Deja Vu All Over Again

 

So a few weeks ago I returned to where it all started, it being my love affair with craft fairs! My first-ever outing was in Martinez at the Support Women Artists Now (SWAN) Day Festival in March 2012 and my second time was just as good as the first, dare I say even better as I've learned a lot about craft shows in the past year.

Most important lesson: Don't put out every single thing you have! Especially if you're me and you went all crazy making a ton of stuff! Now I'm still working on this, but having a cleaner and more cohesive booth display really helps the customer zero in on whether there's anything there that they want to buy. It's also a much more eye-catching display to have fewer items well arranged, as opposed to a giant jumble of things. My photos above might still look like quite a jumble to some but I'm definitely improving.

Another thing I have learned is that you just never know what's going to sell. I made a bunch of pot holders because they've always gone quickly and I was completely out from last year's run of fairs, but only sold a few. On the other hand, all but one of my table runners was snapped up and I sold all but two of the roll-up tote bags, which I made about a dozen of before deciding that they wouldn't be popular. So go figure!

ALSO, and I can't believe I almost forgot this, I scored a ton of upholstery fabrics in bright colors and big pieces too! I was so excited I spent hours locked up in my sewing room going through it all despite being completely exhausted after spending all day at the fair. Don't worry, I gave the dumpster diversion project a generous donation even though they said that I was doing them a favor by taking them off their hands! I will be making some more colorful upcycled upholstery spring totes soon, you can count on that.