This is me Crying Tears of Shame

I just had a girl on etsy asking me if I would make hoods to hook onto her corsets. Because I'm a kind and obliging individual, I told her I would be glad to make the hoods and asked her to take pictures of the fabrics she currently had the corsets in, so I could match them exactly. She sent me 3 pictures, and they were all of the knock-off guy's corsets. My pride has been seriously wounded. Just when I had finally made piece in my heart! I read this big article about forgiveness and about how when we let things go, we unload great burdens that are weighing us down. I realized that I had so much hatred for this company, and it was just poisoning me, so I told myself that bit about flattering being a sincere form of...admiration...what is that quote? OOOoh, imitation being the most sincere form of flattery. Thus, I figured that, with how much he's shamefully copied me, he must adore me more than my husband does! He must think I'm an absolute GODDESS to imitate my creations that much. MAN ALIVE! Anyway, and I decided that, for the people who want a costume to wear to one single event, and they don't mind if it feels cheap (just like the ones that come in packages at the Halloween Store), then he's a marvelous company. He gives the people what they want, and they don't have to fork over their well earned cash. I decided that it was cool that people could "look" like one of my dang sexy customers from far away. Neat. It's almost like they could belong to our club of awesomeness, and they didn't have to go through initiation.

Wow, I'm off subject. I just wanted to say that I'm working through the cycle of forgiveness all over again....(I still get angry every time I see a cheaply made bodice out of my patterns.) and maybe I never let go of my bitterness in the first place. Dang.

I actually like Ugly

So, we've gotten to the end of the year, and we're trying to calculate how much supplies we have, and what we are in need of so that we can continue onto next year full force! The other goal that we have it to use up all of the little yard or half yard pieces of fabric that we have folded in neglected stacks on our shelves...oh, and we want to use up the ugly fabrics. Ugly, you say? Why the devil would someone make something ugly? Well, I've come to a realization-not everyone likes the same things that I like. This particular notion struck me when I was dealing with one of my customers last week (I believe you know who you are. I'm not mad! Just flabbergasted!) and she didn't like ANY of the fabrics that I had had in my booth at the Las Vegas Festival, nor did she like anything on my website, OR anything on the two fabric websites that I referred her to. And I had this horrid little mini-attack of....well, I don't even know what it was. It's just that there's all these people that go onto American Idol and brag about how all of their family and friends tell them that they can sing SO well, and then when they get up onto the stage, they screech out some painful pop song, all of America sits at home and laughs at them, and Simon tells them it's rubbish. Why was no one honest with them????Furthermore, what if I actually pick ugly fabrics, and no one is freaking telling me!!!????

I posted these pictures on purpose, because this is a good example of a fabric that I KNOW is awesome, and I actually DO KNOW that lots of other people won't exactly fancy it. I like the look of textiles that appear to be some nightmarish carpetbag gone wrong. I like really horrid olive greens and colors that look like the only appropriate place for them is on tacky kitchen appliances from the 60's or 70's. However, when I pick fabric for my company from which I will make corsets, I take some very serious things into consideration. First, I strive to cover all of the most basic colors-Black, red, blue, green. Those seem to be the ones that are easiest to match. I've noticed that when there is an "in between color" like puce or chartreuse, people aren't nearly as drawn to them. Second, I try to reflect on the countless emails that I've received that have requested something specific (I would say 80% of the "color request" emails I get are asking for purple.) or a specific pattern. Thus, when I shop, if I see a purple (which happens about once a year) I pounce on it and purchase the whole bolt and whatever else they have.

Which brings me to my next point. I know that some of you get frustrated because I don't have exactly the fabric you want, and I'm a complete slacker when it comes to updating my fabrics page on my website, but let me take a moment to defend my honor. When I'm shopping for fabric, I usually have to have several thousand dollars in cash that I stick in my bra and walk into the shop with. Cold Hard Cash speaks so poignantly and bluntly. I also have to purchase THE WHOLE ENTIRE BOLT of fabric to get a good deal. There's not a fabric store out there that is interested in providing me with 4 and 5 yard pieces of a vast selection of fabric, and letting me have them for wholesale price. Now, when you're in the wholesale world, a bolt of fabric can be anywhere from 50 to 70 yards. EVEN if I had something magical happen, and I was able to obtain the gorgeous quality upholstery fabrics for a mere 7 DOLLARS A YARD, that would still end up being easily $420. In the end, I have a lovely fabric, but I still just have one color option. (Oh, by the way 7 dollars is a splendid price, and if I were to just purchase a few yards, the retail price is more like $20. Ouch. Goodbye, profits.) So, let's do some quick math.....actually let's not. Math is boring. Let's do some B.S. estimations. So, even if I wanted a barely reasonable selection of 8 fabrics on my website, I would have to drop $4000 to meet that end. Do you guys understand what I'm saying? I hate to tell you, but I'm not exactly that rich.

Back to the main subject...sort of. We trying to save up the money to get new fabrics, but it may be a few months. I may have to give up my great love for fancy cheeses and MAC makeup, so I can actually afford it in the end. I do want to promise you that we have a lot of splendid things coming up this next year for our company. I am learning something new every single day about how to run things more smoothly, how to make a better product, how to deal with customers in the best manner possible, and how to get where I want to go with my dream. All of your advice and input has been absolutely crucial in developing this company, and I promise to continue to listen to you guys, because I actually think that, in your case, "the customer is always right."

Halloween 2010 Pre-Planning

Well, I'll be honest with everyone. This Halloween season kicked my rear. I've never felt more inadequate, stressed, defeated and beaten as I did for the whole month of October. I never want to repeat another month like that in my life....EVER. It wasn't the volume of orders that we had (good glory! I'll never complain about that!) or the two festivals that did it to me. I think we just need to figure out the best way to take orders so there's as little confusion and frustration as possible. I've talked about this with the midwest branch of my company (my brother and his wife) and we decided that for next year, we would have a "rewards program" so to speak for customers that followed some guidelines we're going to come out with. It will be based on things such as-how early they order, how quickly it's paid for, and how and when you send us the measurements for custom orders. For instance, next year, near the end of September, we will feature lots of really fantastic Halloween costume corsets, HOWEVER, the price on the items will go up each week until Halloween, when they will be at the highest prices that we would ever sell our items at. The reason is that the procrastinated orders nearly killed us. I totally understand procrastination, I'm guilty of it, and I'm trying to purge it from my life, but we're just saying that we're going to REWARD the smart girls who plan ahead. So, essentially, you could pay $100 for a corset at the end of September, of you could pay $140 for the same corset at the end of October. We'll also be sending out really fantastic coupons along with the early orders, so you can get splendid discounts on your next purchases.
I'll be coming out with an official list of "guidelines" for getting customer perks, but we want you guys to know that we're not just doing this to save our own skins. I'm trying to make it so when people order from us, it's pleasant, painless, well communicated, and that you guys end up getting a perfect product and looking spectacular. And I'll let you in on a little secret. There's lots of odds and ends type of corsets laying around my sewing shop that haven't been listed on etsy or artfire for whatever reason. When I get customers that I really like working with, I generally look around my shop to see if one of those corsets is the same size as the one I'm sending them, and I'll throw in a free corsets. I know there's a handful of you who have been beneficiaries of totally free corsets, and I want you to know that it's because you made my job easier and were just beautiful to work with.....oh, and I happened to have another corset in your size (that's the biggest factor).

Oh, one last note, completely unrelated! Lots of you have noticed that we haven't been listing on ebay. We're really trying to run our business without having to do business through them. They are not a seller-oriented website, and when we give them 16% to 18% of each of our sales, and they still aren't willing to work with us ...it makes us feel that maybe we don't want to give them our money. I might change my mind on this, because ebay has been a good way of promoting our business, but they have also been, for the most part, a great big corporation that doesn't give a dang about little companies like me. Bleh. So, PLEASE check out our artfire and etsy stores. We purposely put better stuff on there anyhow. ;)

Faire Cancellation

Guys!!! I know you'll all hate me, but I had to cancel my festival in New Mexico. We got home from our last festival, and I literally just do not have the inventory to do a show properly. I'm tremendously sorry to any of you who were planning on coming there to meet me! We're hoping to possibly do it next year, but this year, I would completely shut down and never sew anything again if I over-worked myself that much. *sigh* Next year we'll be more prepared for Halloween. next year. next year.
On a happier note, I have a lot of my leftover inventory that's going onto etsy and artfire!
michelle

I wish I could make more for Halloween

Just a quick note! I know that we're sort of.....not that easy to order from around Halloween. I'm very VERY sorry for that, and I and promising that next year it will be better! It's my fault for thinking that somehow I could simotaneously do 3 huge festivals (which means a lot of freaking corsets have to be made and sold in order to pay for the traveling, hotels, booth space, gas, and all the other little millions of things!) and create inventory as well as taking custom orders. I have great and lofty dreams, and a prodigious amount of ambition (or rather....love of money.......then again, if I loved money that much, I would have become more of a sellout corporation by now, and I would be having these things manufactured in china and distributed all over. Believe me, I've had A LOT of offers and I've turned them all down instantly.) but sometimes I get ahead of myself and figure that I can sew corsets and not do anything else (like showering. I've haven't showered this morning....and all I've eaten is some brownie dough out of a tub that I purchased for $5 from my lovely little neighbor girl that was doing a fund raiser. And...holy face! it's 11:55! almost noon o-clock! Oh, I'm so ashamed. It's just that I've spent the entire morning yelling at my camera set up, trying to list awesome Queen of Hearts corsets on etsy, and finishing up my custom orders!).

So, back to the main point of this! When I was at the Portland Pirate Festival, I saw an alarming amount of the $#@%$#@ knock-off guy's bodices walking around. The best part was when a lovely girl walked in wearing one of his coats and said, "I know that you didn't make this, but I've only worn it once and the boning has poked through the fabric." And sure enough, his shoddy piece of plastic boning (he lies and says it's all metal on his ebay auctions. I think he just figures people are too stupid to know.) Anyway, being the kind and forgiving person that I am, I took her bodice and fixed it. Now, granted, I've had the occasional piece of boning slide it's way out of the casing on a corset, but in the last 2 years of making bodices (now that I've done more trouble-shooting and revising than you can possibly imagine!) I've NEVER had the boning just pierce it's way through the fabric. That only happens when the fabric is complete crap, and HOLY NIGHT! I'm not just being a B-, but that guy's china-made upholstery wannabe fabric is sooo hideous. He lines his corsets with cheap satin (You know, the kind that you would find at JoAnn around Halloween. It's "costume" satin, and it's $1.99 a yard. *shudder*) and just as I suspected, the stitching is beautiful, but the actual stuff that goes into the garment is the very lowest of low qualities! OH, friends!!!!!! Please don't buy from this man! The girl that purchased the coat didn't know that the guy had his crap cheaply made in China. He says his location is Portland, but then in the longest "save my own rear" policy I've ever seen on any auction, he says in little letters that he designs everything and has it made in China. Guys, I know I sound like a bitter person that just can't get over it, but I just wanted you to know that I saw and examined the garments, and they're worse than the pictures. I saw one girl wearing one of this corsets and it made her belly look like it was positively protruding because of the big bend in the belly area of the boning. It bent outward, forming an odd 'O' right at the waist, and made her look like she had a serious pooch. It's just so sad that people don't know how wretched this stuff is! I figure I'm doing a serious public service her.

Well, I'll stop being angry and go and eat some brownie dough for lunch, then continue sewing corsets. *sigh*
Oh, one last quick thought! If I have promised you a corset by Halloween, you'll have it by Halloween! Make sure your communicating with me and informing me if you need anything else. Thanks!!!

me on video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QKiVJDEB2k

All right, there I am! I'm at the last half of this interview. Please understand that I'm not really this mouthy and egotistical in real life. OH, and I swear my chin is not that big in real life! I know I look like Jay Leno...but it must be the camera angle. Bleh.

Holy Face!!!!!

What a great weekend I had at the pirate festival! I'll be posting some pictures soon! Thanks for everyone who was awesome enough to get a corset!
We're in the long process of traveling home and will be home this weekend, and right back to work. I have to magically pull 100 corsets out of my sewing machine within the next 2 weeks along with finishing up the custom orders for Halloween. Guys, I'm going die. I'm just going to die. *sigh*
Michelle

On a happier note, HELLO to Nathan (ooooh, and his mom and sister!!!), Jill, Ryan, and Nicole , since I know you guys are reading this. I dearly appreciate you coming to visit me at the festival!