I know I have a few craft business owners here reading my posts & I suspect what I'm about to write may sound familiar to you guys.

Those of you who are potential customers & friends, (I hope) this is a little food for thought when it comes to choosing whether to buy handmade.

You've probably gathered by the title I'm going to talk about the corset I just made.  I am, but this could equally be applied to any of the other things I make & probably a lot of hand-crafted items out there.

So, we craft businesses owners decided that we loved creating things so much & people loved what we made so much that we'd turn our hobby into a business.  We have gorgeous products, lovingly handmade with painstaking perfectionism, often with slight imperfections leading to the whole thing going in the bin because that one stitch out of place that nobody but us notices, or the bit of glue that dribbled slightly, covered up but still there all the same, just wasn't good enough for our customers.  We've spent years honing our skills, reading, learning, questioning those more experienced, practising until we are the experienced, then practising some more.  We work through illness, pain & fatigue to meet deadlines. (See part one)  Every item we make is passionately born of love for the craft, for making each person smile when they receive it, for the people who have to have one of our items, for the "Wow!" & the tears & the speechlessness.

But what happens as we near the finish of our project?  When onlookers are amazed & impressed by our work.

Head squirrels!  Mind Monkeys!  Doubting Dora! Aargh!

What if she doesn't like it?  What if it doesn't fit?  What if she wanted these flames different?  What if she hates the fabric?  What if I take too long?  What if she wanted thinner bones, or a more rigid busk?  What if she wanted it looser, or tighter?  What if the shape isn't what she had in mind?  What if she doesn't want to pay that much?  What if she tells all her friends how terrible she thinks my work is?

All this & more whizzed through my head this week, as well as feeling guilty for every nap I needed to take & every hour I should have been working on the corset but was stopped by my health.  This week I put that corset & the customers wishes before my own body's requests in order to make sure she was happy with her purchase & the experience of getting a Miss Red corset.

Am I feeling worse for wear?  Yes.  Do I regret doing it?  Hell NO!!

Why not?  The first word out of her mouth when she saw the finished corset:

 "Wow!"

She loved it, she stroked it, she adored the fabric & knew it would look amazing under the lights at the event she was wearing it to.  She tried it on & was pleased with the fit, impressed at how it moulded around her bust rather than indecently exposing her if she moved her arms too much or dared to bend over, like all the corsets she's had or tried on previously.  She looked absolutely stunning in it, even just over her everyday clothes, & the smile on her face was utterly contagious.  The sizing & cut was perfect with room to lose a little weight - this was intentional on my part as I know that's what she's trying to do, & has been doing successfully over recent months.  She's looking fabulous & my corset accentuated her beautiful curves wonderfully.  Not a single negative comment was uttered & I lost count of the number of times she said thank you & complimented it.  What's more, she handed over the amount I'd asked for (albeit mates rates) without question & I dare say she may even have paid more if asked.  She headed out of my door literally hugging the corset with that smile still across her face & with a hand full of my business cards to hand out to anyone who complimented or asked about her corset because she was so convinced people would.  On top of all that she can go out in her new corset safe in the knowledge that not a single person out there will ever be wearing the same one because hers is completely unique.  Sadly, having finished it last minute I don't have any photos, but hopefully will be getting some after the weekend so you can check out my work ;)

Head squirrels, mind monkeys & Doubting Dora - thanks but no thanks for your input.  As always everything you said was a load of rubbish so kindly take a hike!

If you're considering buying hand-crafted but see something similar in the shops that costs less I hope you'll consider all the effort, time & consideration that goes into making those perfect, non-mass-produced, beautiful items offered by small businesses like mine.  

Give the little guys a break & buy hand-crafted.

Want to read more like this?  

...head squirrels that is.  You know them?  They're all distracting with their fluffy cuteness but if you get up close they can be quite scratchy & bitey & everything they leave behind is nuts!

I've had a right old problem with the head squirrels this last few weeks or so.  For me they come out a lot in the sunny weather, my body can't regulate my temperature so I'm feeling exhausted & in pain, which in time invites depression & anxiety to take hold, meanwhile positivity is off having a nap in a dark room somewhere.  Perfect squirrel conditions!

As most of you know my business is still just a new one, around 7 months in I'm still really building the foundation & finding you gorgeous ideal audience members...yeah, you there, I saw you drooling over that corset earlier, did you know you can have it in any size, shape or fabric you want? ;) 

I digress.

My point is, nobody expects me to have earned my first million within 7 months of business do they?  (Do they?!?)  So why, when the squirrels invade, do I think I'm useless at this whole self employed lark because all I've managed is not to go into overdraft? NUTS!!!  

In reality, my last wage was over a year ago & I've supported myself since then.  How many people could truthfully say that if their wages stopped tomorrow without warning they could survive a year without outside financial assistance?  My guess is not many!

Yes, it would be fantastic to be living comfortably & never to be thinking "jeez, I really need to get a proper job" but I'm hanging on in there & I have A PLAN & I'm not going to let the squirrels win!

I do have a teeny tiny favour to ask to help me out a little, & I suspect those of you who haven't stopped reading already are just the kind of lovely people who will help me out.

If you see something from Miss Red you like or know someone else would like, share it. 

You can tell just one other person about it, shout it from the rooftops, plaster it over the whole of the internet but pretty please with cherries on top, don't keep it to yourself. 

You could start my sharing my Facebook page, Twitter, the website, the newsletter or even just a particular product.  It'll probably take about 30 seconds, you could do it right now ;)

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!

Are you an artist or designer by trade or do you just love creating beautiful pieces of art?

Would you like to see your artwork in a different medium?

Would you like more widespread recognition for your work?

If your answer is YES then YOU may be just the person I'm looking for!

(If not then pretty please do me a huge favour & share this with your talented arty friends, I'll love you forever!)

I currently draw all the artwork for my cross stitch kits by myself & this can be very time consuming as well as limiting what I can create - because 
a) I'm no artist &
b) the length of my working day is completely dependent on my health day to day.

The idea is that artists could make my process shorter by creating the original artwork so I can focus on creating the patterns, stitching them out, editing & creating the completed counted cross stitch kits.

• A new medium & line of sale for your artwork
• Professional kit creation using genuine DMC threads & quality materials
• New audience
• Credit for your work on the kit packaging, within all sale listings and in general on the Miss Red website & social media
• Links to your own website on mine so people can see more of your work
• Choice of how many pieces to submit & how often to submit
• Final review of the kit before it goes on sale to ensure it truly reflects the quality & value of your work
• Collaboration with MEEEEEEEE ;D

A choice of:

• A percentage of profits (to be negotiated)

or

• Kits and/or digital patterns to sell yourself (pricing to be mutually agreed)

Here are some of the kits I've already made:

Interested?  Great!

Drop me an email or message me using the contact page - a link to some of your work would be fab too ;)  Thank you for reading.

Just lately when I've started talking to new people "oh, you're so lucky" has been a frequent response when I tell them I'm self-employed.

Well, the short response to that is "hell no!"

The longer response?  Lets see, I've battled for years with my health & struggled to hold down jobs my entire adult life because my M.E means I have more sick days than the average person.  As a (terminally) single woman there's never been anyone to support me financially so working part time was never really an option.  The result - working myself to death in temporary roles until I just can't work any more then having to move on & start all over again.  Oh, and don't forget the gruelling doctor/hospital/dietician/psychologist/specialist schedule in my *spare* time!

After 14 years of fighting each & every day to stay afloat I decided enough was enough.  No employer is going to give me a job that fits around my health.  DWP aren't going to support me in any way because, unlike employers, they believe being able to walk from my bed to the loo on a good day means I'm perfectly capable of holding down full time work.

I decided to set up my own business.  I did the research & courses needed to get up & running.  I searched for funding.  I went to trade fairs, put in the hours of hard work making things & perfecting my skills & tracking accounts, networking & finding out what people wanted & would buy.  I bought stock & supplies instead of food & a social life, ME!


So hell no, I'm not giving luck any credit here!  This didn't just happen to me while I sat idly by, I made all of this happen.  I work damn hard at what I do & will continue to do so because I'm passionate & motivated & sooooo stubborn that I refuse to let this fail (despite the fact that even writing this post has taken me 2 hours because my wrists & back ache too much to do it all in one go)  

I love my work & I love that the credit all belongs to me & the fantastic customer base I continue to build along the way ;)  

Just for me, next time your brain tells you that you can't do something because it's too difficult, give it a little go anyway.  You might be surprised what you CAN do!