A New Direction for Hip-Threads

I have been thinking a lot about hip-threads.com lately, and what sort of direction I want to take the website in. While I love making patchwork clothing, it doesn't sell as well as it used to and its time to make a change. (don't worry, I am not stopping patchwork forever, and will always take custom orders).
My friend Laura gave me a good piece of advise about a month ago that I have been thinking about constantly. "You have to find your niche" and then another piece of advise from my father given years ago, "make a decision and stick with it". Taking those together, my new mantra is; "Find your niche and stick with it". So what does that mean? I love to blog about hiking, sew patchwork, make cute accessories, knit, recycle vintage clothing, making soap, candles, etc, etc, how do I tie all that together and create my niche; and what do I eliminate in the process?
While I don't have my answer completely yet, I finally figured out the direction I'd like to go in! I'd really like to create a line of clothing and accessories for the outdoorsy girl made from organic or eco-friendly materials, and tie that together with my hiking blog.

One dream that I have always had is to write a book, and lately my mind wanders to writing a hiking book. The angle of the book I am still not sure, hiking in Colorado, hiking the Front Range, hiking Colorado 14ers, outdoor hiking/camping in Colorado, a womans guide to hiking/camping, hiking peaks in Colorado, or hiking with your dog in Colorado? Lots of ideas, no "niche" there yet.
Another idea to tie into my blog, is to write pamphlets for hikes which have little or no information on them, and sell them on my blog for $1-2. It would include a printable map with photos or directions, plus camping in the area around the hike, etc. Another idea from my brilliant and very successful entrepreneur friend Laura.
While I have been pondering all of these ideas lately, I stumbled across the TV show called Sharks a couple of nights ago. Entrepreneurs pitch their idea to zillionaires and they decide if they want to invest in the company or not. The investors said a couple of things that really made sense. 1. You can't put all of your time into an idea without knowing if people will buy it, you have to test the market first. 2. You can't have your hands in too many pots, first start with one thing that does well, then branch out to other similar things.
Duh! Seems obvious, right? But maybe I haven't considered these things like I should have. Maybe my idea of outdoorsy girl eco-clothes isn't a winner? I guess I should test the market first, and find out if people would buy an eco-friendly line of hiking and outdoorsy gear, and accessories. I'd love to hear some feedback from all of *you*.
I also consider selling all of these cute accessories you see at Farmers Markets in Denver this summer, but since I haven't sold very many online yet, maybe this is a dud idea, I don't know? But I am excited to take the chance on it, and give it a shot.
Any comments, suggestions, ideas, are *much* appreciated.

A New Direction for Hip-Threads

I have been thinking a lot about hip-threads.com lately, and what sort of direction I want to take the website in. While I love making patchwork clothing, it doesn't sell as well as it used to and its time to make a change. (don't worry, I am not stopping patchwork forever, and will always take custom orders).
My friend Laura gave me a good piece of advise about a month ago that I have been thinking about constantly. "You have to find your niche" and then another piece of advise from my father given years ago, "make a decision and stick with it". Taking those together, my new mantra is; "Find your niche and stick with it". So what does that mean? I love to blog about hiking, sew patchwork, make cute accessories, knit, recycle vintage clothing, making soap, candles, etc, etc, how do I tie all that together and create my niche; and what do I eliminate in the process?
While I don't have my answer completely yet, I finally figured out the direction I'd like to go in! I'd really like to create a line of clothing and accessories for the outdoorsy girl made from organic or eco-friendly materials, and tie that together with my hiking blog.

One dream that I have always had is to write a book, and lately my mind wanders to writing a hiking book. The angle of the book I am still not sure, hiking in Colorado, hiking the Front Range, hiking Colorado 14ers, outdoor hiking/camping in Colorado, a womans guide to hiking/camping, hiking peaks in Colorado, or hiking with your dog in Colorado? Lots of ideas, no "niche" there yet.
Another idea to tie into my blog, is to write pamphlets for hikes which have little or no information on them, and sell them on my blog for $1-2. It would include a printable map with photos or directions, plus camping in the area around the hike, etc. Another idea from my brilliant and very successful entrepreneur friend Laura.
While I have been pondering all of these ideas lately, I stumbled across the TV show called Sharks a couple of nights ago. Entrepreneurs pitch their idea to zillionaires and they decide if they want to invest in the company or not. The investors said a couple of things that really made sense. 1. You can't put all of your time into an idea without knowing if people will buy it, you have to test the market first. 2. You can't have your hands in too many pots, first start with one thing that does well, then branch out to other similar things.
Duh! Seems obvious, right? But maybe I haven't considered these things like I should have. Maybe my idea of outdoorsy girl eco-clothes isn't a winner? I guess I should test the market first, and find out if people would buy an eco-friendly line of hiking and outdoorsy gear, and accessories. I'd love to hear some feedback from all of *you*.
I also consider selling all of these cute accessories you see at Farmers Markets in Denver this summer, but since I haven't sold very many online yet, maybe this is a dud idea, I don't know? But I am excited to take the chance on it, and give it a shot.
Any comments, suggestions, ideas, are *much* appreciated.

Fabric Flower Hair Accessories

New Item at Hip-Threads.com! Fabric flowers hair accessories.
Ever since I decided to grow my hair out, I have been in the mood to create hair accessories and I *love* the way these turned out.
I comically learned the "right" way to make these hair accessories, when I had the idea one night to start hot gluing random items to bobby pins. But they didn't seem to stick on properly. I knew I had to be doing something wrong, there had to be a certain type of bobby pin I needed to use, right? Then I remembered one of my friends, Kelly of Kreated By Kelly (check out her awesome shop here!) makes hair accessories and I knew she would have the answer. I sent her an email and quickly received one back from her, I needed to use a bobby pin with a metal gluing pad on the black. Duh! I knew it was going to be something silly. I asked her for her recommendation and she suggested Thunder Rock Alley 21(find her shop here, and I bought lots of supplies all were great!). Quickly I ordered my supplies from her and received them last week.

Finally, this weekend I had the time to start creating my fabric flowers and hair accessories. I decided to google "how to make a fabric flower" for some ideas, even though I had some of my own on how to make them. I found an article (click here)which I thought was great despite the relatively low rating on eHow.com. It gave me some additional suggestions and I started cutting.

After several hours I had made 5 wearable and sell able sets of flowers. They all are attached to a nickel free metal bobby pin, and have a bead centerpiece. Very cute! I have several available in my etsy shop (here) and on my website (here).

Fabric Flower Hair Accessories

New Item at Hip-Threads.com! Fabric flowers hair accessories.
Ever since I decided to grow my hair out, I have been in the mood to create hair accessories and I *love* the way these turned out.
I comically learned the "right" way to make these hair accessories, when I had the idea one night to start hot gluing random items to bobby pins. But they didn't seem to stick on properly. I knew I had to be doing something wrong, there had to be a certain type of bobby pin I needed to use, right? Then I remembered one of my friends, Kelly of Kreated By Kelly (check out her awesome shop here!) makes hair accessories and I knew she would have the answer. I sent her an email and quickly received one back from her, I needed to use a bobby pin with a metal gluing pad on the black. Duh! I knew it was going to be something silly. I asked her for her recommendation and she suggested Thunder Rock Alley 21(find her shop here, and I bought lots of supplies all were great!). Quickly I ordered my supplies from her and received them last week.

Finally, this weekend I had the time to start creating my fabric flowers and hair accessories. I decided to google "how to make a fabric flower" for some ideas, even though I had some of my own on how to make them. I found an article (click here)which I thought was great despite the relatively low rating on eHow.com. It gave me some additional suggestions and I started cutting.

After several hours I had made 5 wearable and sell able sets of flowers. They all are attached to a nickel free metal bobby pin, and have a bead centerpiece. Very cute! I have several available in my etsy shop (here) and on my website (here).