Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Etsy Market Research

Before I became pregnant with baby V, I was an Etsy seller. I tie dyed anything and everything for my shop, and for local craft fairs and festivals.. (Shirts, dresses, underwear, bags, tights, socks, place mats, neckties, EVERYTHING.) It was a lot of fun. I stopped dyeing and selling soon after I became pregnant, due to feeling lousy, and being busy trying to find a house for our growing family. I stayed away from it after she was born, because she's such a high needs baby, and takes up such an enormous amount of my time and energy.
Lately though, I've been feeling the urge to start dyeing again, although this time on a more limited basis. I'm thinking I'll be able to dye about once a month. I won't be able to do custom items this time around, due to the amount of time that requires. I'm also looking to focus on just a few things, instead of a little bit of everything.
I'm looking for a little feedback. I've been considering dyeing cloth diapers. I've dyed some for myself, and I love them. If this is something you'd be into, what sort would you be looking for? prefolds or flats? What sizes?
Additionally, I think it would be fun to do fabric. If that's something you'd be interested in, what would you be looking for? Yardage? Fat quarters? Cotton? Velvet? Silk?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks for any feedback. I'm still sort of in the planning phase, and am just trying to get a feel for what direction to go in, this time around.
Incidentally, here are some pictures of some things I've dyed previously, just to get a feel for the kind of stuff I do. You can also check out my sold items at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5154708

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4 comments:

  1. I think tie dyed burpcloths would be a hoot! We don't use cloth diapers except for burpcloths, so I guess I'm not much help...

    I am so glad my son is no longer such a high needs baby. It's good to get back into life!

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  2. I love the onesie! My little one had a tie-dyed one when he was little and it was my favorite thing to put on him. Yours are adorable!

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  3. Oh, I agree the burp cloths would be fun, that's how we used cloth diapers. Everyone I know who uses cloth diapers uses the ones that look a lot like dispoable ones, not the old fashioned cloth ones.

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  4. Thanks for the input, everyone. I actually took both of my babies home from the hospital in a tie dyed onesie. :)
    I actually did/sometimes do use prefolds. When I used to be a regular on diaperswappers.com, there seemed to be sort of two schools of thought on the cloth diapers. There were the folks who used the fancy (expensive,) dispoable like diapers, because they're so convienient, and the folks who used the old school ones, because they're so economical. I like the fancy convienient ones, but don't want to spend a fortune for them, so I fill in the gaps with the (cheap) prefolds.
    It's nice to know that even non cloth diaper users would be potentially interested in them as burp cloths, though.

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