Research

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to sit down at my sewing machine again. Tonight was the first night after a long break and it was nice to start creating again. Laundry was piling (again) and the house was looking really nasty so I had to sacrifice time away from my business to do chores. Ugh.

A few weeks ago, I sent out a bunch of bibs to my testers. I was so anxious to hear what they had to say about them. Unfortunately, only a handful of them responded to my survey. The good thing is, the feedback that I did receive was positive and very insightful. The size that I made fit younger infants (< 6 months) pretty well but it was too small for older babies. So after some modifications, I made a small/medium and a large/x-large size. I'm also experimenting with an alternative closure besides velcro. I won't say what it is yet because friends keep warning me about giving out too much information. I wonder if organic terry cloth is available?

All the research regarding starting your own business consistently encourages you to write a business and marketing plan. My plan is all in my head but I guess I'll go by the book and write a business plan.

The Crazy Vietnamese Fabric Shop

Before making my prototypes, I went on yelp.com to find some local fabric stores. Fabrics R Us in San Jose had really good reviews so I dropped by. I didn't know it was another one of those crazy Vietnamese fabric shops where there are tons and tons of fabric rolls everywhere. I mean everywhere. They even line them up all along the front of the building. The nice thing about these CVFS is that they're less expensive than your chain stores like Hancock's and they have a ton of stuff to choose from. The bad part is the place is an organization freak's (like myself) nightmare. Nothing is labeled. The people who work there don't speak English very well. (Thank goodness I speak elementary Vietnamese!) So you'd better know what you're looking for or you're SOL. Oh and when you've found what you are looking for and you're ready to have it cut, you have to hunt down one of the fabric cutting ladies, interrupt (and this is very important) whatever they are doing or whoever they are helping, to tell them you're ready and waiting. If you don't act aggressively, you'll end up with nothing, except feeling pissed off at the "poor" level of service. There. Just a little bit of insight into the way Vietnamese customer service works.

Let's get back to why I was there. I had called the store ahead of time to confirm if they stock microfiber. To my surprise, they said yes. I kind of had an idea what microfiber looked like and felt like but I decided to do the unimaginable and ASK for help. She had no clue what I was talking about. After 2 more fabric cutter ladies, one finally led the way. She showed me a bunch of fabric that looked and felt like suede. I said, "this is suede." She responded, "same thing." Oookaay. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and bought a couple of yards. At $8/yd it wasn't a big deal. I went home and turned them into bibs. First mistake. I guess I was too excited or too clueless to even bother testing the material first to see how well it would stand up to moisture. 10 beautiful bibs later, something in me told me I should test the fabric. It REPELLED water like car wax! I was mortified. The water just beaded off. Unfortunately, I had already mailed out a handful of bibs to my testers. Luckily, they're friends of mine so I was able to put a stop to them before they handed them out to their friends! Even though I still am just in the test-phase, first impressions are so important and not everyone is forgiving.

So after my microfiber fiasco, I'm back to my original fabric of choice. PREMIUM velour terry cloth. By the way, my friend who had received one of the microfiber bibs told me the fabric was actually microfiber suede. Who knew? Apparently, there is also microfiber terry cloth but I've yet to find those except sold as individual towels so if you know a source, please do share.

This week, I wasn't able to make as many bibs as I would've liked. The week was pretty full of Sammie related activities. By the time evening comes and she's upstairs with her dad, I'm already so tired and I learned that when I'm exhausted, I make mistakes. Alright. No more whining. Sending out this batch of samples is really exciting for me because unlike the first batch of testers, these testers are complete strangers to me. They are the moms who saw my message on their mommy-bulletins and thoughtfully responded to my call for help. And because they are not my friends, I believe they're feedback will be the most valuable and candid. I can't wait to hear what they have to say!