Use Sewing Skills to Financial Advantage
If you have sewing skills, you are in luck in this age. Most of society is raving over fashion. With your sewing skills you can make a large profit whether online or in your town!
Steps
- Check out eBay [1] or Etsy [2] for sewn crafts! The world's biggest online marketplace is at your fingertips. Find a popular (sewn) item...blankets, shirts, hats, etc. Check carefully what items sell for. Can you make a profit if you were to sell at that price? Make a sample and add up your costs and time. Usually people double their costs when they set a price. If you think you can make a true profit, then make it and sell it on eBay [3]. Look on Google [4] for popular items you can sew and sell on eBay [5].
- Start an alterations or mending business. Most people in their lifetime pop a button off of their shirt, break a seam, etc. You could mend these items for people to make a profit! You need to know what should be charged for basic repairs or alterations: pant hems, skirt hems, taking in a waistline, letting out a waist. How long will these projects take? How much will you pay yourself per hour? What are your costs? (sewing machine wear and tear, phone, electricity, and advertising, for example.)
- It may require a business license in your town, so check this out first. Also look in the yellow pages to see how many alterations businesses are nearby (who is the competition?).
- See if a dry cleaner is looking for an alterations person. You may be able to work there and meet new customers.
- Be a seamstress. Custom sewing is a good way to work at home: weddings, formals, even drill teams and choral groups need custom sewn outfits. Send publicity fliers or brochures to those groups about your new business. Have a nice place for people to come to when they meet you. Have a good room that is well lit and clean for them to fit the garments. You will need to know your expenses: wages, electricity, machine costs, and other assorted costs.
- Factor those costs into what you charge for your work. Have a contract form for your customers to sign that lists what they will pay. Before you start any project, have them pay you in cash at least half of the costs. Decide if you or the customer will pay for the fabric (it's better if they do that). Be prepared to ask for money from your clients. Some people will try to pay you less or not pay at all. Other people will ask for all sorts of changes and fit that you did not plan on, so be firm and have a good written contract.
- When you get good at this, you may find that some stores or bridal salons that can use you as a consultant to alter ready-made dresses and garments.
- Try home décor items - embroidered pillows & pillowcases are easy to make and look what the store bought items sell for.
Tips
- Consider having a minimum price level. Stopping to greet the customer takes time away from your work. If your minimum is three hems, you will be stopping only once for three orders.
- Start a business make things like prom dresses, wedding dresses, etc. Springtime you will make a lot of cash
Warnings
- Sewing is addictive.
- Even though sewing skills are fading, in most parts of the US, finding enough business for your own shop is difficult.
Things You'll Need
- Sewing machine
- Basic sewing skills for simple straight-forward projects.
- Better than basic knowledge for sewing with Lycra.
- You will need advanced knowledge and excellent skills to create couture, such as suits, gowns, and especially wedding fashions.
- Iron
- Ironing Board
- Iron Cleaner
- Scissors
- Extra needles
- Thread
- Fabrics
- Patterns
- Sewing Table or area you can set-up
- Cutting Mat
- Rotary Cutter
- Pinking Shears
- Seam Ripper
- Seam Sealant
- Tape Measure
- Pincushion or Magnetic Pin Caddy (avoid magnets near computerized sewing machines or storage devices. Magnets can mess up or totally wipe out the member on computer devices.)
- Pins
- Erasable Marking Pen or Chalk Markers
- Hem Gage
- Fusible Web
- Buttonhole Cutter
- Dress Form (optional)
- Serger or over lock machine in Europe (optional)
- Pressing Cloth (1 fabric and 1 Teflon)
- Tailor's Ham
- Tailor's Roll
- Point Turner
- Simflex Expanding Gage
