I absolutely love your channel!! As a new bag maker your channel has been immensely helpful. You’re my kind of people.

I've done a lot of shows and markets and find the best basic set up for me is three tables in a U shape. From what I've experienced, most people have no issue with entering the space at all. Sometimes there's even a line to get in! And if I do see someone kinda lurking, I'll just wander over and start a conversation. That usually does the trick.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I had to laugh when you said no one knew your stand spins because ive seen soooo many people knock stands over trying to get them to spin when they dont😂

Thank you so very much for sharing. You are always so generous with your knowledge and experiences. I am hoping to have my first table this fall, and I have learned such valuable lessons ❤

Thank you for this information. I like how this was "raw". It was nice to here from someone who isn't a vet at this. Starting markets or in person selling are overwhelming but intriguing. Would like to how the next one goes for you, see the charges you make, and if those changes worked or didn't.

I love your honest feedback! I have done just a few Farmer markets and the items $10 and under have always been my best sellers. Coin purses and pencil bags.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Great content! Love your humor!

Thank you Georgia! Fantastic presentation❤❤❤❤I have never done a craft fair, but have entertained the idea quite a bit. Having this presentation as a resource will help me immensely if I ever do one! Congrats on your first fair!

I have done a lot of fairs and when I first started out did smaller venues which were pants! exhausting and soul destroying- I believed in my product and went for top end markets and fairs and these were a total game changer - folk going to these events want something handmade ( not mass produced) quirky and different. The day goes faster ‘cos you’re busier ( still exhausting! Lol) and you come away with a profit and encouragement to make more of your product. They are hard work and being older it does take me a couple of days to recover😂 A very informative video, which I enjoyed immensely. Love your channel and your energy!!👌🏻🌸💖

I love this content as it's relevant to me specifically but I would watch you even if you are just taking out your garbage. But I really needed more oohs and ahhs! 😂😂❤

Thank you so much for making this video!!! This gives me so much more confidence and insight to join my local Farmer's Market. I appreciate all of your amazing content. You're awesome 💯🙏💫

It’s great to share your first experience as there will always be someone that is going to do it for the first time ❤❤

Nice review of the event and your results! I'm glad you did as well as you did. 🙂

This is very valuable information. Thanks for sharing your experience 😊

Thank you so much! I have been considering participating in craft fairs, so everything you shared is extremely helpful as I am planning.

Great video. Can’t wait to hear more about the next one. My SIL and I want to start doing fairs locally but we’re in a somewhat rural area and let’s be real the bags are a bit more higher end even just because of time commitment. I really want to make some smaller, less time intensive stuff like scrunchies, coin purses and maybe pencil bags to at least get people to browse. An idea: if you want to do tiered pricing make the tags out of a specific color of like card stock and then put that color on your price board. Then you can place the bags as you like aesthetically and people won’t have to flip the tag over to see the price as they will be able to see it from afar. See you in the Sew Whatever group 😊

I am so happy to hear that you had a good experience, despite a few mishaps. My Mom and I used to make and sell wood-painted items at various craft shows and markets. I think that the first show is always going to be mostly for the experience and to learn more about your customer base and your products. It can also be very comparable to Etsy in trying to figure out what will sell and what won't. Thank you so much for another great, informative video! You don't have to be an expert. I think we all love the fact that you share the wisdom from your own experiences with trial and error. Until next time! 😊

So helpful and love hearing about your experience. Ive been wanting to do this and after watching you I think I might :)

Good info. Thanks bunches.

Thanks for sharing, your experience is valuable for a beginner like me .❤

So much good info!!!!!

This was a great video. I sew things that I want to see too. I have only been to one craft fair and I sold 2 things. Yeah, not a good day but I learned alot and I got a lot of compliments so I will try again. You gave me alot of ideas!

Very useful insight into the Craft Fair experience

I've done 3 craft fairs and they were all indoors in large buildings and with 100 tables spread out over about 5 rooms. The indoor setting comes with its own set of rules about your space, if a table is provided that is your 6 foot space, you may not have any raised displays higher than 20 inches. Nothing can be standing in front of or next to your table. Weather is a factor since the bad storm we had one day resulted in no foot traffic before noon so we shopped at each other's tables. It is a gamble to see what to carry along and to see what the vibe is that day for buying. I consider it a success if I pay for my table, make a few bucks, and meet nice people to swap stories with. Makers are willing to help each other when needed for sure! Sounds like you did OK for your first.

On the lazy Susan, take it! Just set it up so that it's off axis a bit, so that people can see that it has been spun some!

Thanks for your experience with a fair.

I'm glad it was an overall positive experience for you! I started vending at local craft fairs to kinda dip my toes in the water before working up to larger events and cons, and I definitely learned a lot doing that. Learning what your audience likes is the hardest part, I swear.

I am planning on my first craft sale in September. Your experience with your 1st gave me some great insight. You had a lot of good advice. Please let us know how your 2nd one goes. Just so you know I love your long winded videos and your wit.

Thanks for this video! I've done one before that got rained out after about 2 hours and have been scared of them ever since.

Good info.

Note to myself. Put a strip of tape across the back of earrings on cards. 🤯🤯🤯

Thanks for sharing :)

I’ve been binge watching your vids since Saturday 😅 This vid is great because my MIL is wanting to do a arts/crafts fair/festival type event and I’m thinking about baby gear and tote/drawstring bags. Yes, I know they don’t go together. I came to say Thankyou for you videos, 35:53 and to suggest magnetic paint for your folding bookshelves so it can sit flush along the edge? instead of sticking out and possibly get knocked off during transport/storage. Okay, bye 😊

So interesting to hear your experience with a craft show. I've done dozens of them in 3 states. My business (ministry) is called Gems of Light. I started it around 25 years ago. I spent a year making jewelry before doing home jewelry shows and then craft shows. I have done a couple in farmers markets. I started out with a fireplace screen to display the jewelry, along with bracelet, earring and necklace stands. Windy days are not your friend! I used available tables, white flannel flat sheets for a covering and made a fleece sign to hang on my main table. I still make some jewelry but now do jewelry workshops more. Have met some sweet ladies and we have a lot of fun. It might be something you might consider, a simple purse workshop, or jewelry making. I used to teach how to sew classes and wouldn't mind doing that again. I've gotten back into sewing this year and watched some of your videos for making purses. Bev

Congratulations on your first craft fair. I do have many suggestions for you and would like your email if that is okay. As you do more shows, you will be able to gauge your audience to price point and know what will sale. If I am interested in doing a particular craft show, I always attend it first to see what everyone else is selling, so next year I can make the decision if my item will be different from the rest. Also this will help you with pricing, give you an idea on foot traffic. Try to stay away from seasonal items because you will have inventory left over. Back in my early days I use to do any and all craft shows, now I only do Christmas and side orders throughout the year. Shop around for display items (store going out of business, thrift stores, Ikea, etc.), move away from plastic bags and use shopping bags that you can customize. For example, this year I plan to give to my returning customer a vinyl gift bag who spends $25 with me. This gives me additional advertisement to draw people to my booth. I only plan to make 30 bags and will let you know how it go. I have more to share, but need to go to sleep. Be blessed Sandra

I didn’t think about the small tags and the anxiety! I bet that’s been my issue!

Holy crap I didn’t realize how close you are to me now. I hope to see you at the next one, I’d love to buy something from you in person. I have my first craft fair coming up in a couple weeks and I’m finding myself stressed.

This was a really informative video!! Your booth looked great! I did one craft fair (more of an art fair) that my university hosted. I don’t even know if I made a profit - probably not - but I sold mainly stickers and some prints. I had the vistaprint banner, some cash in a lockbox, a Square reader, paper bags with my info on each bag, and some display easels for my small original paintings that didn’t sell. I had a couple negative experiences - one guy explaining to me that I should lower the prices of my small (like 6” x 6”) oil paintings. They weren’t even that expensive. And another lady who clearly was confused and maybe even disgusted by one of my prints which was a drawing of a skull lmao. Wasn’t gory or anything, just a realistic skull. Looking back I dont think my art was good enough for a fair at the time but it was a really interesting experience and I’d love to do it again some day.

Congratulations for leaving in the green! Good insight on the price labels. I would definitely have pinned a little tag to every bag too.

Very helpful, thank you. I owned a laser business in the UK up to 5 years ago when I retired and now live in Taiwan. I have a couple of useful suggestions. Have you used your laser to cut out your fabric? Since you say its the least enjoyable part of your hobby. Not only is it fast, but of course very accurate . (also works well with leather.) ALWAYS have a fire extinguisher within reach of your machine. We had a couple of small fires, a customer burned down his whole facility, 200,000 pounds of damage. NEVER leave your laser unattended when you are using it. Oh and if your machine software allows it, adjust your flyback time to a minimum. It will save you a lot of time. Best wishes Robyn

I feel the one of the reasons to do a fair is to help build an email customer base. People usually don't mind giving over their email address or taking your QR code. Also, I have seen at the big artisian shows signs that say do not "try on" earring for sanitary reasons. Why people don't know this is beyond me. It's up there with trying on underware and then putting it back on the shelft. EW people EW.

I love a good Fierce Kittenz Seamrippin'! Perhaps have some additional signage that clarifies that your bags are designed and handmade by YOU (NOT SOME Sheiny sweatshop. And if you do custom orders for any coasters, Xmas ornies, keychains, etc. etc. then have a clipboard with an order form available. Clipboards make everything official. Ha! Looking FW to hearing about your next one!

Thanks for this video. It was a really great breakdown of the good and the bad. Sounds like it was a great first experience and a successful learning opportunity. As a major introvert, the ideaa of a craft fair feels draining and overwhelming.

Thanks for sharing your experience - I've got friends encouraging me to jump into craft fairs & don't know the first thing about it.

Excellent ideas. I've only been in 2 events so far, and am still working on getting things in a vertical display for smaller items. Love the idea of the grid system. I'm working toward a larger display for spring of next year (2024). For your banner, use the larger nickle-cad magnets to attach it to the edge of your pop-up. They are super strong, don't require holes to be poked into anything, and you can pack everything away very small. If you prefer the known security of grommets in a banner, then hang it from the rafters while the popup is fully opened, but the legs haven't been extended yet. This allows you to reach the connection points.

bear in mind my experience with farmers markets in in the north east, so... not the same. BUT especially with embroidery and some of your existing tools? look at making aprons, tote bags, and YES those silly hanging towels. people love these and the farmers market crowd up HERE anyway, will totally buy these, especially if your signage is something like "if you like locally grown by small farmers- try locally made by individual crafters!" as long as your aprons and totes are different enough from "i see that in walmart" you can take advantage of the "buy local" that farmers markets are known for

I use a bracelet/watch stand to hold my key fobs. Every live event/show that I attend I have several people ask if I made them and looked shocked when I say that I custom make all of my items. Every event is different; it seems like I make a little money or I completely sell out. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

Also I have Janome h9 and love it! You have all the equipment I want though with the 10 needle embroidery and laser cutter lol

I love your videos. Thank you so much for sharing. I do have a question - in a previous video (I don't remember which one, sorry!) you mentioned something about a video on gussets... Are you currently working on one for that topic? If not, I would totally love to learn more about gussets, how to design them, etc. Thanks so much again, love your content!

Thank you so very much for this revealing video. So many venders seem to exaggerate a bit about there success. I’m getting some stock made up now to do one or two shows in the fall. Do you mind saying where you got the canvas bags? I’m trying to keep to small items and inexpensive with out being cheap!

Ok I flippin love you already SUBBED! Lol Congrats on a successful 1st market! Woohoo! I’m a wax artist (I don’t make regular candles lol) I make a bunch of shit and am a plant seller. I have my very first market in October so I’m super excited! I get to make creepy shit cuz it’s a Halloween show! Lol

For me, I always feel awkward going into a tent and not buying anything. I don’t want them to feel like I don’t like their beautiful items, but I just don’t have the money most times and am mostly walking around for fun. I guess that is why having stuff right in front so I don’t have to go in at all, works best for me. If I had the money, I would buy something from everyone to encourage them and let them know how appreciative I am of USA made items!

Thank you so much for sharing. I’ve done two small neighborhood events but have a bigger one in June so the info is super helpful. I had a question on the tote bags. Did you sew them? If so, what material do you use? I wanted to make some and use HTV too but wasn’t sure if I should sew some or purchase blanks.

Thanks for this video! I was thinking of doing this at some point. Also I’m considering teaching classes at out local quilt store, have you ever ventured into teaching a face to face class? If so share your experience lol I’m psyching myself out of it

Not bad for a first craft fair. Also farmers' markets are not that good during mid year as you said people are coming for fresh produce. Dog peeing that would really hack me off. I would have said something, but that's me. Regarding the question did you make this?. Happens all the time. People read my sign which says made by my name in my town and country and they still ask increduasly 'dis you make all this? ' 99% of what I sell at markets are bags. They range from small coin purses right up to full sized hand bags. I'm now trying to sell more online than markets as there is a drop in buying at the moment. Thanks for this video. Always great to hear people's pov. Oh price tags are okay, just make them look like hand made price tags 🙂

I'm curious to know how much you were going to charge for the potholders.

Imma have to look into the vinyl key chains. I've done cork key chains, and those stitch out fairly quick. Also cork coasters. Love making cork coasters. The main annoyance for me with craft fairs is that unless you're doing one that caters toward fine art, you get a lot of people coming through that think craft fair = flea market, and then you have the vendors who cater to that demographic because money (capitalism ftw), which makes you the odd one out if you actually price your handmade goods for what they're worth. (Also, every time someone goes by and tells me how beautiful my work is without buying, I think to myself, 'compliment me with money.' 😂)

There's constantly weekend craft fair/markets here in Vegas and you have to unfortunately apply months in advance and they only allow a certain number from each category (like everyone wants to do body products etc). I would absolutely love to do one, but with no vehicle and no assistant to help with a booth, there's no way that I can do it at the moment. :( I do need to go to one to check out what is there though - but I am annoyed they have an entire area for MLMs.

As a shopper the experience is not much different than browsing a store in a mall. Many people live relatively isolated lives in their apartments and suburban homes and do not have a wealth of experience engaging in social conversation. So they sub-consciously avoid situations where another person may approach them and initiate a conversation such as in a booth or store where there are no other people. If I walk into an empty Tupperware booth or leather goods or mall store I get the feeling that I just led a conga line into the place. There are suddenly people squeezing in front of me blocking what I had hoped to see and as I attempt to engage the seller I'm slowly but surely getting squeezed out. So I am imagining that now that I have entered the others no longer feel the intimidation of a seller possibly asking if they like anything or or want to look closer at an item, because that seller with approach the first person and then they can dodge out of the way. heheheh. But if the seller is making something that seems to attract their attention and lower their apprehension when curiosity takes over their inhibitions. I'll bet if you have access to a few hundred watts of electricity and a UPS in case it gets overloaded that setting up one of those machines like your slower low wattage laser engraver or embroidery machine that that will break the ice on getting a constant flow of people into a booth. Even a laptop and large screen of your production might be enough to break the ice. After all lots of people watch KZfaq why not at the booth of the producer! Just my thoughts and observations while at the agricultural fall fairs of my area.

Funny story, you're like 2 hours away from me and the big thing I would sell in this area around Christmas time at craft fairs were hand towels and matching pot holders. I sold them every year and always sold out. It's a thing here I guess lol Your right, places should make sure there's a variety of items for people to shop from so everyone selling has a better chance. The one in my town does that and they are so organized, I make great every year and there's like over 500 people who come and shop every year because of that.

Do you need a seller's permit, and have to charge sales tax?

Do you plan to have a symbol sign and a sign saying not to try on the earrings? I think it fair 😂

Well-made sign that indicates handcrafted items - let people know.