One of the benefits to offering handmade products is being able to sell items that aren’t exactly the same, even if you make them over and over again. No matter what you do, there are going to be small differences between each piece of your inventory that you turn out, like a stitch in a slightly different place or a little extra stuffing. That’s a good thing: it proves that your creations are handmade.
But you can’t have major differences between each item you produce, at least if you’re trying to sell the same product over and over again. If customers don’t get something close to what they saw in the picture when they ordered your product, they’ll stop buying and may even give your products bad reviews online. You have to maintain quality and consistency when you make your products by hand.
Amy Monteith makes stuffed animals by hand and sells them through her own website and Etsy. While she often does custom, one-time pieces, she also offers miniature animals. From foxes to squids, she makes stuffed animals that are two inches or less in size. There’s no way to construct these animals, except by hand, and she’s sold hundreds. But they’re all consistent: not only does she continue to sell piece after piece, but she actually has a few collectors with multiple miniature animals. Monteith explains, “I am crazy about details and consistency.”
How does Amy do it?
Keep excellent records of how you make your products: If you have step-by-step directions that you can follow, time and again, maintaining quality becomes easier. You don’t have to try to remember each step as you work. Monteith explains, “I make paper patterns for all of my creations, even if I only plan on making one of them, and I meticulously photograph all of my work. I also have a notebook where I keep notes on design, materials, and construction. This helps a lot in maintaining consistency from one batch to the next, especially if a long period has lapsed between batches. It is of course also important to use the same materials and tools for each batch.”
Track your own quality: When you do the same steps over and over again, you’re going to find opportunities to tweak and improve your process. You need to track what changes you make. It’s also important to track any problems, so that you can look for ways to minimize those slip-ups. “Anything you make repeatedly you are going to get better at. Over time I’ve noticed little changes in shape and other details as my stitching and assembly techniques improved,” notes Monteith. “I’ve kept the first of almost every little animal I’ve made and I find it fascinating to go back and compare them to the current batches. The changes probably aren’t all that noticeable to anyone else, but it pleases me to see even subtle improvement.”
Protect your existing inventory: Making sure that you construct your products consistently isn’t enough. Depending on where you work, there are plenty of accidents that can occur before products can be shipped. Monteith’s solutions are simple: “I don’t have anything terribly complex for inventory, but I do stow them away in plastic tubs to keep out dust, kitty hair, etc. and to keep them from getting lost or misplaced. Because un-stuffed animals take up less space and are easier to store I also have collections of “skins” that I stuff and finish up once they are actually ordered. It’s a little bit macabre in a cute sort of way.”
Have a plan for dealing with less-than-perfect products: Even if you haven’t had any problems so far, it’s worth thinking about what you will do when something does go wrong. Monteith says, “It’s not very often that any of my little critters turn out remarkably different from the rest so I don’t deal with this much. On the rare occasions that do occur, one of two things happens. If there’s a quirky cuteness to it, I will probably rework it a bit and gift it to someone. Occasionally I will sell it as a one-off.”
Don’t send out bad products, no matter what: There will occasionally be products that you can’t salvage. If it’s far enough gone or if fixing the problem will create new problems, don’t waste your time — and don’t disappoint a customer. Throw out the defective item, if necessary. “If it looks bad I keep it for myself because there is no point in putting a poor representation of my work quality out there, even as a gift. I have a little collection of failed creations as a sort of gallery of mistakes, and as a marker of my own improvement. Maybe because I make up personalities for my creatures, I feel a little bad about just throwing them away,” says Monteith.
Monteith has had several years to perfect both her designs and her systems for maintaining the quality of her stuffed animals. That doesn’t mean that anything she does is complex or out of reach for a crafter just beginning to sell his wares. In fact, implementing Monteith’s tips when you’re first starting out may save you a lot of hassle down the line. You may be able to avoid at least some of the problems that translate into a product you just can’t sell.
For sellers who have been manufacturing products by hand for years, it’s worth noting that keeping things simple can be just as useful as having complex quality assurance methods. If you bring in help to help you make your products, simple is actually a lot better: with Monteith’s documentation and easy-to-follow systems, a helper could walk in and start sewing tiny stuffed animals without too much difficulty (provided we’re talking about someone who already knows how to sew!).
Do you have any of your own tips for maintaining quality when creating your handmade products?
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