whileshenaps.com

Sewing, blogging, and creative business.

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Introducing Harper the Owl: Print Pattern and Kit

November 12, 2015

I have something really exciting to share today: my first print pattern and kit! Meet Harper the Owl. Here you can see the front and back of the pattern. Harper is a really sweet little project that you can make from small cuts of quilting cotton and felt. He works as a pin cushion or… 

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Filed Under: Business Tips, Patterns, Self-Publishing

5 Ways to Get Your Business Ready for the Holidays

November 5, 2015

We’re heading into the biggest shopping season of the year. No matter how big or small your creative business might be you can take some steps now to make the most of it. Here are a few things I’m working on now to get ready. 1.Build your mailing list. In November of last year I… 

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Filed Under: Business Tips, Marketing

Book Review: Fleece Hat Friends by Mary Rasch

October 30, 2015

When my son, Simon, was five we bought a winter hat shaped like a shark at the Gap on a whim. It was made from gray camouflage fleece and it tied under his chin. The face opening was a red jaw lined with fierce teeth. Just a few months prior I’d had a baby and… 

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Filed Under: Book Reviews

Reflections on My First Trip to Quilt Market

October 27, 2015

I went to Quilt Market! If you’re part of the home sewing or quilting industry, even tangentially, you know that Quilt Market is the twice yearly industry trade show. Quilt Market isn’t open to the public and I think for a long time it was rather mysterious, but today people who attend the show post… 

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Filed Under: Marketing, Online Culture of Craft

Why Handmade at Amazon is Etsy’s Dream Come True

October 14, 2015

Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson released this statement on Thursday, the day Handmade at Amazon launched: We believe we are the best platform for creative entrepreneurs, empowering them to succeed on their own terms. Etsy has a decade of experience understanding the needs of artists and sellers and supporting them in ways that no other marketplace… 

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Filed Under: Ecommerce and Etsy

Introducing Craft Industry Alliance

October 8, 2015

I have something really exciting to share with you. Today is the launch of my new venture: Craft Industry Alliance. I’ve been working with my business partner, Kristin Link (of Sew Mama Sew) over the last 10 months to found a trade organization for craft professionals and today we open the doors. Craft Industry Alliance… 

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Filed Under: Business Tips

How to Get a Soft Toy Designed and Manufactured

October 1, 2015

I’ve been writing a blog that is, at least partially, about soft toy design for ten years now. When you do a Google search for “soft toy design” my site comes up first and this means I get a lot of emails like this one: Dear Abby, I came across your very fun and informative… 

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Filed Under: Legal and Financial Issues, Selling Your Handmade Softies

Why I Run My Business on a Yellow Legal Pad

September 28, 2015

Yellow legal pads are my go-to business tool. They’re cheap and easy to find – I buy them in 3-packs at the office supply store. And they’re immediate. With no software to learn and no program to load, nothing could be simpler. Perhaps I love lined paper because I started college in 1993. I went… 

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Filed Under: Being Self-Employed

Book Review: My Felt Doll by Shelly Down

September 23, 2015

When I first began to explore creating and selling PDF sewing patterns for softies and dolls I did some research to see if the idea was actually viable. Would people buy a digital doll pattern? And if they did, what should it include, how should it be photographed and described, and how should it be… 

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Filed Under: Book Reviews

Craftsy Responds: An Open Letter from CEO John Levisay

September 11, 2015

Yesterday afternoon I got an email from John Levisay, the CEO of Craftsy. He was positive and upbeat. He’s read the post and all of your comments and he’s written an open letter to us. I admire a company that listens and is willing to engage openly in conversation. Here’s John: Recently, there have been… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

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Welcome! I'm Abby Glassenberg and I'm glad you're here. While She Naps is a blog about designing and sewing stuffed animals and running a creative business.
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