Craft Sale Debrief

Summary

Notes

Welcome to my very first live video! I was pretty nervous, so I felt a little scatter brained. Below you’ll find all of the resources mentioned below, as well as anything I may have missed during the video. I’ve added a video at the very bottom of this post which shows my entire table set up.

Also, please excuse my kids noises in the background. They weren’t happy that daddy wouldn’t let them come see what I was up to!

Craft Sale Details

1:00

This sale was held in a small town near my own, at the local VFW. It was a small event labeled as an “Spring Craft Show and Basket Party” to benefit one of the town’s local organizations who put on various events throughout the year. The sale was on Sunday, March 21st from 10am to 4pm, and set up was the evening prior.

For context, I am located in Pennsylvania, and presently we are just starting in to the spring season. While it is still chilly hear, and it isn’t unheard of for us to still be getting snow at this point in the year, the event was Easter/Spring focused.

Inventory

2:00

I took all of my beanies and scarves, even though they weren’t very seasonally appropriate. I made a basket rack (with the help of my husband and parents), that I put all of my off season and discontinued items in. The winter items did not sell well, and there was very little interest in even browsing them. This is likely due to the time of year.

Answering questions sent in prior to the recording

2:45

What was your most popular item? What sold well?

Preemie Octopus – Pattern by Crochet 365

I made several of these in Brava Worsted Yarn and used 6mm safety eyes. The most popular colors were Lady Slipper and Fairy Tale. I sold them for $16 each. I don’t think that any of the customers who purchased these bought them for their intended purpose as a NICU octopus, they were nearly all purchased for children who were there browsing with a parent or grandparent.

3:43

Bunny Mini – Pattern coming soon (I will link here when it becomes available)

I wanted to have a low priced item option and these were perfect! I made them in varying super bulky (6) weight yarn from my stash, and they only take about 10 minutes each, including sewing and gluing on the eyes. I cut my eyes from felt on my Cricut. You could use safety eyes, or embroider eyes as well, but felt seemed to be the fastest and most cost effective method for me. You can purchase the felt eyes from my Etsy shop here.

I put these in a basket at the front of my table and sold these for $4 each.

5:03

Knitting Machine Gnomes – Instructions coming soon (I will link here when it becomes available)

These only take about an hour for me to make with my knitting machine and I used various stash yarn, but mostly Caron Simply Soft because it is a bit thinner and does better on my small 20-pin knitting machine than other standard medium weight yarns do. Side note- I can’t find a link to the exact knitting machine that I used, as it is one that I’ve had since childhood; however, the 22-pin would give you a similar size.

I had these in a basket at the back of my table and sold them for $20 each. Next time, I will display them more prominently.

6:10

Other items that sold:

Baxter the Hanging Bat – Pattern free on my blog

Small Octopus – Pattern by Mizu

I sold small stuffed animals such as the above for $12 each. This is cheaper than I would have liked, but I’ve had these items for a while and wanted to see them go.

7:09

What didn’t sell?

I primarily wanted my table to be focused on baby items; however the baby specific items didn’t sell well. I received a lot of nice comments about my work on the baby items, and a lot of people said they wish they knew someone having a baby, or wish they knew of a baby to buy for, but not a lot of movement on those items.

The things that sold were items for younger kids, approximately 3-8 age range.

7:58

My daughter, Adaleigh, came along and was selling her little craft creatures as well. She makes little creatures out of pom poms and sold them for $1 each. She did quite well! Get your kiddos involved in crafting! She liked talking to customers and telling everyone what she made, and she just lit up when someone wanted to buy one.

8:30

Sweet Cupcake Hat – Pattern free on my blog for 0-3 month size
Sweet Cupcake Hat – Pattern with all sizes on my Etsy

8:52

How do you figure out pricing your items?

I use a formula to factor in the cost of the yarn and how long the item takes me to make. I charge based on what I want to be paid per hour. I have a blog post all about that, where you can get the free download for the exact calculation that I use. You can find that here.

10:36

Keep in mind the venue that you are going to be selling at. What type of event is it? What kind of people typically attend this kind of event? What other vendors will be there? These will all help you decide on your prices, as well as what price range of items you should bring.

Scrunchies, key chains, and small toys will be my focus for future craft sales.

11:44

How much of each item should I make?

I generally try to make 4-6 of each main item that I’m bringing. Of course, I have a large inventory of things since I am just getting back in to doing craft sales, and after I sell off some of my older inventory, I plan on being more intentional about the things I make for sale purposes.

12:10

Was there a fee for setting up and did you make a profit?

I paid $20 for the table, plus a basket raffle item. For the raffle, I gave a Seek Adventure Clutch. Overall, I would say it was a pretty successful sale. I sold just over $160 while I was there, and a few people asked for my card to contact me about custom orders.

13:50

How long did it take you to prepare for the sale?

I used to do craft sales all the time, before my son was born. So since that time I have just been adding to my totes here and there, without really focusing on a specific purpose. For this sale specifically, I made the preemie octopus’, bunny minis, cupcake hats, and rainbow rattles. All other items I already had made. I found out about the sale in February, so I only had about a month to prepare.

I find the assembly line method works well for craft sale prep.

15:39

Smaller octopus’ and bat that I refer to is linked above under “Other items that sold”.

16:28

Helpful tip: display larger stuffies higher up to help draw people in to your table, and place smaller stuffies at the front of your table, where kids are able to easily see them.

17:23

My takeaways and things I’ll do differently next time

• More smaller priced items ($4-12)
• Focus on more items for young kids (approximately ages 3-8)
• More items for boys
• Display less hats and winter items (for spring sales)

20:15

Tanner the Triceratops – Pattern free on my blog

20:37

How many items did you have in total?

On my table, I probably had between 40-50 items. Keep in mind that this included small items like my bunny minis, as well as hats and other items that lay flat and don’t take up much space. In my standing basket rack I probably had around 50 items, which was primarily beanies and other winter items.

22:06

Mix & match idea for beanies and fur poms. I will definitely be trying this idea again at a future sale, when more seasonally appropriate.

23:15

I’ve been thinking about small and quick toy ideas similar to the bunny minis. Perhaps something more specific to boys, such as dinosaurs.

25:05

Do you have more dinosaur patterns coming up?

I do! I’m working on one right now actually, and I have a couple ideas for more in the future. Stay tuned!

My Display

The short video below shows my table display at the craft sale I’m referencing in the talk.

Thank you

Thanks so much for joining me and I hope that this information was helpful to you! If there is a topic that you’d like me to talk about in the future, leave me a comment below!

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Happy crafting!

Nicole

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