There was a lot of prep. I spent a little over a month diligently creating inventory...for me that meant probably 1-2 days a week of sewing. With a little one keeping me busy that's about all I could manage. I also spent some time designing my table, but I kept it really simple so I don't feel that I spent too much time on that. In the end I had about 40 items or so, not a ton but enough, I felt, to fill a small table and feel good about.
Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of photos, but you can get an idea (I apologize for the smartphone photos!). I went with a simple grey table cloth so that my products would 'pop' off the table. Most of my other 'props' are things I found around the house. I wanted to give my table more dimension, instead of just laying items flat on the table. So I found a plain old box, wrapped it in white and silver chevron paper, and used it as a stand for my basket of burp cloths. I used my bathroom towel stand to display one of my favorite kitchen towels. I found a simple chalkboard at Hobby Lobby and used it as my brand sign. I wanted a nice way to display my baby quilts and tote bags so that they would be eye-catching. I had a drying rack sitting in storage and...presto! Instant quilt stand at no extra cost. The bunting was draped across my sewing room design wall, so I borrowed it for the event.
Even with only my Etsy shop I figured business cards are a must. I ordered them from Vistaprint, which was extremely fast, great quality, and easy to use. I highly recommend them. For the craft fair they doubled as price tags.
I also tried to incorporate my sew-in labels where I could, much of my inventory was already made by the time I received them. I ordered them from BixbyBasil and I am very happy with them. The text is printed on twill, and they were easy to cut apart and sew into my pieces.
I did my research too-how much cash to have on hand, what to bring, how to sell more. All my research and preparation paid off, because the day of the craft fair I felt very confident and prepared. I really can't think of much I would have done differently.
So what did I sell and how did it go? I brought small amounts (5-10 range) of several products. This was sort of a 'test market' for me, to determine what sells and what doesn't. In the home goods category I had kitchen towels (sets of 2), coasters (sets of 4), mug rugs (large coasters), pillow covers, and tote bags. For baby/children I had burp cloths (sets of 3), baby quilts, and crayon rolls. I ended up selling a bit more than I thought I would, and it was a smattering of several items. The towels and burp cloths were well liked. The coasters sold better than I thought they would. I was a bit surprised at what did not sell-going in I thought the crayon rolls and tote bags would go. I only sold two crayon rolls and zero totes. I'm glad I had the variety I did, since I wasn't very accurate in my predictions ;-).
From a financial stand point I definitely made back the money I put into the event. I didn't make out like gangbusters, but it was worth doing the fair. I also had a pretty good time in the process. I will say the time frame of the event really helped-it was 9:00am-2:00pm so the day wasn't too long. We noticed a definite 'lull' after about 12pm, so the high I felt from selling in the morning sort of evaporated by the end of the day. However, a major fringe benefit to this experience was the exposure and networking with other vendors/sellers.
I'm really glad I did the vendor and craft fair and I plan to do more in the future. I decided to take the rest of the year off though, to build inventory over the winter. Plus it's a busy time of year at home! I have gifts to make for family and friends as well as a few orders to fill :-).
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