March Meet the Maker Day 3

Day 3 of #marchmeetthemaker is Time... 

I’ve always struggled with production time and I thought I’d show a little insight into how much time it takes to complete one of my dolls. 

To begin, I will message my customers and send them a booking form. This often isn’t straight forward and I will talk them through hair colour options, fabric options, any personalisation they wish to add, etc. Often I have to go away and research a particular fabric theme that they may have asked for and then go back to them with screen shots for them to choose. 

Then it’s back to the iMac to source the other fabrics and materials needed. Unfortunately there isn’t one big factory where I can buy every single material required to make a doll. Each element comes from different companies which can be a pain and isn’t cost effective when factoring in postage fees for each company. I do use independent shops in my town where possible, to reduce my carbon footprint but again, that takes time going from shop to shop. I try to wait until all my customers have sent their orders and payments so I can order everything together, but in reality this rarely happens. I hate keeping my customers waiting if there’s a delay with another customer getting back to me.

 It can take up to a week for the fabrics to arrive when ordering online . Then I have to cut out all my pattern pieces. There are 25-30 pattern pieces for each doll, so this takes the longest! Often longer than sewing up. Sewing and stuffing the doll can take up to four hours depending on the pattern. Then another 45 minutes to an hour to embroider her face. Then there’s the photography. Editing. Filling out the dolls declaration of conformity form which every doll I make must have for CE marking purposes. 

Then there’s the packaging, printing and visiting the post office. Often I have 6-10 customers to do this for in any one month and that’s aside from market nights and showcases I’m taking part in. So production time sometimes goes over my estimation. For the most part I have very patient and understanding customers and they know how long it takes for me to produce something with as much love, care and attention to detail as I do. 🥰 Xx

What's so Special about Handmade?

Some of you will have read this on other blogs and pages, but I'm posting again as I feel it's something that quite often gets ignored.  It's quite long, but worth taking the time to read (I think so anyway). 

Someone recently asked here, "What's so special about handmade?"

 Among the responses were

 

 "Because people are putting their heart and soul into creating something special",

 

"Because you're buying something that you simply can't get on the high street" ,

 

"It's knowing that you're supporting a person, not a massive corporation".

 

People are not only passionate about SELLING handmade, but also BUYING handmade. Why then, do so many expect that because it's handmade, it should be cheap?

 

"I don't understand why a doll costs £35.00 when I can buy one in {insert cheap high street shop} for £5.00".

Here's why:

There is a basic formula in business for pricing:
Cost of materials + (hourly rate x time taken) + 20% = wholesale price
Wholesale price + 30-50% = min/max retail price

So, if for example a 16" cushion costs £4 in materials and takes 45 minutes to make and the seller has given themself a (very reasonable) £10.00 per hour wage, the costs would be so:
£4.00 + (10 x 0.75) + 20% = £13.80 wholesale price
£13.80 + 30-50% = £17.94 (min) / £20.70 (max) retail price

When you take these figures into consideration you start to wonder how on earth some retailers can sell these cushions for £8.00! Well, then you start to get into a whole new issue relating to fair trade / sweat shops, etc. which is a whole other issue and not really the point I'm trying to make! 

 My point is to highlight that the honest, hardworking small business owner in this wonderful cottage industry that has been born and nurtured in the last few years, simply cannot compete with these prices. We rely on YOU, the consumer, to place a higher value on the "Handmade in Britain" items. These people are your neighbours, your friends, your aunts, uncles who simply want to earn an honest living doing something they love. With government benefits being discussed daily in the press, and so many families having their helping hands taken away from them, these people should be applauded for actually doing something about it and creating a job for themselves! But we can't survive without YOU.

When you visit these wonderful businesses and see something you absolutely fall in love with, you fall in love with it for a reason - it's had someone's heart and soul poured into it. We're not trying to close the high street down - far from it! And we're not trying to make you spend money unnecessarily. But we are trying to educate customers on the costs we are faced with.

 

 

Designer fabrics which I must use to comply with the CE marking process is at least £12 a metre (some fabrics even reach £35 a metre). I have to spend time researching fabrics which goes in to designing each doll I make. I spend time discussing the intricate details of custom orders to ensure I produce something perfect for you that will be cherished for years to come.  This all takes time, and is one of the parts of the job I love the most. 

 

Then there's gas, electric and water, all of which are needed in the dolly-making process.  Not to mention the hours of time it takes to CE test a doll, produce declaration of conformity documents, print them out using god knows how much ink and store them in various files at additional cost to myself. 

Then there's the photography aspect... the expensive DSLR camera that I use, memory cards. props etc and time spent photographing dolls to give the consumer the best photos of my products that will stand up on a screen so they can see the details that go into to every piece of my work.

All of this takes SO much time!

 

There's also the little details that I put in, such as the FREE dolly birth certificates, the delicately wrapped tissue paper packaging, stickers, postcards, business cards....

So the next time you're faced with a quote/price tag that surprises you, instead of thinking "Gosh, that's too expensive", turn your mind to thinking "Wow, that must be really good quality and take ages to make!"

 My personalised, handmade, bespoke Little Sugar Plum dolls  that I sell for £35 'should' have a minimum retail price of £71.76.... Just saying....

 

Aimie ~ Hardworking mum of two

Little Sugar Plums.

 

 

Becoming CE Marked...

If you subscribe to the Little Sugar Plums facebook page, you will know that I am currently product testing fabrics and materials to make my dolls CE marked.  This is quite a complicated process and so I thought I would write a blog post about it to let others know my findings and how to go about getting their own products CE marked.

So I started off by finding out my local trading standards. I found the address online (love google!), but unfortunately there was no email address and the only phone number available was for the citizens advice consumer helpline.  I gave them a call but the guy I spoke to was as much use as a chocolate fireguard!  He didn't know anything about it and didn't know who to ask. After 20 minutes and being put on hold several times he finally took my details and told me that he would pass my number on to Trading Standards who would call me wihin 5 days. I found the whole experience incredibly frustrating.

 There is a CE self certification support page on Facebook which was quite helpful.  I found out on here that you can download a Self-Certification Pack for Handmade Soft Toys and all the testing can actually be done yourself at home.

The pack can be found at  Conformance.co.uk and costs £30 including VAT.  I went to the website, downloaded the pack and printed off everything I needed to enable me to do the product testing.

My Dad told me he had some G clamps that I could borrow (which are needed in the testing process) and put them in the post for me, and while I waited for them to arrive, I set about emailing companies to request test certificates for their fabrics and materials that I use to make my dolls.

Over the next week I built up my stash of 'safe' fabrics to conform with part 3 of the conformity. The following weekend I bought the other things required to carry out the testing... some S hooks, a million bags (well almost!) of sugar to use as weights, some wooden spoons and some spring scales, since I only have digital ones in our kitchen.  These do not have to be expensive.  The ones I picked up in our local Asda were only £3.95.

Lots of scrummy fabrics

Even more bags of sugar!

I also bought new stuffing, thread and fabrics which carried the EN71 mark in order to make my first test dolly and a new sewing basket to keep it all seperate from my other sewing supplies..

And here she is... Tess the Test Dolly!

She's so pretty, it seems such a shame to hang 7.2kg of weights from her little arms and legs and burn her little body!

I went through the check list which is part of the pack I downloaded from Conformance.

Section 1 is about material clenliness.  The fabrics and materials I use for my dolls are all new, so my dolly passed that part of the test.

Section 2 is about toys intended for chidren under 36 months. My dolls are suitable from birth and are machine washable at 30 °, however sponge cleaning is preferred to maintain their pretty features.  I use a mineral based blush on my dollies cheeks which can easily be reapplied at home should they get washed off.

Section 3 is  about warnings, markings and instructions. My dolls come with their own unique batch number and will hold the CE mark on a label (I have ordered these) attached to the body/skirt and further information displayed on their pacaging which should be retained for future information.

Section 4 is the test methods!!

The first part of the physical test was to twist the dolly 180 degrees and hold for 10 seconds.  Then inspect her to ensure no visible signs of damage had become apparent, and that no stuffing had come loose.  My Little Sugar Plum passed the test!

Then I had to attach a G clamp to her seams and hang a bag containing 7.2kg of weights for 10 seconds.  I used bags of sugar and tins of soup as the weights. I repeated the test on all limbs.  She passed the test again with no signs of wear at all. 

The next test was the Test Rod. For this part I had to dig a 12mm hemispherical rod (the rounded end of a wooden spoon) into the dolly's seam whilst on a set of spring scales and push down until it reached 1kg, which is the equivalent to 10N. Again, she passed with flying colours!

Next was the small components test.  Since I have no small components on my dolly, this part was really for the stuffing.  I had to determine whether  I could insert an articulated probe through the seams, again using a force of 10N without feeling any stuffing through the seams.  She passed again!

And lastly was the flammability test.

I had to hold a 20mm flame 5mm away from the bottom of my dolly so that the flame  moved up her body.  The flame was to be held there for 3 seconds.  However when I held the lighter to her, hardly anything happened!  I was expecting her to catch on fire a little bit as I had seen photos of other CE tested dollies with big burn marks on their tummies, but Tess was indestructable!  She was left with a very feint brown mark.  I wasn't utterly convinced and carried out the test again to make sure, a bit higher up this time, but still nothing happened and the flame self-extinguished which meant Tess had passed the test!

I then washed my dolly and repeated the tests.  Again, she passed!

As with all CE dolls, each of my dolls will have a declaration of conformity written up and their own unique batch number which forms part of the CE mark.

Now that I am CE tested I can continue with my custom made dolly orders and make lots more dollies for the Delapre Abbey craft fair and my market night.  I have so many things to make!  I better stop blogging and start sewing!