Box-shaped zipper pencil case tutorial

Next month spoonflower is having a zipper pencil case contest and I am SOOO excited, I usually don't do too well at their contests but with this one my mind has just been buzzing. Because hey, let's face it, I got into etsy only after I learned I could buy zippers at bulk prices for 1/10th of the cost they are in stores, crank out adorable bags for all my loved ones, and then everyone else's loved ones too!

But I've never posted a whole lot about my methods, and I need to for this contest, so here are the instructions for how to make a zipper pouch that's got some 3-D-ness to it.

It was also a fun chance for me to try scrawling on my photos with an ipad stylus... my handwriting is not the most beautiful but this method certainly gets to the point.

Here we go: the box-shaped pencil case in only a few EASY steps!

First, the pattern: I've got two here, one that's 3" and requires a 12.5x12.5" square of fabric, and one that gives you 2.5" sides and requires a 10.5"x12" square. Both require 8 inch zippers, but you can use a smaller zipper and add fabric to the ends before sewing it to make up for that, or you can use a longer zipper and just add inches of fabric.

To start: lay your lining and outside fabric on top of each other, right sides together. Sandwich the zipper in there, teeth up. Sew along the top edge. I don't get out my zipper foot for this, I just hit that lever on my sewing machine that moves the needle over a smidge.

Then sew the other side of the zipper.

Now this is important... open your zipper, at least halfway!

Then sew the side edges.

Then the corners - leaving the lining corners open.

Check to make sure each side's top and bottom are the same length, so your box will have square ends, not trapezoid ones. Then turn the whole thing inside-out through the open lining corners. This will be really easy as long as you remembered to leave your zipper open.

And topstitch the lining corners closed.

And you're done! Here's about what it should look like:

Chevron day

Last week at the contest we got around to a wonderful theme thursday: Chevron day! It was full of zig-zag stripes and here were some of my standout faves:

15th place July 30th, 2013
Hue Tuesday! Gray items from $30-$32.99.
Chevron Pillow Blue Gray Pillow Cover .16x16 Missoni. ZigZag Grey Blue Pillow.Decorative Throw Pillow Covers.Printed fabric both sides
by EastAndNest

21st place August 1st, 2013
Theme Thursday! Chevron items from $1-$50.
Jewelry Organizer Jewelry Holder Barnwood Chevron Frame Display Silver Hooks
by TheHopeStack

23rd place August 1st, 2013
Theme Thursday! Chevron items from $1-$50.
Personalized - Made to order - Dog collar with gray and white chevron print.
by Charmanique

26th place August 1st, 2013
Theme Thursday! Chevron items from $1-$50.
iPad mini cover, Chevron iPad Mini Cover, iPad Mini Sleeve
by LittlePigeonCrafts

Featured August 1st, 2013
Theme Thursday! Chevron items from $1-$50.
Dolly Bow, Reversible Deep Pink Chevron and Polka Dot Rockabilly Wire Headband Teen
by Lorettajos

36th place August 1st, 2013
Theme Thursday! Chevron items from $1-$50.
Coffee Cup Sleeve Cozy
by AmandaJeanCreations

Tutorial: Making a chevron pattern with GIMP

Chevrons are totally in right now and it's easy to make a tile-able background, but I gotta warn you this takes a crazy math skill (multiplication) so I've used my brains to step in and tell you how to do it! And as you all know my favorite graphics program is GIMP, but these basic guidelines will work anywhere.

Step 1: Make a striped background

Start a new image, whatever size you'd like, then give it some horizontal stripes. It works best if it's as wide or wider than it is tall.

My favorite method is to just set your background color as something pretty, select a stripe across your image with the rectangle select tool, and hit delete. Any stripe pattern will work!

I went to my favorite website for color palettes to find this fun combo, titled Cafe 1950 by áfrica*.

Tile & rotate

First, pay attention to the height of your image in pixels because you'll need to know that later. My image was 100 pixels high.

Now use Filters > Map > Tile and tile your image by at least 300%.

Rotate the image 45 degrees, using the rotate tool or hit ctrl+r

Crop

Now it's time to get your diagonal pattern to the right size, so it tiles seamlessly.

Remember your original image height? I hope so!

Go to Image > Canvas Size.

Get out your calculator! Multiply your original image height by the square root of 2... about 1.41. My original image was 100 pixels high so now I'm cropping it to 141x141.

Under "offset", just hit the center button.

And for "layers", use the "resize all layers" option.

Now you have a diagonal pattern that will tile seamlessly - you can go to Filters > Map > Tile to test it out!

Turn diagonal stripes into chevrons

But we were going for chevrons weren't we!

1) Layer > Duplicate layer
2) Filters > Map > Tile - now set the width only to tile to 200%
3) Layers > Stack > Layer to bottom

Now select your top layer in the list and flip it horizontally using the flip tool, or ctrl+h

Combine the layers using Image > Flatten Image.

And now you have one tiny part of your tile-able chevron pattern... use filters > map > tile to see how pretty it looks as a background!

Design your own baby onesie!

A few months ago I published my baby onesie pattern and I am here to announce that I've since had my baby, and it fit! I'll update the other post with pics.

Then I got the bright idea to use my template to design some simple cut-and-sew patterns for my favorite fabric printing website, Spoonflower. I made three new designs for my geek baby collection... simple patterns that you just cut out and sew up.

And I'm totally fine with you doing the same thing, so here's the image template I used. It's basically a .jpg version of the printable pdf pattern, scaled for 150 dpi printing. Download the image, design your onesie, upload it to spoonflower, and it will print a perfect pattern on a fat quarter of organic cotton knit.

Feel free to comment here with whatever unique designs you've made with it, I'd love to see where it goes! You're welcome to use this for commercial purposes, but if you want to throw me a little publicity that'd be nice :)

Lots of views, no sales: Why Etsy promotion can hurt you

I know... you work hard on your art. It's nicely photographed. You want to tell someone about it so it's not just sitting out there lonely on the internet. So if you're like a lot of Etsy sellers you first turn to one of these places to quickly & easily broadcast your new listing to the world:

1) Your own social media pages - twitter, pinterest, facebook, your blog
2) An Etsy team with a "post your new item here" thread

But I'm going to recommend that you avoid all that, for a moment, and think about who you're truly reaching out to when you use those methods to "promote" your listings. For example, your own social media pages are probably stocked with your own family and friends, people who've already discovered your shop, and "easy followers"... the ones who followed you only because you followed them. The odds of any of those people logging on to go shopping today is pretty low. Your family is on facebook to see baby pictures. Your former customers appreciate staying connected, but they won't buy things every day. The easy reciprocal followers are too busy selling their own stuff to buy yours.

What's the harm, you say? The problem is that you'll be getting lots of views and favorites from people who are not your potential customers, and in the noise, you'll lose sight of the research opportunity that you get every time you list something. I've written before about how adding a listing is the best thing you can ever do to promote your shop because it increases your odds of being found in Etsy's search, and Etsy searchers should always be your target audience. They're shopping, for something to buy... that's who you want to get to!

So when you post a new listing you have another test case to see what gets the most attention, you can use a new combination of title words, tags, a different photo orientation, maybe even a whole new product. You can compare two different kinds of titles, and see which one gets the most views. UNLESS you're getting views from other Etsy team members. These legions of non-customers will never tell you anything about what works and what doesn't, they're pulled in by you, not comparing your item to a page of competitors. They're not real. They increase the views, and make it harder for you to see how real customers see you, but that's it.

I like etsy teams, they're great places to get valuable feedback or just chill with other artists and make some friends. But I don't like them for promotion, in fact I think they can hurt you. Before you post your item in a team, think about what you're really getting. That increase in mis-targeted views just isn't worth it.

My Top 5 Shop Critique Items

So as I wrote last week I started a shop critique team for etsy shop owners to get feedback and personal tips for improvement. It's been going great! But I do see myself giving the same feedback to lots of shops, so here are the top five things that a lot of new shops can do for improvement:

1) Use all five photos If you were selling your item in a store, customers would be able to pick it up, turn it over, feel it in their hands... but you're selling online. So try to replicate that in-store experience as much as possible. Show every angle, the inside, even the bottom! Convey a sense of size. Show different settings the item would work in - especially if you're selling fashion or accessories. What would you wear with it?

2) Have great product thumbnails When you view your shop, can you see the most important parts of each item without clicking the listing? Or are you cutting parts off that run off the edges of those thumbnail view photos? That's like fingernails on a chalkboard! I wrote a whole post on this last spring: How to think inside the Etsy thumbnail.

3) Start every title with a search term The first three words of your title are the most important, and you want them to look like something that a shopper would be looking for. "Blue wool hat" is very specific. "Set of three" is not, neither is "special occasion gift" or worse, the abstract titles ("the cloudless sky")... if it's a shoe say it's a shoe. If it's a scarf say it's a scarf. Then add the other fluffy words.

4) Have a real shop title Under your shop's "info & appearance" you can enter a shop name (mine is Spacefem) and a shop title (mine is "Specialty fabric and hand-sewn items from Kansas"). Make sure they're different - the title can help people find your shop through searches, so it should describe your product line, not just be a copy of your name.

5) Even out your sections Shop sections are wonderful, but make sure you're using them to keep things nicely oraganized. Never make a section if you won't have at least 8-10 items in it, and after that keep them even, don't have one huge section and then leave hardly anything for the other sections. And for heaven's sake use a search-friendly word for your section title, I keep seeing people add extra spaces in between letters to make them pretty, but no one ever searches for F A B R I C. They search for fabric!

That's my list for today, I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks though, we've all got our shop pet peeves. And that's why I love our team - you never know who will give you the tip to make your shop a winner on etsy. Every bit of feedback is a gift!

Treasury challenge winner

Almost every month in the Etsy Contest team we have a treasury challenge to celebrate the great items in the contest, and June's winner was this adorable collection of toys and decor for little ones :)

Congratulations to the winner and to everyone featured in her treasury!

'It's Kid Stuff' by JOYJU

24 Baby Blue Pastel BALLOON ... naissance $3.5	Stuffed Animal Toy - Dachshu... PlatoSquirrel $34	50 Cinderella Inspired blue,... PartyDelights $8	Mosaic Small Wooden Birdhous... trumosaics $24
Newborn Baby Gift, Custom Bi... LuvinEveryMinu... $12	Sale 15% OFF Euro Sham 26 x ... HomeMakeOver $25.19	Canvas mini tote bag, Leaf d... tagodesign $29.9	Crochet Baby Boy Owl Beanie ... wadamska $28
Gold style cufflinks with gr... YUKIJewellery $18	Turquoise Flower Girl Tutu H... bridalsilks $42	FEELIN' SMUG teenagers d... dfmidesigns $15	Skeleton Bangle,Skull Bracel... GemPearls $1.99
Summertime SALE - Bird Books... danamarieart $29.52	Baby Girl's full ruffle ... CoutureBabyPro... $65	Personalized Chevron Print K... pinkydotgifts $8	Teal and Pink Chevron Monogr... ThenComesPaper $45

Sponsored by send bulk email from excel.

Etsy Shop Critiques: my newest team!

Well I took a big step this week and started a new team on etsy:

Etsy Shop Critiques

I'm really excited about it. For years, I've told people that improving your shop is a two-step process: first, you list stuff. Then, you ask people how you can improve. Then you list more stuff and see if it worked! You go around and around in this circle for about a year, and then you should be a fantastic Etsy seller... don't be distracted by promotion teams, facebook "likes", twitter followers or pinterest boards. Just list, get feedback, list, and improve again!

But there were roadblocks on that "ask people how to improve" step - too many critique teams were just not active enough, and the general Etsy forums keep being reorganized to discourage individual shop critiques... boo. That's what made me dream up a new way to make it work.

In our team, every new member is required to give three shop critiques BEFORE starting their own thread. It means that almost no request goes unanswered, because everyone is out trying to get their magic three. It also gets you started thinking with a critical eye... you can learn a lot from looking at other shops and asking yourself what they're doing right, and not so right!

And trust me, everyone is qualified to give a shop review. If you've ever bought anything in your life, made a single purchasing decision, you can give a customer's perspective. Maybe you're not an expert on tags or titles, maybe you can't even spell SEO, but you can at least tell someone what's keeping you from buying an item... is it weird? Overpriced? Not photographed or described well? What questions pop into your head when you look at what they're selling?

Then when you're done giving your critiques, it's your turn to post a thread and get some of your own.

We've seen lots of great advice since the team started, people are jumping right in and it's been really active every day. I'm optimistic and proud of all the feedback that's been given out, and hope the new members continue to come on in!

Best of cheap week: April 2013 edition

It's tax day, and unlike many of you I actually had to pay in this year so I am broke. Not that this is terribly new.

But luckily we just got done with the first half of April where the contests featured items under $15, and just for fun I thought I'd combine a cheap week post with a coupon code post for those of you who are REALLY interested in finding some steals! Here are my favorite items that were priced affordably to begin with, and then their shop owners were nice enough to share a discount on our coupon page.

1st place April 1st, 2013
April 1st! Items from $1-$1.99.
MORE Bargain BITSY Bombs , bath bomb, packs a punch, natural and organic bath fizzy soak
by Tubbilicious

Coupon code: MONKEYPITT 10% off

23rd place April 3rd, 2013
Welcome Wednesday! The newest Etsy shops' items from $1-$50.
Bird magnet plushie, ideal for the fridge ,eco friendly. Handmade
by owlystore

Coupon code: SALE15 15% off

4th place April 6th, 2013
April 6th! Items from $6-$6.99.
Cat Keychain
by ninaraizel

Coupon code: Thankyou2013 10% off

1st place April 15th, 2013
April 15th! Items from $15-$15.99.
Sterling Silver Earrings with Glass Cube Beads Blues
by LittleHillJewelry

Coupon code: CONTEST 15% off

12nd place April 13th, 2013
April 13th! Items from $13-$13.99.
Simple Chaos: Plump Birdie Original Watercolour Series
by SimpleChaosbylinnea

Coupon code: LOVEOFFAMILY 10% off

55th place April 11th, 2013
Theme Thursday! Emerald items from $1-$50.
GamiWicks - candle votives in emerald green and white Japanese chiyogami
by GamiWorks

Coupon code: Biggie15 15% off

35th place April 4th, 2013
Theme Thursday! Notecard items from $1-$50.
Handmade Mini Notecards / Tags with Floral Patterns, Set of 6
by WideSkyPapercrafts

Coupon code: WELCOME13 Free shipping

Silent auction/raffle donations needed for MEOC

jwhizcrochet posted in the yay for trades team this week about collecting items for the Mountain Empire Older Citizens silent auction this month. I don't know about you, but as an etsian I always have some pieces that were a bit more experimental, didn't sell for some reason, expired, or just don't fit with my shop motif right now, so I'm happy to help out a great cause and donate! Message jwhizcrochet if you can send items in by April 17th. This is a non-profit organization that helps older citizens with things like heating and utility bills - a great cause to help out a little bit!

I sent my items in today, and of course as I said I love helping out non-profits that run things like this, so if you know of anyone else looking for help feel free to message me on etsy!

Featured artist: feltinga felted scarves, jewelry, and accessories

Once again in March we had a treasury challenge, and although we picked two winners the hands-down favorite among judges was Above Us Is Blue Sky Only by Ingrida from feltinga. We'll be featuring her items in the April treasury challenge, but her shop is so lovely I wanted to ask some questions about her inspirations ahead of all that, on April 1st in fact because today she's been on Etsy for one year! Happy anniversary!

You can find her on twitter @ingaleske or on pinterest at pinterest.com/ingaleske.

50 felt wool balls (1/2 in. size) red green brown black yellow grey blue pink purple white
by feltinga

Tell us a bit about yourself?
I live in Lithuania, small country in East Europe. My full time job is not related with crafts – I am civil servant. So when I am at home I need to do very different things: to give a rest for my brain, to give a job for my hands and to release my fantasy. Of course, so far as my masculine family – husband and two sons (7 and 15) - lets (they are always hungry)? But... they are my best helpers in IT, photo making and even products making – few of listings in Feltinga are made by my elder son!

3 felted Ayurvedic soaps, set. Soap, scrub and sponge in 1. Gift under 10 for him her men women.
by feltinga

What got started making handmade items?
I've became acquainted with felting some 10 years ago when birth of small felt ball caught my eye during the public event of our regional museum. But it took about 5 years to summon up my courage, to find free time, to set free the fancy in order to take a flock of wool into my hands. And now I can't imagine my leisure without felting. Wool is amazing material, very plastic and very friendly with the fuller, wearer and other materials composing solid work. I do not limit myself doing one kind works. Brooches, necklaces, earings, wristlets, bracelets, slippers, wool decorated glass vases, belts, shawls, and gloves do not make up the finite list of the range of my creative works.

Nuno Felted Flower Scarf Shawl Wrap: Crimson Brick Red Green Mint, Orange, Wool, Lace. OOAK. Splendid, Light. Gift under 50
by feltinga

What got you to open your shop on etsy?
My colleague knew my passion for felting and once she showed me cute felted product on internet. The product was listed on Etsy. I started to browse and suddenly it become clear that Etsy was what I needed - the place for my creations and a mean for my little extra?

Felt wool balls garland Easter multicolor purple pink lavender satin ribbon jingle bells
by feltinga

What's your home like?
Felting is my hobby, not my full time job, so I have no special studio for it. That‘s why I get use of every premise in our house: I keep my supplies in cloakroom, felt in bathroom or sitting room, use to dry my felts near fireplace or in the warmest house place near the big window, make pictures under the skylight....So our house looks like a house of people with lots of hobbies: my children love LEGO, husband loves DIY, model making, gardening... And... my felts? We have no pets, so my felts are safe here.

What inspires you?
Colors... I love all colors: bright, neutral, pastel, pale, dark...Now I miss spring, it is so cold here, so I compensate this shortage with the colors of my felts. Constantly changing nature, flowers, sky...

Felted Scarf Shawl Wrap: Hand Painted Rainbow Green Orange Red Burgundy Yellow Blue Silk, Wool nuno felt. OOAK.
by feltinga

Tips for other etsy artists?
Do what you like to do... Do with love and patience. Make good pictures. Improve your good pictures into better and the better - into best ones... Improve your shop every day. Share the love by making treasuries and communicating with your clients and colleagues. Participate in teams' activity.

Felt balls bracelet personalized blue red pink purple orange yellow pink brown black white beads charms pets zodiac dog cat initials
by feltinga

Most important thing you've changed about your shop or products since starting on etsy?
I've placed my first listings on the 1st of April 2012, so Feltinga will celebrate its first birthday very soon. It was very interesting, very intensive, very challenging and very impressive year. I met a lot of fantastic people who helped me a lot, and I participated in very active, friendly and supportive teams. Etsy friends explained me how important pictures are, how should I improve them, what felt products should sell themselves, where I can find fantastic supplies for my craft. So my shop is constantly changing beginning with banner (thank you, my son Marius), pictures, tags, descriptions and ending with renewing and growing stock. One of my etsy colleagues, Vaida, even made fantastic photos of my felted balls and now they are very popular in treasures! I‘d recommend to visit her beautiful shops vart and vaidaphoto on etsy too!

Have you bought anything cool off etsy lately?
Yes, superb LEGO hand made soaps at OhSoSmelly and a charity pot holder, made by 10 year old Lucy at FishCreek.