Janery
Introducing: New Packaging at Janery
This week I’ve been busy as a bee, balancing sewing for many customer orders with some important wedding planning . . . like finishing up the wedding invites!
It’s been a ton of fun taking my massive new sewing table for a spin. Cutting from large bolts of fabric is a walk in the park; so easy that I find myself wondering why I didn’t give in to a huge table ages ago! But the icing on the cake came when I shipped a dozen orders. I lined up the receipts on that 7-foot table, put the ordered products on top of them, and *still* had space left over to package each one up. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Janery is now a much more streamlined organization.
I couldn’t hep but snap a few camera phone pics to share my new packaging style with you all. (Why I didn’t just hop upstairs and grab the real camera is a mystery to me. Oops.)
For months I’ve been struggling to find a simple and affordable packaging style that works for me. When I first launched Janery, I shipped my pillow covers in tissue paper. But it didn’t feel polished. Just because my products are handmade doesn’t mean the packaging can’t be professional looking.
My packaging needed to corral the product while also containing the “care instructions” for the pillow covers. I tried slipping an extra strip of paper in that had washing directions printed on it, but it started to feel like too many things were being slipped in loosely.
After trying several ideas, I settled on the design you see above: Simple strips of recycled brown kraft paper are stamped with my logo on the front, then wrapped around the pillow cover, and held together in the back with a square sticker that has the pillow cover’s care instructions printed on it. The newer stickers I’m printing now have a space where I can write the name and size of the pillow as well.
I kept this super cost-effective by buying a big long roll of the brown paper in the “moving and packing” section at Staples. For $6 I got yards and yards of the stuff – much cheaper than buying a box of pre-cut kraft paper. I cut it down into smaller sheets, then used my paper cutter to make the strips.
The stickers I use are Avery brand, printable, and they’re about 2 inches square. My custom logo stamp was made by Sugarskull7 on Etsy, and my actual logo was designed by Jen at IHeart Organizing.
I know there’s nothing genius or groundbreaking about this, but I’m pretty pleased with it. If you’d like to do something similar, please feel free to copy this idea!
Now I just need to figure out a nice, professional way to wrap up the massive dog beds. If anyone has genius ideas on how to package a 3 ft by 4 ft padded bed, I’m all ears!
And now for something completely different: look what I caught my cat doing online the other day. He’s planning our wedding!
Happy {Easter} Friday! :)
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Janery Update & Vacation Announcement
Good morning! Ryan and I had a fantastic weekend, chock-full of holiday cheer and celebration, but I still managed to squeeze in a lot of sewing for Janery, of course! It’s a busy time of year where my to-do list is overflowing with wholesale and regular orders to fill, as well as special orders. I love the fast pace, but I will admit that the top item on my business to-do list in 2012 will be “create a better organization system.” :)
I added a few new pillows to the shop and I just love the beautiful blue color. I only wish I had a place to use them in my own home! Actually, that’s probably why I chose these fabrics. Adding them to the shop gives me an excuse to play with fabrics and colors and patterns that I otherwise would not have a reason to work with! Read the rest of this entry »
Want to win a little Janery?
Happy Monday! What better way to kick off the week than with a giveaway from Janery?
I can’t remember if I told you, but I’ve added some new items to the shop in recent weeks – Botanical Print Produce Bags and coordinating grocery totes – made of 100% recycled cotton .
This red and cream velvet trellis pillow cover is new, too. The fabric is made by Iman, and I was so stoked to find that many of her fabrics say “Made in the USA!” While I’m only officially offering it in a lumbar size, I can make any size as a custom order. Read the rest of this entry »
Exciting Janery News!
Wow, is it already November 1st? I often grumble at the fast passage of time, especially when we’re veering ominously into the colder months, but I’m really freakin’ excited to welcome November this year. I think that really being in a “shopkeeper” state of mind is part of it – I’m super stoked about marketing my products for the holidays. Frankly, it’s really cool to know that some lucky people will be ripping open wrapping paper on Christmas day and [hopefully] oohing and aahing over something I’ve made!
After several months of planning, I’ve made some decisions that will help my shop grow, and today many of those decisions kick in.
1. We’ve Moved! Janery is now on Etsy.
The new storefront. We'll have a better shop header loaded in a day or two.
When I launched Janery this past spring, Read the rest of this entry »
Congrats to Jane and Janery!
Hey all, Julia here. I have hijacked the blog again – this time with fun news – a Janery review!
Jenn at A Home in the Making paid Janery a lovely compliment today, and I wanted to bring your attention to this sweet mention. Jenn has a chic living room with tones of yellow, blue, and brown. We’d be thrilled if you jump on over to Jenn’s blog, say hey, and read the review of Janery pillow covers (because we here at TBA are super proud of Jane for all her hard work!)
Jenn, you have a gorgeous living room!
Congratulations Jane! Your work is really lovely.
New in the Shop: Sunglass Sweaters! (& commentary from Ryan)
Happy Friday! I bet I’m not the only one who’s glad the weekend is here, and I figured we should celebrate with a little giveaway from Janery!
Just yesterday I added a brand new product that I’m really excited about – Sunglass Sweaters!
They’re little sweaters to keep your sunnies safe and warm – just in time for the chilly fall weather. Here’s the story behind this product: Read the rest of this entry »
What I Ate Wednesday & Special One-Day Janery Sale!
In case you can’t tell from the title, this post is totally not design related. I generally like to stick to decor & business-related topics, but today I’m putting my party pants on so that I can participate in Jenn’s What I Ate Wednesday party over at Peas & Crayons. I love to cook, but lately there hasn’t been much excitement in my kitchen, simply because I’m so busy trying to keep this blog going and running my shop. This past Saturday I did, however, remember to take a few photos – so here goes.
Living Room Update: We got Janery’d!
Do you notice anything different in our living room?
It occurred to me recently that it’s kind of silly not to have any of my own handmade pillows and other home accessories from Janery in my home. The main reason I hadn’t used any of my own products yet is because I didn’t want to waste time making products for me when I could be using that time to create products for the shop, write the blog, or clean the house. (Or work on the gazillion behind-the-scenes business tasks that no one tells you will consume your life when you launch your own handmade business. :)
But when I realized it was ridiculous to not be using my own products in my own home, I took myself shopping in my “Janery stock room closet.” I settled on two of my Dwell Trellis pillows in Citrine, because I wasn’t willing to sell them online due to defects.
Sidenote about my Dwell Pillows: I’m really disappointed in the Dwell Trellis fabrics. With each cut I’ve received, the pattern has not been printed straight on the fabric. That makes it really tough to sew pillow covers with the same print on both sides, if I want the lines of the pattern to line up well at the seams. And these two pillows in my living room lined up so poorly that I refused to sell them to a customer – because they don’t meet my standards. Therefore, I’ve decided not to offer the Dwell Trellis pillows anymore. At least not with the trellis pattern on both sides. I also refuse to offer them with plain white backs, because I believe that lessens the quality and usability of the product – so I’m looking at coordinating fabrics that I can use to make double-sided pillows. Because I know a lot of you love that trellis print (as do I!).
Please chime in in the comments section and let me know if you think a pillow with the trellis pattern on one side, and this coordinating bird print on the other, would be hot – or not.
But I’ve digressed.
I love how the warm yellow tones of the pillows work with the olive green on our walls. It all feels so happy to me! And it ties in perfectly with my green leaf pillow, which I splurged on at Target years ago – before I had a sewing machine.
I moved my thrifted navy silk pillows to the little white arm chairs, because those chairs have always felt so naked and blah to me. Even though the navy is totally random, I’m feeling like it works a-ok for now. And the pillows are so darn comfy! I can’t believe I got them each for about $1 at Goodwill several years ago. (Don’t worry, I tossed them through a good strong wash cycle before using them in my home.)
Eventually, though, I’d like to make some coordinating lumbar pillows for those chairs. I’ve been holding onto a swatch for months, and I think the colors would really add more excitement to our simple white couch & chairs.
Last but not least, I added a new dog bed to the back of the living room, because Merlin wanted to test it out for the shop. Can you guess what it’s made of?
PS: Curious to read more about our living room? A while back I wrote this budget breakdown on where and how I furnished the whole space for under $750.
