Selling By Design

Denim Redesign

Repurpose, reinvent and redesign. This has been our focus at Indygo Junction and led us to push the limits of creativity in all things denim -- jeans, jackets and overalls.

Creating skirts, purses or embellishing jackets, there are so many options. Our new book Denim Redesign will inspire you and your customers to take recycling to the next level. Projects appeal to the growing segment of new sewers as well as to your traditional group. Most designs are basic enough for a novice sewer, but innovative techniques are introduced that will attract the more advanced. Whether designing a wearable for themselves or making one for a friend or family member, denim appeals to the young and the young at heart.

Denim is an American icon. Blue denim is truly miraculous -- hard wearing, comfortable, warm in winter, cool in summer and oddly neutral in color. Almost everything seems to match it. Denim keeps its shape and hides the dirt until you throw it in the wash. Functional yet stylish, the more you wear it, the more fashionable it becomes.

Jeans are a readily available resource, providing an inexpensive fabric for a variety of functional and fashionable uses. Everyone can find a family member or friend willing to make a denim donation to your creative cause. As Americans, we each own an average of seven pairs of jeans. Denim cannot be denied.

Denim Dollars
As a retailer your concern may be -- I won’t sell fabrics, why would this make sense?

But, you will sell fabrics and MORE -- linings, trims, and fabric cuts for appliqué! You will also sell notions, tools, and better yet, you will brand your store as a resource for trendy and unique project ideas. Something as simple as buttons can customize a project. They can be grouped in a denim fiber collage, added as an accent detail, or applied as a functional element for a purse closure. Make buttons part of your business!

But the most important reason to consider adding Denim Redesign to your mix might be machine sales. To start, the beginners coming into your store to find their first machine may be interested in sewing as a hobby or as a business. The internet has provided small entrepreneurs an endless marketplace for handmade items, many sewn by machine. Visit www.Etsy.com to see the new generation of creative consumers. Check out the purses and totes. Do not miss a chance to draw this group of young sewers into your store.

The same customer who bought her first machine in your store is now eyeing a serger as an investment for her business or hobby. Projects such as the Imagine Jeans give her a reason to consider this purchase as vital to growing her business.

Introduce this customer to a needle felting machine for adding embellishment. The Aztec Accent Jacket or Yarn Medley Jacket are excellent examples of new techniques.

Sell tools as well! Clover’s new Quick Yo-yo Makers and Felting Needle Tool have been featured to embellish ready-made jeans with fabric and fiber details.

Injeanious Events
Try a contest! In a recent issue of ReadyMade magazine, readers were asked to come up with new uses for discontinued denim. Why not try your own contest? Try giving some focus to the challenge by requiring that a particular series of tools or techniques be incorporated, or narrow the entries to a specific category like wearables or home dec ideas.

Create a class using the One-Pocket Yo-yo Bag on the following page. Embellishing this basic design could also be another option for the challenge in your store.

Stay in style with the fabric that never goes out of style by giving your store a denim do-over!

For more information about Indygo Junction and The Vintage Workshop products, contact Indygo Junction, Inc., P.O. Box 30238, Kansas City, MO 64112; Phone 1-913-341-5559 or visit online at www.indygojunction.com or www.thevintageworkshop.com.
E-mail: info@indygojunction.com.

Amy Barickman, founder and creative director of The Vintage Workshop, has been a leader in the crafting industry for more than a decade. As founder of her own publishing company, Indygo Junction,
Amy works with designers and artists whose work leads in the craft industry, from quilting and needlearts to scrapbooking and papercrafts.

Reprinted from SQE Professional, September, 2007