"Felt" - the debut of Necessary Decadence

I was browsing through TNN (that's the The Nappy Network  - a website dedicated to cloth nappies but with a strong craft focused community) when I noticed somebody asking for a pattern for Well Child Book covers - the ones that go over the top of the books your kids are given at birth and which Plunket updates at every visit.  You see them for sale on Trade Me (an NZ auction site) and on various other websites but this lady could not find a pattern for them.

I must have made 20 or 30 of them since the first one I made for a friend whose little girl was born a couple of months after Zoe.  Mostly as presents but I actually sold a few when I advertised one very cheaply on TNN just to get rid of it - I ended up making half a dozen more.  So I offered to scan my rough drawn pattern and send it to the lady requesting it.  I ended up getting two more requests and it occurred to me that this would be a good start to the idea that I had floating around in my head about selling the patterns for the projects I make from scratch.

To be honest I'm not that good at sewing - I have rough seams and I don't finish very well - don't think I can sew a straight line to save myself.  But I AM good at coming up with ideas that work.  It also takes me ages to make things so that if I was going to sell what I make I'd be earning an average of half a cent an hour!!

I hadn't planned on doing the cover as a pattern.  I actually thought it was too simple to warrant a pattern being made for it.  Obviously I was wrong - I guess everybody has to start somewhere too.  A friend is amazing at making up knitting patterns and she's only been knitting a year or so - the thought of doing that absolutely throws me - and I've been knitting for years.  Others can whip up clothes that look and fit fantastically - forget that, all of my clothing attempts have been disasters - in fact some of the ones I've made from "bought" patterns are disasters let alone making my own!!

So I got down to work and created a very stunning looking tutorial and pattern to go with it - Desktop Publishing - that's really where I shine I guess.  I had one more cover I had to make that a poor lady had been waiting on for months so I had something to take photos of as I made it.  I emailed it off to the three TNNers and then loaded it to "Felt" and "Etsy". 

I made my first sale on Felt that night and was over the moon.  I haven't sold anything since but considering I never planned to sell any of these in the first place I'm not too worried.  It's given me a push start although I have gotten caught up with the next project - there's always something else that needs doing.  However my current plans are to spend a couple of hours each day developing new business - and this is one of them.

So if you're in the mood for making a Well Child Book Cover - come on over to http://www.felt.co.nz/browse/user/necessarydec.  More patterns and other items to be added as they become available.