{Day 7} 31 Days of Craft Show Preparation – Get your Hook and Yarn Ready

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You decide to do your craft show and have an idea of what inventory you need so now all you need to do is make everything. Oh Boy! Get all your supplies ready and double check to make sure you have everything you need.

Molly did a series of posts when she did her first craft show last year. I’m following along to learn. Want to join in? Scroll to the bottom of the post for more details.

For this series let’s imagine I am doing a craft show. This series is actually making me reconsider – maybe I’ll do one show over the holidays? A small, juried one might be nice. The show I have in mind is actually taking applications right now. They pre-fill their booths with last year attendees first (75% plus only 25 tables) so I need to decide soon. (Sample list of inventory below)

Crochet Show Inventory

• 40 sets of wash cloths (2 or 3 packs)
• 40 Flower pins
• 35 bows with long chains to wrap gifts
• 20 crochet owls with Santa hats
• 35 scrubbies
• 15 hats
• 15 scarves
• 5 crochet baby blankets with booties
• 20 Gift card cozies
• 1 framed piece of CBN sample for pre-orders (crochet by numbers)

The numbers for these seem high to me but this particular show is 3-days long, well advertised, and well attended. I could be totally off as far as inventory needs so would need to chat with people who have done the show in the past.

That is definitely a lot of crocheting. This would probably take me all year to make which is why I’m thinking the tip I got from one craft show seller might be right. She crochets all year and then sells at holiday fairs for Christmas money.

I like Molly’s idea of doing the crafting in batches. Cutting first, sewing second, and then adding the details last. For the above inventory, I would make all the hats and scarves first. I would do the baby blankets second. Next I think I would work on the owl bodies, bows, cozies and wash cloths. Finally I would work on the flowers and the scrubbies.

The above list is only of the base work – no details, no sewing, no buttons, eyes, or details. I would finish this up for each project and then finally add the hang-tags.

What about you? If you’ve worked a show before, how much inventory did you bring? Was it enough? Share in the comments below.

Join me in the 31 Days of Craft Show Preparation by Blogger Molly of http://mollyeleen.wordpress.com. Molly was inspired to do the 31 days challenge when her friends took on the challenge that The Nester hosts each year. (based on the 31 Days to build a better blog by ProBlogger)

 How You Can Participate

1. Visit Molly’s Blog post which has all 31 posts in the series
2. Blog about it. You can do one post for the entire week or one post per day. I’ll be doing one post a day. (31)
3. Chat about it either on the Crochet Business fanpage or in either the CBB Google+ community or CBB Fb group.