Little E

Welcome to the New Layout

Diane — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:46:48 +0000

We just got a new layout for the website. I hope you like it and are able to navigate it easily. Please contact me if you have any trouble with the website not working properly. So grab a cup of coffee and shop for a while!

Diane

Love Hate Minky

Diane — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:24:08 +0000

I have a love-hate relationship with minky. I love how luxuriously soft it is and how it feels against your skin, especially for a baby. But I hate how hard it can be to sew sometimes. It can crawl and stretch on you when your not looking. I recently purchased a walking foot for my sewing machine. I used it yesterday for the first time. It does help when sewing minky, but you still have to be very careful. I also find it helpful to use a lot of pins! Pin, pin, pin! This will help some for the crawling problem.

Here are some of my projects that are in my store that I recently completed.

Holiday Open House Pics

Diane — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:28:36 +0000

I had a great time last night at the Holiday Open House. I met several nice people and even sold some things. Here is a couple of pictures of my table that I had set up with all my goodies for all to see! My very first showing!

Holiday Open House

Diane — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:34:05 +0000

Tonight is going to be exciting! I am going to participate in a Holiday Open House with 6 other businesses. Featuring: Celebrating Home, Mary Kay, Scentsy, Tastefully Simple, ThirtyOne Bags, “Little e” & BeautiControl! This is my very “First Showing”. People can actually see my cute stuff in person. Here is a bag that I made just for tonight. It’s not advertised on my site yet. Hopefully it will sell tonight and I won’t get the chance to list it. (fingers crossed). I will take pictures of my table tonight and then post them later.

Linking up with:

New Bibs are coming!

Diane — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:15:07 +0000

I am now offering Bibs! They are a generous size of 10″ x 12″. Some will be offered by themselves and some will be offered in a set with Burp Cloths. All handmade by me! See photos below.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Linking up with:

New Banner choice #2

Diane — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:45:10 +0000

New Banner choice #1

Diane — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:44:16 +0000

Scary Zippers!

Diane — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:49:12 +0000

I know…these cute little zippers don’t look so scary now!

I just completed a purse that has “2″ zippers in it! These are my very first zippers EVER to sew into anything. I had so much anxiety over these simple little zippers. After reading many zipper tutorials and watching many, many youtube zipper tutorials, I decided to give it a try.

A friend at church loaned me her Vera Bradley “Hipster” to see if I could make one. After much deliberation and studying, I started out by really looking it over and making measurements. I made several notes. At my next fabric shopping spree, I found the fabric and zippers to complete this purse that was causing me much anxiety! (It was the zippers…they were scaring me).

One of the first things I did was to find some paper that I could use to make a pattern. I just happen to have some white wrapping paper left over from a wedding gift I gave someone. It worked perfectly. After a couple of tries I had my pattern. I cut the fabric using my pattern. Then I had to quilt the pieces. I just used a diamond shape. I just eyeballed it so some of the lines aren’t quite the same space apart. I knew I would be carrying this particular purse so it wasn’t a big deal.

Second, this purse has an adjustable strap. Another first for me. The Vera Bradley purse had a adjustable ring/slide that resembled more like a belt buckle. (see pic below)

I looked and looked at Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabric stores. All I could find was D-rings or square rings. You have to use 2 rings to make an adjustable strap. So I settled on D-rings. I don’t like the look as well as I do as the double slide, like the one pictured. I cut the straps 65″ long….I know, the longest straps ever. I studied how they were put together and sewed them. I set them aside for later. To make a long story shorter, I finished the purse and I’m quite happy with the way it turned out.

This purse has 2 outside pockets. One has a zipper. On the inside there is two more pockets. There is also a zipper located on top to zip the purse closed.

So here is my “Little e Hipster”.

Linked up with this week:

Sunday Afternoon Pondering

Diane — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:16:03 +0000

As I sit here in my sewing studio on a Sunday afternoon, I’m pondering what it is I can update you on. I’ve been so busy lately just sewing, sewing, sewing, etc….you get the picture, that I haven’t posted very much and when I do, I don’t say much. My new website has been up and running for about 3 weeks, but nothing is selling yet. I know…it’s a new website and no one knows I’m out there yet. So I must be patient. And that can be tough.

Here’s what I’ve done for advertising so far:

Shared almost everything I make on Facebook (personal & business)
I link with different blogs on their linky parties
I used $75 worth of free advertising on Google Adwords (btw, the $75 worth of advertising didn’t even last for 24 hours!!!)…And I didn’t even make a sale from having it. I know, bummer!
I pin things I make on Pinterest
I tweet about things I make
I’ve sent a few newsletters out to my friends through Google Friend Connect. (I’m trying to get away from this method and just use a link for people to sign-up to receive the newsletter. I don’t like the format that GFC newsletters use.)

So as you can see, I’ve been working on the advertising quite a bit. But, still no sales.

Here’s a list of my doubts:

Are my pictures good enough?
Are my prices too high?
Are my products ugly?
Are my products not useful? needed?
Is my web page user friendly?

There is so much to think about and to consider when running an online store. And when nothing is selling, it’s hard to know what to make/sew more of. You know, what is it that people like most? Is it a certain color, a certain fabric, is it the cupcakes, is it a quilt?

This is a whole new learning process for me. So, if you are considering having your own E-Commerce store, take note! Or if you are reading this and want to share or shed some light, please feel free to offer your constructive criticism.

I really enjoy sewing and creating new things for the store. So I’m still having fun!

Here’s a few pictures of some Burp Cloth Cupcakes I’ve made in the last 2 days.

You can click the picture and it will take you to the product page and you can see more pictures of each finished product.

Thanks for reading!

Linking up this week with:

Western Themed Burp Cloths

Diane — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:18:33 +0000

Here is a set of burp cloths that I’ve made recently. I decided to do a Western or a Cowboy Theme set for all my rodeo friends!

Linked up with: