As I was preparing for my first in-person craft bazaar in 2005, I spent endless hours sewing inventory to take with me. (I sewed only purses at that time-- boutique-style fabric purses, repurposed clothing purses, recycled-wrapper purses, playing card purses, etc.) I enjoyed the creative process immensely! I had more ideas for purses than I had time to sew them. The closer it got to the time of the show, the earlier my brain woke me up with new ideas of things to make. I loved it!!! In 2008, after I added aprons to my website-- the idea-storm in my brain amped up dramatically. I'd make an apron or two in any given fabric combination, then move on to the next exciting idea. I repeated this soul-nourishing creative process annually while I prepared for other Fall & Holiday Shows until 2012 when I stopped participating in local shows.
After I opened a shop on Etsy in 2011, I had to change my business plan drastically. Etsy's search algorithm favors things that sell repeatedly. It is very hard to be found on Etsy for truly one-of-a-kind items. It takes an item selling over and over again for Etsy to recognize it as something of value worth showing in searches. In response, I narrowed my apron collection to a few of the best-selling designs and quit experimenting with making new patterns. I planned aprons using fabrics that could be ordered in bulk and reordered when necessary to offer some "evergreen" options. (Things that you can make and sell over and over for long periods of time.) I still loved planning and sewing these aprons, but sewing the "same" apron over and over and over again is not my favorite thing to do. But it IS part of what has made my Etsy shop successful.
The Scrapbuster was created to reduce the amount of trash I generate as a business. All sewing generates fabric "waste." After cutting out an apron, sometimes there is a piece of fabric left over that is too small to create another apron. I save all the remnants and larger scraps instead of throwing them away. As you might imagine, it doesn't take long to accumulate a mountain of scraps! One thing I do periodically is sort the remnants by color or theme to plan future aprons. When I have time, I cut out new aprons using the sorted scraps. It is one of my favorite things to do. It reminds me of the old days when I could just sew whatever I dreamed up, something I would never duplicate. Creating, not producing, if that makes sense?
In late summer, I begin sorting fabrics that I've been chucking into storage bins all year. I dig through my heaps of collected fabrics to find fabrics that coordinate or complement each other. Then I plan, cut out, and stack apron projects to be sewn whenever I have a moment. (FUN FACT: Scrapbusters are usually made in the Standard Size because that original size was designed to best use a yard of fabric with as little fabric waste as possible.) I still get excited, almost 20 years later, to sew pretty things! I woke up twice in the middle of the night last night, excited about what's on my cutting table today.
The Scrapbuster Aprons are always found in the "READY TO SHIP" section of my website. I do try to control myself and limit the number of Scrapbuster Aprons I make because I would sew them every day if I could-- but I have limited storage space in my studio for completed aprons. (One-of-a-kind items often remain unsold in my Etsy shop due to the peculiarities of the Etsy search algorithm. You often cannot find them in an Etsy search even if you search for the exact title of the item. But I digress....) I've branched out by creating this new website in the hopes that my loyal, repeat customers will find it easier to browse EVERYTHING here on my site, without Etsy's relentless prompts and links that lead people away to shop elsewhere on Etsy. I do hope everything will be easier to find on my website.
I've only gone through the surface scraps so far this year and already I've got a tall stack of apron projects waiting to be sewn. I'm looking forward to seeing how this year's batch of Scrapbusters will turn out!!!
