In Which it's Nearly All About Dishcloths

I went and tried my luck with my cotton dishcloths in the posh Emporium shop in Billericay this morning.

I'd got organised with some labels, having spent quite a while swearing and getting in a pickle with the computer in P's study as it's the only one with a printer.  Eventually I was pleased with the result and stuck them on to some old-fashioned luggage labels.  Each dishcloth had one of these labels attached yesterday so that I would be ready for the off early this morning.

Weeeeeell, I wasn't laughed out of the shop but if I had sold them to the shop at £2.50 each (well below the £3.95 I sell them for myself) then the shop would have sold them retail at £5.99.  Now nobody, not even in 'loadsamoney' Billericay, is going to pay £5.99 for a dishcloth so that was the end of that.  I'll just continue selling them myself through ebay.  Perhaps I was being totally naive but I had no idea shops had a 60% mark-up on such items.  Anyhoo, the chap who'd ordered some plain dishcloths from me a couple of weeks ago was well pleased with them when they arrived, and has ordered a further ten.  So that order should keep me out of mischief for a little while.

Whilst I was in Billericay I, of course, had a tour of the charity shops where, once again, pickings were very lean.  I'd all but given up finding anything at all when I discovered a box of fabric pieces in the last charity shop.  Sadly, 99% of these were nylon, polyester, and even crimpelene (you don't see much crimpelene these days - thank goodness), but there was a rather nice little bag of patchwork pieces, all cut out and ready to go.

Each piece is approx. 5 inches square and there are about 20 of each fabric.  Happily, they also appear to be 100% cotton.  Not sure what, if anything, I can do with them but for 50p (and that included a small piece of red check gingham too) I wasn't going to leave them behind.

Comments

[C]

Have you thought about Etsy??

[Denise]

Well done for trying to sell your dishcloths to the Emporium - they are very pricey! I think it's very hard to get a price that reflects the amount of time and effort that goes into hand made items.

I've been into several charity shops in Billericay and they are all usually horrendously expensive. Those patchwork pieces were a real bargain. Well done!

[Claire]

Your dishcloths are lovely - soft and really nice to use, and I know what you mean about the mark up on things you have made and others want to pay little to you, yet charge a fortune for them to sell them for you. I made some needle cases that took me ages and the shop paid me £5 each (after a lot of haggling as she wanted to pay me £3) and she sold them for £12.99 - she managed to sell 3 and I was even more miffed to find that she hadn't even put my labels on them so no one would know I made them and come back for other things. Strangely enough though the shop is closing soon... If you wanted I am going to some craft fairs here that I have heard great things of - if you wanted me to sell them (for the same price as you would) then just send me some and I'll stick them on with your lables - drop me a line if you want to do this, as it's not til May.
Claire x