Last year at Christmas I saw many pleas online for people looking for someone to make Mermaid Blankets as Christmas gifts. At this time I was only making items for family and close friends so originally I saw the pleas but took little notice. After a week or so I saw more pleas from the same people saying everyone suggested was already booked no one could make them before Christmas.
It was at this point I decided to do a little bit of research:
Could I find a pattern?
What materials were needed for the pattern?
Did the pattern seem workable?
Could I find the time to do this without interfering with the gifts I already needed to make?
Could I find a pattern?
What materials were needed for the pattern?
Did the pattern seem workable?
Could I find the time to do this without interfering with the gifts I already needed to make?
After some research I decided I could offer to help and make a couple but I knew I could not take on too many. This was first experience with selling my items and I have to admit it did not go well and I was ready to run and hide from the experience, yes it was that bad.
First came the comments on price, for some reason I have come realize that people feel Homemade gifts should be inexpensive which they can be depending on the materials needed and if you, yourself can do the work. Just going to say the Mermaid Blanket takes A LOT of yarn to make and that drives the cost up. So at first everyone felt my prices were unjustified, little did everyone including myself realize I was actually short changing myself and by the time I purchased supplies it was going to cost me to make these blankets.
Second came the requests for colours and not liking the selection I could find. People had a very specific shade of colours in mind and I just could not locate the exact shade they wanted. I was getting comments of I like the colour but I want it more blue and even when I showed them every blue option I could find I would get none of them are exactly what I want. Just saying selection in Canada is limited and with our dollar as low as it was and the timelines to be met ordering online was not an option.
Finally the icing on the cake, once this blanket was completed the customer backed out on the deal, leaving me with the blanket. I will not go into details but needless to say this has changed the way I handle custom orders so all and all we will call it a learning experience.
As much as I wanted to give up and never make another mermaid blanket and no longer sell my work, I had committed to 2 more mermaid blankets which were not going to make themselves, I just had to cross my fingers that these transactions would go better. The pattern I used can be found here and was written by MJ's Off the Hood Designs. PLEASE NOTE, due to the yarn my customer used I did have to alter the pattern slightly to make it work so if you use this pattern yours will not look exactly the same.