Many concerns for making and selling handmade bags

1:52 PM artcher 0 Comments

Making and designing my own bag started off as a hobby to fill up my spare time and fulfill my need to get away from the computer as I worked as a web designer for my day job.

As the skill matured, my own set of judgement and standard kicks in for what I consider a good handmade bag fit for 'sale'. Why do I stress the word sale? How is it different from making bag for yourself and for others? 

Making bags for yourself means you can customize the design to your unique preferences, design specific sizes for your belonging, decide on the color to match your usual outfits. These are all unique factors to each and everyone of us. But when I apply that to my sales item, I'm only targeting a niche group who share the sentiments with me, but how do I expect them to find me in this corner of the world? So what about if I start making generic design, colors, materials? It doesn't work either, because my unit cost are many times higher than mass produced goods from factory. People would compare the prices. I was a confused and unhappy crafter for a while, crying over the poor sale in my shop.

There is no best solution, but I did try my best to come up with my own standard that could satisfy my creative need and the market's demand for a 'buyable' handmade bag.

Here are my guideline for making and designing PippiRabbit's bag:

• The design and material used cannot be easily reproduced.

• The material must last for a period of time. ( no more fake leather or plastic material that cracks after a while and no to leather that get moldy in our hot and humid weather)

• The bag must have a structure that let it stand on it's own proudly and not slouch into a pile of fabrics.

• There is a theme/uniqueness for each design