Still sewing

I am busy. Work, kids, getting ready to host my family for thanksgiving (turkey, YAY!), I have to get over to the garden and start cleaning it up, and, of course, sewing.

Nothing new and exciting to show, unfortunately, I'm just making stock for the store. Bit of a creative slump, frankly, nothing new is really working right so I'm just sewing my standbys (and people keep buying them, so hey, it works!). I am going to do some photos in the next few days of some of the wonderful and amazing things I've traded for recently, since I don't want this poor blog to languish unattended!

I also have the ubiquitous 'advice for etsy sellers' post brewing, now that I've been at this for a few months and am now TOTALLY an expert. But seriously, there are a few Etsy related issues I'd like to write about, if only to get my own thoughts straight. It's been a really interesting (and profitable!) experience so far.

Here's a recent item:



I'd tell you to go buy it in the store, but someone already did!

More Little People

I have a real thing for rainbow colours. I'm always trying to move away from them, but with all the kid sewing I've been doing, I keep coming back to the rainbows.

But one cannot live by rainbows alone. Or something. Well, basically sewing the same thing over and over and over again gets really tedious. So here's some pink.





I did two pink ones last night. I'm thinking I'll do four more little wooden people sets, in an earth/air/water/fire type theme (if I can figure out how to differentiate air - earth, water, and fire are easy, but what colours to use for air? purple/blue/white, maybe), then call it a day on those except for custom orders. I need to get some more doll mei tais in stock as the Christmas gift buying season approaches. Also, I have a new size of doll diapers I have to finish testing out and add to the pattern (anyone who has previously purchased the pattern, watch your email - I will send you the PDF of the new size large as soon as it's ready!).

I had hoped to get my hairband pattern up in the store by the end of September, but that didn't work out - you wouldn't think something so simple would cause such headaches! It's almost ready, and I should have about a dozen or so hairbands to sell as well.

And, of course, there's L's long awaited diaper bag to work on! I'm really struggling with the flap design on it for some reason. Nothing I try is really working right, so I had to set it aside for a couple of days. I have a new idea to try tonight, hopefully it'll work!

Pink doll rolls are in the store.

I am not a photographer.

I take, maybe, one really great photo a year. Photography is so NOT my strong suit.

But part of being on Etsy is that your photos have to be good, if not great. It's immensely frustrating, frankly, because although my pictures are getting better, I have yet to work out the best way to take truly spectacular product photos!

The little people rolls are particularly problematic, because the pictures - especially the initial thumbnail that should hopefully entice potential buyers to click - just don't capture how neat they are. Fortunately this morning the baby took a nap while I had good light in the backyard, so I played around a bit and I think finally came up with a good initial photo composition:


Probably will tweak it a bit more, but for now I'm calling it good. One of the things I'm finding irritating about Etsy is there's a very specific aesthetic that the Etsy Monkeys like, and your product is only going to be chosen for within-site promotion if your photos meet that criteria. Lots of neutral colours, odd angles, white background. It's nice enough, but it means if you look at the front page of Etsy at any given time there's a certain...sameness to it all. I'm not sure it's a look I necessarily want to be trying for, but if I want to have any shot at on-Etsy promotion, well, there it is.

This, that, and the other

Nothing much new and exciting to report, just plugging along! My baby leg warmers have been selling like crazy, so I've been spending a lot of time on those (and trying to find more orange and black striped knee socks, I can't keep them in stock). The hairband pattern is just about ready; I want to get a half a dozen or so made up and into the shop by the end of the week, along with the PDF pattern. Only thing left is to work out the sizing on the child size version.

And I now have the little people rolls available for purchase. These would be a great stocking stuffer for a preschooler!

Click here to see one of the sets now available. Custom sets are no problem, and delivery is free if you live in the Milton area, just send me an email (purplelizarddesign@gmail.com) and let me know what you want! I'm going to put together some non-rainbow versions too, starting, of course, with pink, pink, and yet more pink.

Tool for Etsy Sellers: Fee calculator spreadsheet

Oct 2 note: I have updated the file! Version 2.0 now available.

One thing a lot of Etsy sellers lose track of is just how much of their item price is paid out in fees, both to Etsy and to Paypal. Currently it costs 20 cents to list an item, then Etsy takes 3.5% of the price when the item sells. If your buyer pays with paypal (which the vast majority do), then Paypal takes a 30 cent fee and 2.9% of the selling price.

If you don't track this information, I can pretty much guarentee you you are underestimating the amount that Etsy and Paypal are taking from your sales.

Now, there's a lovely fee calculator here. The problem, however, is you can't save the information, and I like to be able to pull up that info for all my items and have it at my fingertips. I did a bit of searching, but couldn't find an existing spreadsheet that did what I wanted, so I created this one. Feel free to download it and use it yourself. Tweak it however you want! Get the file here.

The first page is the calculator, with some sample data.

The coloured columns are locked and can't be edited. Enter the name of your item, your selling price, and, if you know them, your materials/overhead costs and the number of minutes it takes you to make the item (must be entered in minutes). The rest of the columns will update automatically so you can see how much you will lose in fees, your net profit taking into account materials costs, and your estimated hourly earnings.

If you want to alter the spreadsheet, the password to unlock it is 'etsy'. I have it locked so that people who aren't familiar with Excel won't accidentally muck up the formulas.

Should Etsy or Paypal change their fees, go to the second page of the spreadsheet. You can update the number there, and the first page will automatically adjust.


If you try it out, please let me know what you think! And especially let me know if you find any errors! Note I have it saved in whatever version of Excel it is that I have here (2003? I'm not even sure). Let me know if it doesn't work for you and I'll see about uploading some different versions.

Get the file here.

Edit: I just realized that while I know Etsy doesn't take a percentage of the shipping cost, I'm not sure about paypal. I assumed when I wrote this spreadsheet that you are charging actual shipping and that paypal doesn't take a cut of the shipping fee. Therefore I left shipping off the spreadsheet entirely. I will adjust the spreadsheet soon if this is incorrect.

Edit (Oct. 2): Paypal does in fact take a percentage of your shipping fees, so I have updated the file to include columns for shipping charged, actual postage, and shipping materials costs, and all the formulas have been adjusted to reflect that change. Let me know if you find any errors!

It's babywearing week!

It's International Babywearing Week, and while I find the term babywearing itself a bit, well, babywearying (hahahahahaha - OK, I totally stole that from someone else), I can't think of a better name, so what the heck, yay babywearing!

Me with the baby in a sling:


And yes, I made that sling, back when kid #1 was a baby. It's been very useful, especially at this age (almost a year), because it makes hip carrying so much easier.

Both of my kids have actually really liked the stroller, so I haven't worn them as much as I might have, but boy I do love my carriers. And when we made the INSANE decision to take the family to Disney when #2 was only 5 weeks old, the carriers were invaluable. I don't think I could have done that trip without the mei tai and the wrap. #2 pretty much just nursed and slept in the carriers for 10 days. And I got quite a good workout lugging her around everywhere!

How cute is this?

That would be me, being worn by my mom! Yay for babywearing.

(looking to buy a carrier? I highly recommend Steph at Babywear Boutique. My gorgeous Ellaroo wrap came from Steph's store, although I can't seem to find any decent pictures of me actually using it. One of the perils of always being the one behind the camera!)

SO busy

Or should that be 'sew' busy? Ew. No. Best not to go there.

Not a lot of posting, since mostly I've been making stock for the store, and 57 posts in a row of yet more baby leg warmers and doll carriers would be boring. I had set myself a goal of getting at least 50 items listed by the end of the month, and I'd be there already except people keep BUYING stuff. Gee, everyone should have my problems!

Anyway, here's a picture of a set I just listed. More of these to come, I think. If I can find more time to sew. I have a list a mile long of stuff to make, and not enough time to make it in.

Sneak Peek: Little Wooden People Rolls

This is something I've been working on for a while. Sometimes I get an idea and I just can't stop thinking about it until I sit down and work it out. This was one of those ideas that just wouldn't leave me alone until I started pulling out fabric and making prototypes!


Another angle. Looks a lot like a crayon or marker roll, but it's a tad bulky to be one of those. The closure on this was bugging me for weeks - I knew it needed to be something a preschooler could easily handle, so I wanted to avoid anything that needed to be tied, but an elastic around the whole thing just didn't look very good. Finally, I struck on this - elastic hooked around a painted wooden button.

But what's inside?


It's a family of little wooden people! Why would anyone want such a thing? Well, what I have in mind is that you tuck this roll into your purse, and then when you get stuck somewhere with an antsy 4 year old, you've got instant entertainment. Restaurants, doctor's offices, anywhere you find yourself waiting and thinking damn, I should have brought a toy for the kids. It's open ended, and if you kid loves imaginative play, it's got endless possibilities!


These are the people. I have a variety and will be able to do customized sets. This is dad, mom, girl, boy, and two babies. I haven't completely decided what to do with the actual people yet. I'll offer some sets undecorated, so you or your child can decorate them as you like, or I can simply finish them with an all natural wax I've found. I think I'll also have some sets stained in rainbow colours. That's the part of the whole project I still have to figure out.

Exterior shot. I wish I had more of this rainbow fabric, it's so perfect for this, but unfortunately it's something I bought years and years ago, so most of these will be different. Each one will be unique.

So that's a sneak peak at something I'm working on! I hope to get some of these up in the store in a week or two, once I have all the details (and, of course, pricing) worked out.

Tutorial: Baby Leg Warmers

Ever since I first saw babylegs I've thought they were adorable, and wished I'd had some when the first kid was a baby. Now that I know how to make them, I'm, as usual, a little obsessed. A tutorial is probably unnecessary, given there's already good ones out there, but I had my camera handy when I was sewing last night so why not?



Start with knee socks. Ladies socks for your standard size. For newborn babies, with their adorable little chicken legs, you can use girl's knee socks. A great place to find funky knee socks are those mall stores targetted to tweens and teens, although you will feel REALLY dorky and out of place when you go in.


Cut each sock as shown. Easiest with a rotary cutter and ruler, but if you don't have those you could just use scissors. You basically cut off the foot, then cut the toe and heel off of the foot so you are left a cylinder.

Fold the cylinder wrong sides together to form a cuff.


Insert the sock leg into the cylinder, lining up the raw edges as best you can. Since the fabric will roll a bit this can be tricky, so just get it as close as possible.


Two pairs, cut, folded, and ready to go.
Using a long straight stitch, stitch the layers together. I lay the cylinder down on the sewing machine, then pull the top three layers of the pile out of the way and start sewing. I don't bother to pin these, I haven't found it helps that much, but you may wish to put a few pins in. Sew all the way around and secure the seam by backstitching a couple of times.

NOTE: try not to stretch the fabric at all while you do this step.


At this point I always check to make sure all the layers got caught, sometimes something shifts and there's a gap you need to go back and fix. This one worked well, though.


Showing the seam. Not the straightest stitching I've ever done!


Now I like to trim everything to about a quarter inch or so from the seam, just to neaten things up.


Using a wide, tight zigzag stitch I sew all the way around, to bind the edges so they don't unravel. Set your stitch so that the needle falls off the edge of the fabric on the right side.

NOTE: Again, try not to stretch the fabric at all while you do this. It's probably more important with this step, actually, if you stretch while you so the end result is very odd and bumpy looking.

Close up.

And it's done! Just flip the cuff out and you are good to go!



Baby leg warmers are VERY SERIOUS BUSINESS.

OK, maybe not! They are awfully cute.

They also make great arm and leg warmers for kids, too:


Give them a try, they are easy, cute, and SO practical!

Mei Tai - Pink Butterflies

Finally got L's Mei Tai done. Whew. It's very pretty, and I hope she finds it useful!

now I have to decide what to work on next. I also owe L a diaper bag, so I'll start that this weekend and hopefully have something to show her by Monday. But before then I want to get a few things done for the store. A few doll mei tais for sure (I have a big pile of fabric all ready to cut out), since they are good sellers and right now I don't have a lot of selection listed. And I think I want to finish up the hairband pattern and get a few of those listed, too.

Mostly, though, what I want is a nap.