Hammer and Thread in person

Last September, we attended our first ever craft fair here in Austin. We had been discussing this for a few months and finally the timing worked out for us to sew up a large amount of our Lounge Pants and design a set of reusable snack bags to sell. We attended 4 fairs between September and December and it was a good learning experience for us. Two of the four events had major weather issues and the other two were very small. All in all, we did not have the sales success we had hoped for, but we now understand the logistics involved in selling our wares. Here are a few photos from our booths.

This is the set of snack bags we designed. Sandwich, snack and cupholder size. The cupholder bag had a fold-down top that holds it open for easy snacking.

Ruth cut a hammer and thread stamp and we stamped the tablecloth and shirts for us. We even made a pair of lounge pants for our boys. I whipped up a quick half apron for money management.

Our first ever booth inside a kid’s playplace.

 

Our second fair. This one was outdoors and a huge thunderstorm blew in causing the organizers to cancel the remainder of the event. Here’s the lovely booth before…

 

…complete with custom, homemade lounge pants racks…

 

…a beautiful stamped tablecloth, with our name in iron-on vinyl cut on the Sillouette…

 

…and after…everything was soaked. We tried to wait out the storm, but as other vendors and ALL the customers ran for cover and then left, we decided it was time to throw in the (very wet) towel.

 

Our third booth at a small store front event. Complete with Ruth’s youngest as added cuteness to draw in customers.

 

Our fourth booth. You can’t tell, but it’s about 15 degrees in this picture. Needless to say, the only customer we had was…

Santa Claus, himself. He, and hot cocoa, helped us stay warm that day.