Etsy Seller Interview with Angie of adesignbyangie

How adesignbyangie got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

Hi! I am Angie with A Design By Angie on Etsy. I’ve been selling scrub cap sewing patterns on Etsy since around 2007 or 2008. I started with only four different styles of scrub caps as well as a few other patterns, such as a casserole tote and some doll clothing patterns. Since that time on Etsy, I’ve grown my business from having 4 styles that were handwritten to 21 different styles of surgical hat sewing patterns that I now use software to create. (Thank God for technology.) I also have a sewing book that came out in 2020 and is now on the shelves at most of the Barnes and Noble stores as well as online (Sewing Face Masks, Scrub Caps, Arm Slings, and More). Let me tell you, that was thrilling, because they found me through my Etsy shop! The reason I originally started sewing scrub caps was for a friend of mine who was a nurse, and she needed a very specific hat. I had no pattern for it, and I was up late at night in about 2006 hoping to find some kind of scrub hat sewing pattern online to download or have mailed to me. At that time, there was only one style I found, and it wasn’t what I needed. I decided right then that I needed to just do the hard work of figuring it out myself and somehow make the pattern available online for others as a download so it would be easy for them. That is how it all started.

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

One of my favorite items in the shop is a fairly new addition. Adult bib Dinnertime Scarf It is an adult bib that really just looks like a scarf. It looks very elegant, and your loved ones who need to use a bib when they eat can wear this, and no one will really know it’s a bib. This gives the wearer back a sense of privacy and dignity, which is extremely important for one’s mental health and wellness. It is reversible, and you can include a water-resistant lining when sewing it.

Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?

It did not take very long on Etsy because more people than I realized were shopping for scrub cap patterns. At the time, there were probably only a couple of people who sold them, so I had that advantage working in my favor. Since then, the market has become extremely saturated with people offering various scrub cap sewing patterns. Now I use social media, as well as my website, to drive people to my shop. Etsy has since added the marketing that they do, which helps tremendously, especially since most of my sales are digital.

Managing adesignbyangie

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

At this time it is only me who runs the store and the social media, although during the pandemic in 2020, it seemed everyone needed scrub caps desperately so my daughter started helping out with customer questions. For running my shop, I really mostly use the tools Etsy provides and a bookkeeping program that logs all of my information for tax season.

The future of adesignbyangie

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

I plan to add a few more patterns other than surgical caps in the future. It’s hard for me to say because I love quilting and working with stained glass as well, so I tend to be a bit spontaneous as to what I decide to do. Although I would like to find a cost-effective way to offer paper patterns, a few people would prefer to just get good old-fashioned paper patterns in the mail.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

It’s not quite the way it was in the good old days when I started before everyone discovered selling on the internet, so you really have to do your research today to find out what is selling well and what customers are really looking for. One thing I would tell people is that they CAN DO IT! Try that new thing that you think you can’t do. Don’t sell yourself short! It is so easy these days to learn a new thing and get online support for whatever it is you want to try, but first you have to believe in yourself.