7 EASY items that I sew and sell at the local Farmer's Market! (as a side hustle in 2021)

every week on friday i start to get ready for the farmer's market on saturday i've been wanting to do this for a really long time i've been super curious about it so this year i took a leap of faith i picked up the phone called my dear friend and said hey you want to do this together she's also just as crafty as i am she paints and i sell and i thought well that would be such a great idea to share a booth together and here we are so today let me share with you what i've been sewing and selling at the farmers market so hopefully that will give you some ideas as well and i will also sprinkle a few useful tips here and there the ones that i've learned so far and i truly hope that it will help you out as well so let's jump right into it now i gotta say big thank you to skillshare for working with me for sponsoring this video and for making it possible now you will hear about them a little bit later in the video but for right now do you see all of these super colorful exciting items right over here and yes those are scrunchies and i might get a few eyeballs from you guys because well who doesn't make scrunchies nowadays it's such a popular item and it's been popular for years i remember when i was a kid like 20 some years ago it was a thing that we used to wear every single day and now they came back in fashion and no matter how repetitive this idea might seem the key is your unique selling point and your advantage and believe me when i say that this is my best seller from everything that i sew and sell at my farmers market and the unique selling point for me is my experience i have pretty thick hair right now i got i got a haircut but usually it's pretty long and it's thick and before i used to make scrunchies with store-bought hair ties and guess what they would pop so easily like literally they wouldn't hold even a week then i decided well what if i make my scrunchies with half inch thick elastic and it doesn't pop it stays together nice and tight on my hair just like i like it and it's such a pleasure to wear it so when people come to my booth and they're like oh these are scrunchies i share with them this personal story of how i came to make these crunchies for myself and then i realized that a lot of people might have exactly the same problem that i do so that is one of my unique point of sales i tell them you're more than welcome to grab it and you will feel that white elastic really supporting your hair especially if it's on a thicker side so i share with them my story my personal struggle how i overcame this and it doesn't have to be a long thing and then i also make them from really fun colorful fabrics and materials and i use my scrap fabric for that and believe me i have a lot of really fun scrap fabric pieces that make this huge fun assortment of scrunchies for anybody to choose what they really like and here's an interesting thing oftentimes once people feel my scrunchies they'll purchase two or three sometimes even four or five at the same time because they really love how it feels and how it looks now another really important thing that i've learned by doing this farmers market is to listen to your guests to listen to your customers when they come to you in person at the farmers market or that might be online as well because they will tell you what are they looking for what are they craving and what are they willing to spend their money on and for me one of those items was headbands guess what on the first day of the market people kept asking for headbands they kept asking well do you have any pretty headbands for me and for my granddaughter and for me and for my daughter and i didn't i started my farmer's market with three simple initial items to sell for a variety of reasons i was just testing the waters i didn't want to make so much inventory that would sit without being sold i also wanted to see what people would be excited about and guess what headbands was one of those items so i thought definitely for the next farmer's market i gotta make some headbands besides couple weeks before that i did a really fun video about using your knit fabric scraps and one of the items was to make a knotted headband like that so it was a win-win i already knew how to do it i had plenty of gorgeous fun colorful knit fabric scraps that i could use to make these really fun headbands and the response was great people kept saying that these are really nice and soft and they fit your head nicely and people kept purchasing them sometimes two or three at a time as well so this is definitely one of the items that based on my experience should do pretty well no matter where you are and also one of the unique point of sales for this item is that i mentioned that during colder times you can use it as your ear warmers and that's another thing that you can put aside and a note for yourself that if you do participate in winter time farmers market you can make these out of warmer materials like really nice knit or really nice thicker jersey and use these as ear warmers you might not know this but we live in a really small town so the size of our farmers market is really humble and with that in mind i wanted to create an item that would cheer up anybody's day no matter how big or how small is your budget and one of those items is this cute little bow it's a clip that goes in your hair usually geared towards younger children but how cute it is how easy it is to make and as i said it will cater to any budget size whether it's smaller budget or larger budget and i also as a parent know one of those moments when you go somewhere and your kid really wants you to buy something but maybe your budget is limited and you want to make your kids day but you are unable to buy something that costs double digit but this little one anybody can buy even with the money that a tooth fairy left for your kid now do you see these cute little tags that i made for these little bows it's adorable isn't it now that's one of the things that i wanted to talk to you about from my perspective it's great to have some branding but you don't want to go overboard with it so that way it feels less and less handmade and that was one of the challenges that i faced at first i had a lot of tags on a lot of my product but then i realized that people were really questioning whether that was handmade or not just because it looked more like store-bought product so i definitely scaled it back a little bit but if you're looking to sell some of your handmade items that's where skillshare comes in it's a learning community with thousands of classes on different subjects and some of the subjects are there to help you out with your personal branding with the branding for your business with some of the ideas how to build your business or maybe your influence online and it's a great place where to try new hobbies and new creative things and ideas i've been a skillshare member way before we started working together and my go-to topics when i log in onto skillshare are watercolors sketches illustration and also productivity and sometimes some of the photography tips and tricks and knowledge for my youtube channel now for you guys there are some amazing classes on topics like lifestyle photography productivity fine arts creative design and many many more and for one thousand of first subscribers to click on the link in the info box below you will get a one month free of skillshare premium membership to take it to try it and see what it does for you there's no ads centered around learning and it really is a great place where to learn something new and just hone in on your creativity and for me currently i'm looking at this class by amaryllis anderson and she is talking about how to stick to your creative practices how to really follow through with your creative ideas and your creativity all together so definitely check out the skillshare offer in the info box below and let's roll with another handmade item that i sell at my farmers market now this next item i actually received as a gift this last christmas and i really loved it i use it all the time and i thought well if i love it a lot of people out there would love it as well so i decided to try and make it and see how it goes and those are makeup removal pads i sell them in a set of five they come with one side and cotton and the other side and this towel holding material so that way it exfoliates it really nicely and i need to tell you that they are a winner people love them the only thing that i've noticed since this is a really new item that i've added to my farmer's market only two or three weeks ago is that a lot of times when people pick them up if i'm not there to talk to them and chat with them about what is that we're doing here and what is the purpose of this then a lot of times people think that those are coasters so i definitely need to do a little bit better maybe with signage maybe with some other marketing materials that will point them into the direction that these are makeup removal pads and not coasters although if people pick them up and they think that those are coasters this is another tip for me to think that okay maybe if i do make some coasters those would sell well as well but either way these are really fun makeup removal pads people love them i package them up so none of them are loose people can't actually touch them and that was one of the things that i was really concerned about thinking that well if people can't touch them like they can't touch scrunchies or headbands maybe they're not going to buy them but it was no problem whatsoever people grab a little set sometimes two at the time and they purchased them and so far the feedback has been amazing here's another item that is a very recent addition to my farmer's market inventory and here is another lesson to learn i've only made two and i can see that people are excited they pick them up they look at them they ask questions but there's only two so there's nothing to choose from therefore make more than just a couple make a variety of items of the same item in different fabrics or different prints or in different colors or whatever else that might be because then when there is a choice people are more likely to find what they're looking for or maybe what suits their taste so these are actually bandanas they're made out of woven fabric and it looks very similar to the headband that i've showed to you before with a twisted front but these are just made from woven fabric and they cover more of your head so it kind of acts like a sun hat or a bucket hat but without actually wearing a hat and unique point of sale here is that if you are working in a garden and you like to wear your hair in a ponytail if you put a bucket hat on you actually can't really put it on that well because that that ponytail is going to stick out so these would be really great because they do cover from your forehead all the way to the back of your head with elasticated back but then you still have enough space for your hair to be out and to be gathered in a ponytail so i definitely need to make more of these i was in a such a time crunch last week so i only made two my bad so i definitely need to make more and see how it goes this following week i have three more items for you guys to discuss in this video but before we do i wanted to remind you do your research before you apply to a craft for your farmer's market before you sell online or any other business endeavor take a look if there are any regulations that you need to know about take a look if you need to submit your items to be inspected take a look of how big or how small parts need to be do you need any labels for those particular parts or if you're selling smaller items don't skip this step be resourceful right now you can access information easier than ever everything is at your fingertips so definitely do your research be resourceful and make sure that everything that you're doing is according to the local regulations now if you're watching this video and you're thinking well i wish you would actually show how to make these things well dear sewing friends all the tutorials for all of the items that i mentioned here will be in the info box below underneath this video so definitely take a look over there it's sorted out everything is noted for your convenience and if you've been following me for a while chances are you've already seen it if not if you're new here well today is the day you have a lot of really fun videos to look forward to and definitely check out the info box now this item i really thought it would be such a great idea truthfully and partially because i like a really pretty large bow on my child although it never stays in because she just takes it out she's two and a half so she can't be bothered with having anything in her hair but i thought well definitely especially in our area cheerleading is huge sports are huge people are going to love these they're going to buy these for their kids and absolutely no the worst selling item out of the whole lineup of whatever i sell at the farmer's market so this one has been definitely a fail it might do really well in your area who knows but in my area for whatever reason these large bows just don't interest people here's another really useful tip that i've learned not necessarily from this farmer's market but more from all of the years of my professional employment and that is to really analyze not only the price that you want to set for your items and for your handmade goods not only to think about what are the resources time and what are the materials and equipment involved in creating this or that item but also what is the purchasing ability of your target audience how much can they actually spend on your handmade item and will they spend that money on that handmade item as i mentioned we live in a smaller town and our farmers market is of a very humble size so i made these tote bags and i truly think that they're fun they're awesome they're colorful the main idea here is that they made out of really nice sturdy fabric i actually use outdoor decorating fabric for these and that makes them really nice sturdy they don't sag when you put stuff in them and i truly think it's a really fun nice quality item however because the fabric is so expensive the tote bag is at the more expensive end of any other tote bag offered on the market therefore when people look at them they're excited they're like wow this is a really nice tote bag they will ask how much is it i'll tell them the price and i could see that they're not ready to pay this much for a tote bag so here i definitely encourage you to think about the purchasing ability of the target audience in front of which you're going to be selling whether that's online offline or in any other way that you are selling your product think about what are they able to purchase and what is a good price and a good item for this or that market another really good thing to think about is seasonality and because our farmer's market goes till the mid-october and school year is going to start sometime mid-august or at the end of august i am planning another set or about five different items to offer to the local residents towards the start of the school so that way they have something extra something new something to look forward to when they come back to my booth at the farmers market so definitely there might be another video with another set of small items to sell and sell at the farmer's market bonus idea for you my dear starring friends this is also a really good seller and people absolutely love these there's that element of surprise so what you're going to do is you're going to go to walmart kroger dollar store poundland wherever you are and you're going to grab these brown lunch bags they usually come in a pack of 100 and i make about a dozen of these at the time for each week and i only do farmer's market once a week for four hours on saturday so this is definitely a great idea to do comes together so quickly too so what you're going to do is you're going to pop them open and then we call them grab bags in each of the grab bags there will be three to four items one item will be quite a big item like a scrunchie or a bow or a headband or something like that and then two additional smaller items that are just fun fillers something for the kids or adults or whatever and we put them all three items in the bag and then you fold it really nice sometimes i'll add a little bow that i make from the yard and then when people come to the farmers market and they ask what's in the grab bag and we tell them well there's three items one of them is pretty big the other two are fun little items additional ones and you don't know what you're gonna get so a lot of times kids will start shaking them and looking and trying to see what's in a grab bag it's a lot of fun and a lot of times parents that have kids at home and parents came to the farmers market to check out local produce and local crafters parents will buy these for their kids as a nice surprise as well sometimes on a slower day let's say it's raining i will only sell maybe four of these on a good day it's closer to the double digits so definitely take a look at this idea this is such a fun fun activity and both me and my friend do these with some earrings and some artistic stuff and for me of course this is more of the products that i sell therefore it's really fun to see people get so excited because you don't know what you're gonna get and on the bright side for you as of the maker of all of these handmade goods this is a great idea how to move some of the one-off items that you might have maybe you're making things in sets or in collections and you have one or two items that just don't feel right for this or that this is a really great way how to give people the joy of surprise and also move some of the items that just maybe don't feel right for the collection or color scheme or maybe patterns or whatever else now i gotta tell you farmer's market is a lot of fun but it's definitely not easy it has its ups and downs it's a numbers game some days you might do really well some days you might not do so well at all but it's really fun to talk to local people to see what they like to gain knowledge from them as well from their suggestions i get to meet some of my subscribers as well which is really really amazing and it can be a really great experience it all depends how you approach it if you treat it like a business you will see some success if you're treated like a hobby it really just depends on the size of the farmer's market how much traffic you get through and things like that and what is your expectation all in all do you want to make full-time living off of it which might be challenging or do you want this to be more of a supplemental income so definitely take a look at all of those things do some research online and here's another video to keep you inspired about items that you can sew and sell take a look right over here 10 items to sew and sell and i'll see you in the next video bye

Channel: Thoughtful Creativity - CRAFT, SEW, DIY

Views: 261,263

Rating: 4.9234257 out of 5

Keywords: sewing projects, sewing for beginners, 10 minutes sewing projects, easy sewing projects, sewing projects to sell, sewing items to sew and sell, sew and sell, what to sell on etsy, sewing machine, sewing, 10 minute sewing projects, quick sewing projects, easy sewing ideas, useful sewing ideas, useful sewing projects, what to sew, fabric scrap ideas, alisa shay, thoughtful creativity, simple sewing projects for gifts, gifts to sew, gift ideas to sew, farmers market

Id: giQ6plq0SHM

Length: 18min 14sec (1094 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 09 2021