Where's best to sell Cushions online

[navyblueknickers]

My MiL has spent ages making cushions to sell at a craft fair. They are square picture panels which she has then quilted by hand. Tons of work has gone into them and they are just gorgeous. She gave me a pair of Wolf ones for my Birthday and they have pride of place in my bedroom (can't have them downstairs as my own pack of "wolves" would destroy them!)

The fair was today, and she sold none of them. I'm gutted for her. In fairness, nobody was selling at the fair, so it wasn't a lack of interest in her items specifically. I did wonder if this was a bad side-effect of the "Make do & mend" craze, i.e. why buy at a craft fair when you can make it yourself. Or it could just have been becuase it was badly advertised!

I've told her to try selling them on the Internet. I'm not sure that Ebay is the best place for them so where else do you think she could try?

etsy and folksy are great for selling handmade stuff, but often frequented by other crafty people if you see what I mean.

Another craft fair? Perhaps it was just an off day?

NBk, can you show us pics on here?

I'll get a picture put on my profile tomorrow of my Wolves and ask her to do some of the others for me

She could try one on E-bay too - I was surprised I got half decent prices for some I did on there a while back

In Northampton there is a shop where you can hire a table for a few weeks to sell whatever you like. Not sure of the name of the shop or of the price you have to pay to hire a table. I know friends have done it with their stuff and there may be shops like that where she lives.

I've added a picture to my profile of the two Wolves. Fil is taking pictures of some of the others for me.

The picture doesn't do it justice as I can't show the quilting. Basically she has quilted around the head to bring it into focus, and then done other detail as well.

Rockin - I have an Ebay shop and I am going to suggest to her that we try a couple as it will be cheaper for her through my shop than through her private account. Also, technically, as she has made these to sell she should register as a business seller and I don't think she'll want to go to that hassle just for a test.

Dutch - we had something similar in a town nearby, but they've unfortunately closed it. It was never that busy and it had quite a grubby air to it - it was in a very old building where some of the rooms had been converted to shops and the main halls were left unused, so they converted one of these. But it was neglected (sad as the building was beautiful) and fdirty and few people visited.

This is the second time MiL has tried selling homemade items. The first time I think the item was wrong, wheras these so aren't. But this bloomin craft fair has knocked all her confidence. I'm going to badger her into looking for other craft fairs and will go and help her.

I really feel for her as I used to sell at School Fetes - but I was selling toys and always had loads of pocket money stuff. Somedays I made a fortune, somedays I didn't cover the table fee. I just removed those schools from my list for the following year as I made sufficient from the good ones - for 3 of the schools I had to have 3 of us selling - although if DH was helping he'd spend all my profit at the cake stall and the BBQ!

Thanks for all your help so far.

I WOULDN'T WORRY ABOUT REGISTERING AS A BUSINESS SELLER whoops ca[ps sorry - I didn't & sold quite a few - good luck

MiL got fed up of me nagging and has set up her own shop on Folksy. www.folksy.com/shops/Cushti

I've got everything crossed for her now. Thanks for your comments

Also why doesn't she try a Facebook page. She will have to keep it updated and use it everyday but I think quite a few have had success like that.

Hey just found a great little website that might help, www.spaceandshape.com/collections/designer-cushions