When running a stall at a craft fair or bazaar, it’s a good idea to have a selection of small, inexpensive items for sale. These can be made in bright colours and priced competitively to draw people to your table, allowing you to show them the larger, more valuable items.
Small, handy items can also make great stash busters and so are made without any additional cash outlay to you as the crafter. A basket of small items looks great and draws the eye of potential customers.
Fun Items for Kids
It’s also sensible to produce some fun items that may be suitable for children; these are popular with the kids themselves if they have some loose change to spend and can also make attractive trinkets and stocking fillers for grandparents to buy. Brooches, hair accessories and badges prove popular items.
Think about the Weather
A summer fete is a popular fundraiser, but the knitter or crocheter may not have much luck selling thick hats or scarves. Instead, cotton items, such as summer hats or market bags would be a more attractive purchase.
Of course, if the fair is a winter bazaar, in a country that celebrates Christmas, then there is plenty of opportunity for warm, cosy gifts, or even seasonal decorations.
Unusual items
When people go to craft fairs, they are often looking for something that they couldn’t buy in the shops. Going for quirky is a bit of a risk, as what is unusual may not appeal to all, but here is a chance to express your creativity and see how others react to it.
Useful Gifts
Items that can be bought inexpensively and given as useful gifts can be very popular. For example, drinks coasters in football team colours, or cup cosies in the favourite shade of the recipient.
Free Pattern: Phone Charger Cable Tidy
This simple pattern is quick to make and makes a neat cable tidy.
You will need:
- 4mm crochet hook
- Oddment (5 grams) of DK weight yarn
- 1 x press stud / popper / snap fastener
- 1 x button (approx 1.5cm diameter)
Make 26 chain and starting in the 2nd chain from the hook, work 1 double crochet stitch (dc - US name, sc) into each chain. Turn.
Next row: Make 1 chain, and work a row working 1dc into each stitch.
Next row: Make 1 chain and work 1 dc into each stitch, until 4 sts from the end. Work 2 ch, miss the next two stitches, work 1dc into each of the last 2 sts.
Next row: Make 1 chain and work 1 dc into each stitch (including the two chain)
Next row: Make 1 chain and work 1 dc into each st to end. Fasten off yarn.
Weave in the ends.
Sew the press stud halves approx 1.5cm apart, at the opposite end to the button hole. On the other side of the fabric, sew the button in line with the press stud half nearer the end.
The press studs secure the tidy around the cable (ensuring that it doesn’t get lost when the charger is use). When the charger is being stored, simply fold the cable neatly and secure with the button.
Experiment with different colours, use up your yarn and button stash and, hopefully, make a bit of money at your craft fair, too.
Lesley Arnold-Hopkins - Lesley Arnold-Hopkins is a freelance writer whose work and hobbies have given her areas of expertise in a number of fields. She has an ...
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