more quality projects, and the good stuff you cannot sell for the money it is worth! Adding prices to stuff automatically made me lose all confidence in what I had to sell.

I felt guilty every time I sold something, like I should apologize for asking for money!