Starting a business making childrens clothing

[FunFinch]

Looking for a bit of advise from anyone who is or has been in a similar position, or can help direct me at all

I have always had a dream of owning my own store and selling childrens clothing and being abit boutiquey - I know this will never happen as life happens and we coukdnt afford for me to give up work and start a complete business in this economy unforetunately

I currentyl work part time - 3 days a week in an office job, when I get home and put DD (2 years old) to bed, or I have some spare time to wind down, I genareally make her and my neice (5 years old) outfits - mainly rompers, leggings and the occasional dress

I am due to go on maternity leave in August and always get comments from moms at playgroup, or from friends about how much they love DD outfits and would buy from me if I made them to sell

I am thinking of making a batch of these rompers and leggings in multiple sizes and prints rather then make to order , and maybe doing a market stall or selling on instagram just to 1. have a bit of a side hobby when i have time and 2. give me abit of extra cash once the SMP kicks in. As I have made multiple garments over the last 2 years I am pretty aware over my current overheads for materials and my time etc.

So I guess my question is, is this fruitful, is there any sites people recommend to sell through?

I think if you are starting small and not ploughing loads of money in to stock then you should go for it.

If you get pleasure from the creative process go for it. It’s a lovely way to use your skills and earn some £.

My advice is make sure you understand the current legal requirements for labelling clothes. The one that comes to mind is keep away from fire. I know this may seem OTT for a small number of items but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

An alternative suggestion is to make dolls clothes - both the size for Barbie and for baby dolls (Annabel, Baby Born etc).
The official clothes you can get are like gold dust in shops. If I went to a market or fair with a stall selling dolls clothes - I would love it !

Etsy shop!

There are a few regulations that you need to meet if making children's clothing for sale. Two that immediately spring to mind are the flammability for nightwear and the use of drawcords. You will need to do your research first.

It’s one things people saying they would buy them but what price point are they prepared to pay ? You will need to make sure you properly price to include materials / time to make / insurance for running an business from home / cost of electricity / hours spent on this could you keep up with house work etc or need a cleaner ! etc. and if you applied even minimum wage you might be surprised how expensive the garments should be. I know you want to do it as a side business but you have to make sure all costings are accurate to cover costs with a margin and that all garments are compliant with regulations.

I think do it! Try Etsy for selling

I would put pics of the things I've made in my daughters size on Etsy - and then say made to order (to the size they order). Rather than having loads of stock in random sizes

As I have made multiple garments over the last 2 years I am pretty aware over my current overheads for materials and my time etc

So how does that translate into the cost per item when manufacturing on a small scale?

What would it need to sell for to cover other overheads, so materials, the market stall, wear and tear/maintenance on your sewing machine and scissors?

How long does it take to make a single item?

If you scale up and make 10, how much can you reduce the time taken for things like cutting out?

If it takes 2 hours to make a single item (no idea, just a guess) then that's the best part of £25 at NMW before you add on time for selling, sourcing materials, doing books/taxes/banking etc.

If you spend 6 hours at a market stall, plus setting up/travel etc, you'd probably need to take at least £200 a day, likely more to make it worth your while. Make sure you know the cost of taking payments (card machine, banking fees) and the substantial cut that any selling platform will take - they're not primarily there to provide you with an outlet for selling the clothes, they're there to take a lot of your money from you.

You've got a few potential customers, but they'll only buy so many and what happens when their DC grow out of the clothes and they donate them to local charity shops or pass on to friends and families, reducing demand for new items.

Plus marketing. A lot of success these days is due to your social media presence. Don't underestimate the time taken to maintain this and stand out.

Also don't underestimate the impact of a bad review, even if it was due to something outside your control like postage issues. Not meeting a certain level of 'perfect' reviews can mean that your items are not visible to potential customers.

I'm not saying that your idea won't work, it's probably area dependent, how many people you have locally who are willing and able to pay a premium price for DC clothing, that's likely to be significantly more expensive than standard retail and are still going to end up covered in bodily fluids and mud, food and whatever else they pick up when crawling around and playing, before they grow out of it.

You could view it as a hobby that covers some of it's costs and see where it goes. But obviously that depends on you being able to spend your time in this way on top of caring for DC, running your home etc.

Hi OP I have no idea about this from a seller’s point of view as I am terrible at sewing! But wanted to say as a buyer I have bought a few items from this shop on Etsy U.K. which seems along similar lines to what you were thinking of, as it might give you a few ideas. I’ve been super happy with them. I will say that matching doll and little girl dresses are so hard to find, especially anything of decent quality and not cheap tat from China basically. So this is my go-to for that for sure. My niece loves to match with her dolls. I also think it’s reasonably hard to find mummy and me type outfits. So those might be good ideas for you to consider offering as well. I will say that I personally would not have the patience/am not organised enough to wait for the time it would take for a custom order personally. So I think your idea about having various items in different sizes and a few different prints/colours is good.

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AlexasBoutique2013

My friend did this. Started small and it grew into something very successful

Please make things for boys too!

Don't bother with market stalls. The general public don't value handmade! You'll end up barely even breaking even at best.

Targeted online selling can and does work though. Instagram is a good idea if you can get the right following.

Make sure you have safety labelling and are using materials that are approved for children's clothing (fire resistant), read up on the legalities of children's clothes before you start making and selling.

As someone already said, the legislation around this type of business is likely to dampen your enthusiasm... I have a friend with fabulous knitting skills but she doesn't sell her items due to the rules around safety etc...

If you decide to go ahead, it might be best to consider developing a particular niche garment which you can scale up in bulk at a reasonable price. People may say they will buy from you but will they keep coming back when children's clothing can be bought really cheaply from large retail outlets...

Thank you everyone for your responses, they've definitely given me food for thought

I was talking to DH last night about it all, and think maybe I will create an Instagram account and post some photos of what I've previously made and maybe some photos of fabrics I currently have in my stash and go from there. The town I live in is very family focused so there's potential to maybe run a little "popup" in some of the kids cafes and maybe they'll share my social media when it's created. It's definitely a hobby not a career so need to figure out my timings to ensure it doesn't take up too much of my time

In regards to safety regulations, noted. I will double check all of those as the romper have snap fastenings on and check fire regulations before I go any further with any ideas

And for dolls clothes, i have made a few matching bits for my niece so have already drawn out patterns for dresses and rompers so that's a really good idea i hadn't thought about

I second everything that @Bjorkdidit says. I sometimes look at children's clothing in supermarkets and think that the price they're charging wouldn't even cover the cost of the fabric at retail prices. If you charge enough to cover just the cost of materials you're already in the luxury item bracket, and that's before you've added in other expenses, your time, and any profit. Everyone is feeling the pinch at the moment and I think it's a very difficult time to start a business selling luxury items for which there are readily available, perfectly acceptable substitutes.

If you genuinely enjoy the creative aspect and just want to offset some of your costs then it could work, but it may not be so enjoyable if you're making things that people want to buy rather than things you want to make.

On the point about dolls clothes, my mum used to make me and my doll matching outfits which I adored! It could generate extra impulse sales if people see their child's doll can have an outfit too.

Oh yes !
Matching doll clothes is a great idea.
(or the size that would basically fit a Build a Bear)

I’m on some sewing Facebook groups. It was very popular in lockdown! Some do make it work, but it’s a modest income. I remember Snap fasteners and how to test them properly for selling seemed to be a stumbling block for quite a few. Copyright issues mean shouldn’t be selling Disney print fabric etc. I briefly considered it but decided that my style of ‘oh whoops there’s a tiny hole, nevermind’ sewing wouldn’t cut it for selling and it wouldn’t bring enough money in to replace my usual wage.

it probably takes me about 2 hours to sew a romper, plus fabric (SO expensive for decent quality), insurance, consumables etc. I once tried to recreate a Xmas Boden Xmas dress that was really expensive and afterwards realised I’d spent nearly the same and definitely didn’t look as good!

you need to check the patterns you use are allowed to be used for manufacture for sale too. Waves and wild is the big one, but that’s a very saturated market I think.