Etsy Seller Interview with Jenny of SeaminglySmitten

How SeaminglySmitten 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’m Jenny Hall, the owner and designer behind the Etsy shop Seamingly Smitten, where I design and sell women's and children’s printable sewing patterns! When I was younger, I would spend the days at my grandmother’s house, and she taught me how to sew simple things like hair scrunchies and palazzo pants and how to hem things by stitching line upon line of old towels for practice. When my kids were born (both now teenagers), I wanted to be able to sew clothes for them, but we didn’t have home economics in high school, so I never formally learned how to sew and read a pattern. So I was stuck! Being a visual learner, I didn’t know how to read a sewing pattern from one of the big four pattern companies; it made no sense to me, so I did what anyone else would do: and turned to Google and YouTube. I watched hours and hours of how-to sewing videos, followed sewing blogs and sewing tutorials to practice, and eventually started my own sewing blog where I would showcase the clothes I would make for my kids. I taught myself how to trace their clothing to learn how to make patterns, then studied the mathematical differences in sizing and ultimately learned how to scale a pattern from size to size, which helped because kids grow so quickly!

After my followers on the blog started asking me where they could buy the pattern I used to make my kids’ clothes, I realised this could be a business. And it was the perfect timing because those fabric expenses from Hobby Lobby trips were starting to add up (a girl needs dresses in all sorts of colours and fabrics, right?). That was the perfect time to go ahead and start my Etsy shop with a few of the patterns that I made, and amazingly, they started selling! I started designing children’s clothing patterns, but then kept getting messages asking if I had patterns for women—and I realised I was missing out on a huge niche! The same moms, grandmothers, and aunts that were buying these patterns also knew how to sew and wanted to sew for themselves. Lightbulb moment there! Plus, there were only 3 women’s sewing pattern designers at the time on Etsy, so I knew there was a need to expand to women’s patterns, too. So I did, and now 50% of my pattern sales are women’s patterns, and the other 50% are children’s patterns.

Favorite items

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

My favourite items are the Women’s Callie Wrap Dress Sewing Pattern and one of my girls’ nightgown patterns called the Dream Catcher. I love the wrap dress because the style is so flattering on all body shapes and sizes and will never go out of style. It’s classic, but it can be made with any modern fabric to look up-to-date! The Girls’ Nightgown Pattern is another favourite because I remember sewing so many of them for my daughter and my niece in fun Christmas fabrics! It’s a great classic style with a ruffled trim that is truly timeless.

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?

Since I had a blog, I already had traffic to send to my shop, so I sold patterns my first week. The first year was slow, though—I sold about 85 patterns in all—but it only grew from there. These days, I sell about 160–200 patterns a month just on Etsy. I also have a Shopify website. To attract new customers on Etsy, I run sales, post on Facebook and in my Seamingly Smitten Facebook sewing group, pin to Pinterest, have an email newsletter, have blog tutorials that lead people to my shop, and my sewing pattern affiliates also post and share about their creations online to get people to buy, and they earn a commission for each sale.

Managing SeaminglySmitten

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?

Yes! I am the sole designer for my shop and run it all myself. Since my products are instant downloads, they are automatically sent to the customer upon checkout, so fulfilment is automatic! That’s the beauty of selling digital products. Some of my favourite tools are: Alura, Everbee, Erank, Pinterest, the Lensa photo editing app, Canva, and Mad Mimi for newsletters.

The future of SeaminglySmitten

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

I would like to expand the affiliate marketing component for my shop, which will expand visibility and sales organically, and I would love to do more sew-alongs! That is where we pick a pattern and each day sew a little portion of it, and by the end of the week you have your new piece made and ready to wear! It makes it so much more manageable when you can sew for 15-20 minutes a day rather than trying to find a full hour or so, especially with kids!

Advice for new sellers

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

Just start!! So many times we simply get stuck in our heads and in the mindset of "it isn’t ready, it isn’t good enough, it isn't... But do the thing that scares you! If I had never started my shop, I wouldn’t have met so many amazing customers and been part of the whole sewing community there is! You will learn along the way, and you will improve; just take the first step. After 40,000 sales on Etsy and thousands and thousands on Shopify, I can tell you for certain that being able to work from home, make passive income online with digital products, and be able to be there for my kids when they need me—it's all worth it! Just go for it! Use tools, ask for help, get a mentor, delegate tasks you don’t enjoy or aren’t good at, etc. and you will definitely get to where you want to go faster!