Setting up shop

I've been building inventory and a blog for my soon-to-be-opened shop. On top of classes and internship. Sigh. Anyway, a couple years ago we had a rash of friends suddenly get the matrimony bug and I had a lot of showers to go to with very little money to spend. What to do? Sew! I wanted to give little cotton robes that could go from sexy to cozy depending in accessories (or, for sexy, lack thereof) and so I went pattern shopping. And went again. And began looking through independents. For whatever reason I just couldn't find one that was quite right. They were either too big or too robe-like or too something else. It's just a robe and I've seen enough Pattern Runway to think that drafting is easy so, well, I drafted. And made up one. Gave to friend. Tweaked pattern and made again for another friend. Then a third tweak, a third gown, and by this time I was really happy with it.

Nice. And then I put it away.

Fast forwards to this summer. I knew I needed a part-time job that was highly flexible. Bonus points if it was on-campus as we only have one car. Started thinking about robe pattern. And Etsy. And how happy I am when sewing.

Hm.

Fortunately I had a fourth robe that had been cut out but not sewn for whatever reason. Time for an experiment. Pulled it out and timed myself.

Forty-five minutes. Not bad. And my serger's earning her keep. Figure I can only get faster ... and I love how the robe turned out. It's going to be hard parting with it! And I had fun. Hm, at this rate, if the product finds a market, I can bring in around $200 a month doing what I enjoy. And that's including time to tweak the pattern into a few other products, like a knit wrap, an oriental dinner jacket, maybe even a summer dress (though that'll have to wait a few seasons)....

It's at least worth trying, right? I mean, it beats working janitorial or at the cafe for minimum wage.

So I bought some trial fabric at Joann's and whipped up two more robes today. They're not finished quite yet - they need to be hemmed and ironed. But all the serging is done. What do you think?