My Design Process

I wanted to share my process for creating custom, hand-made spirit wear with you. I don't have mass produced shirts sitting on a shelf, waiting to be purchased and mailed out. The value of my spirit wear is that it is created specifically for you, when you order it.

My best selling item is a softball monogram sweatshirt blanket. When a customer orders a blanket, they will have left me the initials for the monogram, in a note on the order. Step one is that I open the design program and create the monogram along with the extra design elements that make it a softball with a glittery bow. I send that design to the machine that cuts the heat transfer vinyl film. After the cutting machine does its work, I begin the process of removing the vinyl that is not part of the design. In the meantime, the heat press is heating up to 305 degrees. This particular design has three layers, so the blanket is pressed three times. Et voila! A personalized, keepsake blanket is born!

That is the process for all of my spirit wear. If you are purchasing a shirt that has your team name, I create that design from scratch, each and every time. Then, depending on the complexity of the design, this could take 15 minutes to an hour and weeding the film could take another 15 minutes to thirty minutes.

I love what I do. I love creating and the creative process. I LOVE seeing a gorgeous end product and I particularly love when a customer loves their new shirt! Once upon a time, I wanted to be a fashion designer. Fun fact, I was accepted to a design school in Los Angeles when I was a senior in high school. I did not go, because I was a dumb 18 year old girl. I am thrilled to be working in the garment industry at this stage in my life. And most important, I am excited to work with you in creating a garment that represents this moment in your family's life.

Click here to see what is available in my shop, right now. Please contact me if you have any questions or requests.

Mum Ordering Guidelines

I am one of those people that would rather order pizza online than call the pizza place. I also do not want to put my pants and bra back on to drive to town to get something if I can just order it online. Yes, I went there.

I think I know you feel that way too. That is why I spent months designing and tweaking CentralTexasSpiritWear.com so that the actual ordering of a mum or garter goes effortlessly for you. 

Still. Ordering a mum or garter can be confusing. What size? How many flowers? Does it have to be a certain color? 

Here are some time-honored, but not cut in stone guidelines. 

• How many flowers? One flower per grade. One flower for freshmen, two for sophomores, three for juniors and four for seniors.
  That said. Choose what fits the girl's personality. Maybe she's a senior, but she doesn't want the huge quad. She may like a Texas Sized single or even a triple? 
• What color? Traditionally, lower classmen wear school colors, with juniors wearing white and silver and seniors wearing white and gold.
  I would not recommend white for lower classmen, but fashion colors are fun and unique for any grade. I love making junior mums in the girl's favorite color. One year, I made a hot pink and black triple for my son's girl friend. It was stunning! 
• How big are these things? I include this because I know it is a concern to many. You see some monstrously sized mums on the internet. Most of my mums have 36" streamers. What that means is that is how long the ribbons are cut. Once they are attached to the backers, they may measure 28-30" from the bottom of the flower, but then add the flower with it's backer and the total length could be 36-45+" On an average height girl, it will reach her shins. I have cut streamers shorter for very petite girls. Mum listings in the shop have dimensions listed.   
• How much should I spend? This is subjective. I suggest that you gauge by your child's relationship to their date.
  I know this could be some delicate territory. If they have been dating a while, it's safe to say that a Super mum or a Classic with some nice upgrades would be appreciated. If your son asked this little girl two days before homecoming, you may choose a simple classic and still make her very happy. If you live in an area of Texas where mums are a competitive sport, by all means, go for the Texas with all the upgrades! 

I hope these points help you choose. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I am always happy to help. 

Central Texas Spirit Wear 2017 Mum and Garter Upgrades

Each Central Texas Spirit Wear homecoming mum or garter is gorgeous the way it is designed. But what if you want something a little bit more? Something that stands out? Something that makes that young lady's eyes light up and makes you your son's hero? Mum and garter upgrades are how we take a great mum to a FABULOUS mum!

Adding upgrades to your Central Texas Spirit Wear mum or garter purchase is easy through my shop.  There is no need to go back through my shop, locate the upgrade and add it to your cart with any notes to me. Each listing has them offered as an optional choice as you go through the ordering process, you simply check the upgrade that you want and leave notes with initials or colors. It could not be easier!

Boas I use two sizes of chandelle feather boas, 65 gram and 100 gram. Not only are they two and three times larger than a craft store boa, I steam them before they are attached to fluff them up that much more! The colors that I carry are, black, white and black and white with silver and gold tinsel, I also carry royal blue (Let's Go Vikings!), red and maroon. I can order other colors if you are looking for something really special, like Tiffany blue or hot pink. Contact me and I'll be happy to get what you are looking for.

Lights I admit it. When I learned you could LIGHT UP a mum, I was SUPER excited! In my opinion, nothing makes a mum stand out like lights. There are three options, light up the flowers, light up the skirt or light it ALL up! I like to use white lights with small button battery packs. I can order other colors, let me know in plenty of time what you want and I will get it for you.

Sr Package Senior year is so special. These young ladies have been waiting for years to get the Go Big or Go Home mum, they want to make sure everyone knows that they are seniors and they rule! My senior package includes specially designed and cut glitter elements for the flower, senior trinkets, a grad cap and diploma for your bear, ribbons and bows.

Plush mascot These are so stinkin' cute! I carry three common mascots, eagle, lion and bear. They look awesome on a garter in the place of the standard bear.

Custom monogram or mascot If you live in the South and you don't have your monogram on everything, are you really Southern? Seriously, the girls LOVE the glittery, curly monograms and the guys appreciate their school mascot/logo featured prominently on their garter.

Bling Package The bling package is my best selling upgrade. The name says it all, Bling. We love our bling! My bling package features rhinestones, glittered flower tips and trinkets, shiny ribbons and bows.

Large cowbell Even back in ye olden days of mums, bells were a mum staple. Every one of my mums and garters includes a bell or bells. The 3" cowbell is just a little bit of extra spirit with the school logo and a bow. I don't dampen that clanging bell with rhinestones and glue, I wanna hear you coming down the hall!

Extra bear with bow Add an extra, matching bear to represent the cute couple. Bear sizes do vary a little bit within the Small, Medium and Large designations. I will choose bears that match and are appropriately sized for the mum. I usually give one bear a bow on the head and the other a bow at the neck.

Dressed bear I wish that I could dress all the bears. I think it goes back to my doll playing days, followed by my going-to-be-a-fashion-designer days. I have dressed bears in band uniforms that match yours (as closely as possible), tutu's with crowns, dance team uniforms, cheerleader uniforms and soccer uniforms. Let me know what you are looking for, send me a photo of the uniform and I will do my best to replicate it. Bear sizes do vary a little bit within the Small, Medium and Large designations, I choose bears that are appropriately sized for the mum and how they will be dressed.

There are Only Two Reasons to Buy a Custom Homecoming Mum

So, your 15 year old son gets in the car after football practice and tells you, "Mom, I need you to help me make a mum." After you pick your jaw up off the center console and you have sorted out the sudden rush of questions you have, "Who did you ask?" "When?" "A what?!" "Is that still a thing?" you say, "Well, sure." Later that evening, after your initial Pinterest search, you realize this is not an undertaking you'd like to undertake, but you told your kid you'd help him and he needs it next Friday (please God, let it be NEXT Friday!) So, then, you Google, "Your town homecoming mum" and you find a mum maker's website, but you're just not sure you want to pay someone else money for something you can do yourself.

The way I see it, there are two reasons to buy a custom mum from a professional mum maker. The fact that it is gorgeous and you're going to look like an absolute hero to your son is an wonderful bonus! 

1. Buying a custom homecoming mum will save you money. Did you already go to the craft store to get supplies? Did you put everything back or set the basket down and run out? Buying supplies to make a simple, single mum is going to cost about $100. (My Super Single Mum is less than $100.) Imagine the cost if you want to do something more elaborate, like the one you saw on Pinterest? (Take a look at my Texas Sized Mums. PERFECT for the Go Big or Go Home Senior mum.) 
2. Buying a custom homecoming mum will save you time. You don't have to go to the craft store (or stores because you heard the other one is better or has trinkets that the one you started at doesn't have) or put the time into the construction of The Mum. Don't you have better things to do? Like figure out who your son asked and who her parents are and what classes she is in? I mean... having heart to heart talks with your son about his day? 

Did I convince you? Here are the categories of mums and garters that I offer. I love what I do and I want you to be your son's hero. Do you have any questions? I am so happy to help, contact me. 

Fall 2017 Apparel Selections

One of the most difficult things -for me- is choosing which shirts to use for Central Texas Spirit Wear apparel. Coming up with designs is fairly easy. That is, once the creative juices begin flowing. But I admit, shirt selection is my biggest obstacle.

There are SO many choices. Do I go with the cheapest shirts to keep prices down? Or should I choose high end shirts because they feel good and look cool? What about apparel trends? Do I go with crew, V, or scoop neck? The choices just go on and on... It's seriously a problem -for me.

This year, I decided to go with some new, yet classic, shirts. And honestly, it did not take me days to decide. I knew I wanted to choose either tri-blend shirts or ring-spun cotton. I LOVE light weight shirts that feel nice. For the "regular" shirts, I chose styles that come in a heathered look. The heathered look is a hot style for 2017. It goes right along with the '70's/'80's retro trends we are seeing in fashion.

And between you and me and the wall... there is a chance I will go back into my listings and add the companion unisex or ladies version, just to give folks a choice.

Toddler shirts:
My best selling Spring spirit wear was the Rabbit Skins Toddler raglan. So I had to go with Rabbit Skins for a Fall shirt. It's a ring spun cotton / polyester blend. Easy to care for the label is designed to rip right out, trust me, I know. The color choices are solid and a vintage/heathered look

For the "regular shirt" I chose a Gildan Softstyle shirt. It is new for 2017. The solid colors are 100% ring spun cotton and the heathered colors are 35/65 blend. Again, it has a tear out tag.

Adult shirts:

To stay consistent and be able to easily offer matching shirts for the family, I chose LAT Find Jersey shirts. There is a unisex cut and a ladies cut. They have the look of a football jersey, but are a light weight cotton/poly blend. Solid and heathered colors are available.









I also chose Gildan Softstyle shirts for the ladies shirts. I will likely add the companion unisex cut shirt to the listings. I know many women that are not comfortable in a ladies' cut shirt. I like the scoop neckline, it's a change from the V neck and won't choke you like the crew neck. (Is that just me?) Like the toddler version, the solid colors are 100% cotton and the heathered colors are a blend.

Visit the Central Texas Spirit Wear shop to see the new designs and styles. Feel free to contact me with any questions or requests. 

Selling Your Handmade Items Online

There are two ways to sell the items that you have poured your heart and soul into, in person and online. 

In person sales are going to be in a shop of some sort, maybe a pop up shop, or a local vendor market or even your own brick and mortar store. Nothing beats selling in person. The customer can feel the item and maybe try it on if it's a garment. It makes impulse shopping a lot easier. 

In person sales don't necessarily work well for custom handmade items that take hours or even days to create. 

Enter ECOMMERCE. Selling your items online. 

Statistics show that online shopping has overtaken brick and mortar shopping. More people would rather buy online than travel to a store. I know this is true for me. I recently bought a refrigerator online. Had it delivered. I never left my house. Easiest thing ever! Statistics also show that more small businesses do not take take advantage of this trend. This is bad for you as a small business owner. You are missing out on sales.

 

I'd like to talk just a little bit about some reasonably priced options that are available to you for selling your handmade creations online. This is in no way a definitive list of all the options that are available. 

1. Etsy. The Grande Dame of the online handmade marketplace. You can open your shop for free and it's only .20 to list an item. Once an item sells, you pay a transaction fee of 3.5% and a payment processing fee, which varies according to location. Having an Etsy shop is like renting space in a vendor market. You maintain your shop, the market takes payments and you pay your agreed-upon fees to the market.
2. Shopify. A lot of ecommerce coaches suggest opening an online store through Shopify. Shopify is easy to open and it looks great. They have lots of tools to help you. It is $29 per month, plus payment processing fees of 2.9%+.30. You will have to drive traffic to your store front as you own your store front. You can also use your Shopify store front as a plug in on various platforms such as Facebook and Wordpress. 
3. Handmade at Amazon is another choice where traffic will be generated by the host. Like Etsy, it is not YOUR store, you are leasing space. I honestly don't know a lot about it. You do have to apply to be a seller and there are fees, but I cannot find a list of those fees. 
4. Squarespace is a website builder with an ecommerce option you can use to sell your items. It is $26 per month, or $18 if you pay for a year up front. It is your store front. The success or failure is up to you. Squarespace does not charge processing fees but your credit card processor will charge you. Squarespace does charge a 2% transaction fee. 
5. Ecwid is another ecommerce platform that works similarly to Shopify. You can have your own Ecwid store front, or you can use it as a plug in on your own blogging platform. Ecwid does have a 100% free plan. It is limited to ten items. Beyond the free plan, there are three different plans that range from $12.50 per month paid annually to $69 a month paid monthly. Ecwid does not charge processing or transaction fees. You will generally pay the transaction fee through your own payment processor and they offer channels to Square, Paypal and a number of other options. 
6. Wix. Wix is the last option that I'll cover in this post. Wix is a website builder like Squarespace with a plan for ecommerce. They do not charge fees per transaction, you pay monthly or yearly for the hosting. Your per transaction fee will come from your own payment processor, such as Paypal. 

My opinions. 

1. Etsy. I would like to say that Etsy is easy. Etsy is easy if you do all the stuff, use up all the spaces they provide you with. It is important to remember that this is not YOUR store. You are leasing space from Etsy and they can close you down for a myriad of reasons, including mistakes. I don't know any ecommerce coaches that suggest putting all your eggs in the Etsy basket. Maintain another place online to sell your handmade creations. 
2. Shopify is, in my opinion, too expensive. And you still have to drive traffic to your store on your own through marketing. 
3. Handmade at Amazon. As I said before, I don't have any personal experience with it. It's intimidating to me that you have to apply. That means you can be turned down. Some sellers do very well with it. Just from comments that I see on various forums, some things that sell well on Etsy, don't sell well on HaA and vice versa. Like Etsy, you don't have to drive the traffic, they do it for you. 
4. Squarespace is a very reasonably priced choice. The template choices all look modern and clean. You don't need to understand website building to use it. You will have to drive the traffic to your storefront on your own through various methods of marketing. 
5. Ecwid. I use Ecwid as a plug in on my Wordpress site. I like it because the lowest priced plan offers unlimited customization options that I need for homecoming mums. I don't love the look of the store itself, but since I am using Wordpress I can get around it. I have found the online support to be quick and very helpful. 
6. Wix. I like Wix. I think it's really pretty. I love the drag and drop website builder with the snap lines that tell you when something is centered. I do not use it simply because the shopping cart does not allow for the number of options that homecoming mums need. As it is your own website, you do need to market it yourself. I have heard that Google is prejudiced against Wix sites and does not rank them high in search. I can't say that is true because if you search Lago Vista Homecoming Mums, my free Wix site is what shows up. 

Better Product Photography

I am in no way a photography expert. You will not find any photography terminology here. I don't have a fancy camera where I can fiddle with settings that I don't understand. I do have a fancy video recorder that I bought to record my amazing son while he was running. It takes mediocre still photos. I have a fun, tiny Cannon point and shoot. I'm sure if I looked I could find manual settings, but I don't want to. Using it would require taking the memory card out and putting the photos on the computer and all that is a time consuming pain. My current go-to camera is my iPhone 7. It takes really great photos when I take the time to take them.

In 2017 we market our hand made goods visually on the internet. A great product photo will sell your product and a bad one will lose a sale. You can write amazing, inviting copy. But you and I both know that people don't read product descriptions. Great photos are key if you are serious about online selling.

Here are what I consider to be the essentials of good product photography. It is going to make people who are actual photographers cringe, but this post is not for photographers, it's for non-photographers, for mamas who are trying to sell stuff on Etsy and Shopify and Facebook.

1. Light. Light is the most important. Not the flash on your camera. I don't even know why they put flashes on cameras. They almost never help the situation. Turn the flash off. Figure out what the sunniest room is in your home and what time of day it is the sunniest. Plan a photo shoot. If you want to take photos outside, use morning or evening light. Noon light will not work in your favor.

2. Background. I don't want to see your house and neither do your customers. Set up against a plain wall with nothing that will distract from your product. I bought a black curtain at a thrift store and hung it on a wall. I can also use it on a table and take photos from above.

3. Movement. Don't do it. Move that is. Your photos are probably blurry because of movement. Prop your camera on something and set the timer so that tapping the screen doesn't move the phone at all. I highly recommend you get a tripod (I actually bought mine in a thrift store.) I bought a phone tripod adapter and a bluetooth remote for clicking the photo. I bought them as set and they were $11.95. here is the one that I bought on Amazon.

The background in this photo is obviously NOT the thrift store curtain. I have upgraded.
At the beginning of this year, I committed myself to taking the best photos I could for my business. I know there is room for improvement, but I also know that I have come a long way.