The Budget Shop

If I could travel and had all the time in the world, I would visit all the thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls and garage sales I could. I love the hunt of finding treasure and the high you get when you score something so wonderful especially at a great price. We recently took a family road trip to visit my husband's family in Lakin, Kansas which is in the southwest part of the state. Lakin's approximate population is 2,500 which is more than I would have ever guessed. Spending a few days in a small town with the closest larger town 30 miles away, I was forced to slow down. It was pretty miserable because I am always busy, moving and creating. Grandma would not let me clean, the meals has already been planned and shopped for and there was no where to shop or even people watch. I had been looking forward to visiting the local Budget Shop but it was only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I had to wait until the morning we left to visit. To my surprise I found some treasures. I found several vintage, super groovy ties and lots of fabric scraps.  I'm so excited about the bag that I'm working on right now that was inspired by some fabric and a tie that were found at this Budget Shop.

What are your favorite thrift stores, antique stores or flea markets?

Weighing Our Options

One thing that Maggie and I have been struggling with is trying to find a local business who could sell our products. There are lots of wonderful places out there. What we're learning is that everyone wants to make money. We want to be able to make what we think is worth for our products but a business is also going to want to make a profit on the sale too. The people and businesses we have approached want us to either sell our product to them at a discounted price so that they can mark it up as they fit. The other alternative is to sell on commission which means that the store would display and sell our product and they would make a commission on the sale. Our problem is that we also sell to individuals through word of mouth, Facebook and Etsy. We cannot charge one thing online and by word of mouth and then have another price on the same product at a local business. I've even had businesses approach us about selling our products at wholesale prices which is a ridicuous concept for a totally handcrafted item. There is so much time and effort spent on creating our pieces that we have to make at least what we spent and the time utilized to create it. We're not grabbing things off of a manufacturing line and sticking our name on it. Totally handcrafted objects cost more. So far we've been making sales and it's these people that recognize that they are buying a one of a kind product that has been created with someone's hands with love for the craft.

Button Eyes

My great friend Heather made it over to the Green Envy Girls cellar to take some pictures of me and Maggie so that we could put our faces with our name and our blog.  We're so goofy down there that we wanted to portray our senses of humor in the pictures.  We got several great pics.  This pic is looking down into the cellar.  Maggie is sporting one of our Sew Funky Totes and I'm wearing one of our many, many men's ties that we use in our shop.

This one speaks for itself.  It's my favorite.  I really can't decide which one to choose for our initial bio picture but I decided the more serious one would be best for now.  I don't want to scare anyone away.   What do you all think?

Zippers

For years, I've been going to estate sales and collecting vintage fabrics and notions. I get super excited about old buttons, snaps and zippers. I really could just display them and look at them all day without using them. When I find a treasure such as an old, aged button, it's pretty sad to let it go. I feel like I've saved it from it's demise and resurrected it into life again hopeful that someone will recognize its special story. It's fun to find a stack of buttons or a pile of zippers with the price tags still attached.
This picture is from my personal stash of zippers that we use on all our bags, pouches and totes.  You can still see the 17 cent price tag from TG&Y.  Do you remember TG&Y.  We had one in the small town I grew up in. 

I'm really looking foward to Spring and Summer and warmer weather for many reasons.  One of my favorite things to do is visit garage sales and add to my already HUGE collection of goodies for GreenEnvyGirls.  Isn't it strange how we all come out of our homes when the weather warms up as if we've all been hibernating.  We clean our houses and have sales hoping someone else will get use out of something that we are finished with.  I feel as if I need to have a garage sale each year or our home becomes too clogged.

I've mentioned before how we are working some new designs for our zipper pouches.  We are going to make 6 different sizes.  We will create them in sets where we coordinate the fabrics to match if someone chose to buy them as a set.  These will be the perfect size for your purse, up to your makeup and then large enough to carry hairdryers and brushes or even your art supplies.  Here is sneak peak.  I'm really excited about them and of course they will have a signature GreenEnvyGirls button or two on them. 

Greens Continued

This particular customer also requested packets on the interior of the tote. I cut the pockets from the same military jacket and zigzagged them onto the burlap.

The flower for this tote consisted of singed camouflage from the same jacket, singed satins & plastic, and three vintage buttons that I sewed together.  I created the bag to look 'old' so the straps are frayed and will continue to fray to add to that vintage look.  The customer received her tote and I was given the thumbs up. 

Greens

Green has been my favorite color the last couple of years especially when it comes to textiles. So you can imagine how I jumped on the order that requested rich greens. For the last few years, I've made tote bags using Army jackets that I've found at thrift stores. I had some of this left so I dug it out and worked with it again to create our newest tote. Instead of the traditional cotton strapping and webbing that we use on the other bags, I decided to try out this technique. I sewed together pieces from the cuffs and along the opening of the jackets to utitilize the buttons and the button holes.

 

A Full February

My intentions in starting this blog were to post at least once a week.  Well, it's already gotten away from me.  I'm happy to report that I've moved back to the cellar and have resumed my evenings there sewing away.  My dining room table and bar are now filled with the familiar family things and not fabrics, threads and sewing machines. 

We finished and delivered the bag that we've created for The Hounds of the Heartland fundraiser.  I have been informed that two of the greyhounds really liked the bag.  I really love the bag and am hopeful that it will belong to someone special.

We also completed two other bags that will soon be listed for sale through Etsy and through Facebook.  The first bag shown below is the first tote that I've done where I used a very straight, geometric stitch on the fused plastic instead of the normal free-form, organic stitching.  It is also the first tote where we've added pockets from an old pair of men's pants to both sides of the bag for an added aesthetic feature but it's also very handy.   It is also the first time we did not run the strapping all the way down each side of the bag.  I really like how the design of the bag really shines through without the stapping running down the middle of it. 

This bag was one that I've been wanting to make utilizing some of our craziest, most vintage fabrics.  The strapping is also vintage that I picked up an estate sale and I have been itching to make a bag with it.  I love the orange and browns and I just know this bag will find the right owner.  Hopefully I can keep my paws off of it.  Sometimes it is very, very difficult not to keep the bags for yourself.  Sometimes it's even harder not to just use the bag once before it goes to it's new owner.  We definitely make each bag as if we would carry it and love it. 

I mentioned in our last post that we are creating identitical totes but smaller for either young girls or for someone who wants a smaller bag.  We are going to use only recycled and vintage fabrics on these small bags and not use the fused plastic.  The reason for this is that we would have to charge the same amount because it is just the same amount of time and resources as we use on the larger totes.  We have a lead where we could potentially sell and advertise these smaller totes at a dance studio where the girls would be interested in using them for their dance clothes and shoes.  It's hard to tell in these particular pictures but these bags are about 25% smaller than our standard totes.