Sewing can be addictive, you start out making garments for yourself and your family and then see many other projects that you would like to do. Every time you visit a fabric store or craft shop you get ideas and sooner or later want to make up these projects.

Some you can use in your home and give to family and friends as gifts, the compliments come and sure enough you want to do more, ....but to do more would require you to have more family or friends you can give them to and then there is the cost of it all.

One way to recoup the costs is to sell these items, but how to go about it.

There are many ways to go about doing this and here are a few ideas..

You can start with your family and friends, let them know that you are wishing to sell your items and if they could recommend your work to their friends and acquaintences. If you are wishing to take on the craft side of sewing or sewing homewares then you make up a sample range and maybe they would like to have a party for you to help get things off the ground.

Selling by party plan is a great way, you take the orders at the party, have a delivery date for pick-up, this gives you the time to get the orders made and you don't have to worry about collecting the money, the hostess will have done that for you and have it ready when you deliver the orders. You need a good incentive for the hostess so that others will be willing to host parties for you. You can book up parties from one party to another.

Craft markets are anoher good outlet. the first time you go will be the wordt, in most cases that is, mainly because it takes the people time to get to know your products. A good line to sell at craft markets is handbags or scarves, both are popular, homewares like cushion covers, table runners, placemats and matching serviettes and yes there may be others there selling the same but yours will be unique to you. Visit the craft markets and see what is being sold and decide then on your product line. You can find unusual materials at factory outlets, try the interior designers or any retail outlet that has sample ranges of fabrics, these become superceded and can be bought very cheaply.

Many retail outlets will take consignment stock, that means they take your stock and only have to pay you when they sell it. You put your price on the item and then they add their markup onto that. The bags and scarves are good to go into the fashion boutiques, the homewares into the interior decor and gift shops.

Make up a list of your items with the price you want for them, package them or if you have a handyman around then maybe he will do up a display for you to go into the outlet if they are short on display stands, (don't make them too big as room in these stores is often at a premium).

You will need a consignment agreement that you and the retailer will agree to. Things like the time frame before the item is changed over, who carries the insurance, if your stock will be covered by the retailer's insurance, how and when you will receive payment for your stock once sold, who keep the display neat and tidy, who is responsible if the stock is stolen.

You also need to leave them a stock sheet with all the items you are leaving in their store. This they can mark off when something is sold and have a good record for you. Consignment stock doesn't come into a store's stock records until it is sold, so they will not have the same records as their other stock.

That is a few things you need to work out, I'm sure you will think of others but it is important to get it all on paper right from the start. Some stores do a lot on consignment and already know the ins and outs but you need to know them too.

Don't be put off by all this, it is just doing the groundwork, setting things in place to cover yourself and once done you will be on your way.

There is another area and that is the World Wide Web. There is always eBay and other auction sites but you could consider your own website. You could make it similar to the party plan idea, take the orders, give a delivery date, they pay when they place the order and include the postage and handling, then you make the idem and send it off.

Making your won website today is very easy. There are places like FreeWebs, where you can design a site so easily and they even host it for you and you can do all that for free too. If you find it works then it would be better to get your own domain name and take their premium version that has more options. To collect the money there is Paypal, again free to get your account and FreeWebs make putting the access to Paypal on you website very easy too.

With digital cameras, taking the photos for your website is very easy and FreeWebs make uploading them and even resizing them a snip. So you would have your very own store on the Internet, get your business cards done, even that can be done on your own computer now. There are packs of business cards you can purchase to print our yourself and they can be done with MS Word too. Have your details on your business card, your email address and your website address and hand them out to all you come in contact with. I know a salesman who, whenever he is introduced to someone, hands them his card as he goes to shake their hand, he always seems to have one in his hand. He's practised it and has it down to perfection, you can do that too.

So all in all, taking it one step at a time, you could have a very nice little business, your party plan, your craft markets, remember these are often monthly, your consignment stock and your website store.

Now with all of these there are things you should search out first and make sure you follow the necessary procedures to cover yourself. Read the fine print before you sign anything and make sure you get the documantation in place where needed.

Then go have fun as this can be a fun way to make some extra money and pay for your habit, the habit that is,of being swayed by fabric and projects and not being able to stay out of fabric stores and craft shops and above all else, loving your sewing.

CTBaird, Author of Sew More For U, a DIY Sewing eGuide. Get great sewing tips and techniques, http://www.sewmoreforu.com/patterns.html http://www.sewmoreforu.com/sewingbook.html