I’ve been MIA for a few days and if you follow me on Facebook or Runners World, you know why – the Blue Hovel is now my own personal sweatshop.  Yep, I’ve gone into the headband business.

How Did This Happen?
It’s no secret I ordered a headband online a couple weeks ago and found from it that velvet is fabulous for keeping a hair accessory in place.   I soon made a similar headband (because that one was way expensive) and posted a pic on Facebook saying, “hmmm…thinking about selling these things” and got a bunch of replies saying “go for it”, so I have.

I admit to having a long, sleepless night where I wondered if I was being a shit for copying someone’s exclusive business model.  But the next day I did an extensive search and found 5 different sources selling the exact same headbands as well as tons of tutorials on how to make them, which puts me in the clear.

Making It My Own
Initially, I did like everybody else and bought a bunch of ribbon, but the ribbon market is limited  which is why everyone’s making the same stuff, there’s only a finite pool of patterns to choose from.  So I thought about how I could differentiate myself and after a lot of trial and error…I found it.

Instead of focusing on pre-made ribbon, I’m setting my sights on fabrics: mainly cottons, some brocades and even a beautiful faux leather that I couldn’t resist.  Going this route opens a world of color and patterns that nobody else offers.  I’ve spent days and nights experimenting with different methods, materials, interfacings, even threads to figure out the best way to do this that won’t drive me bananas because it’s certainly more labor intensive than using pre-made ribbon.  I’ve also been wear-testing the different concoctions on each of my runs for the past week and am thrilled with the results.

At the moment, I’ve still got quite a few ribbon headbands in the shop since I ordered the stuff, might as well sell it, but I plan on replenishing only a few while I extend the fabric offerings.  I’ll be using grosgrain for solids though, which I’m getting in next week.  I’m also waiting for an order of wider velvet so I’ll have 1.5″ headbands starting next week, too.

There ya have it:  The Blue Hovel  has become a textile-laden fire trap, my neighbors will want to kill me for the sewing machine that is soon to be a constant soundtrack and hopefully, I’ll make a little dosh.  Oh, if you happen to meet any half-blind children in Third World countries, let me know, I may need a few slaves soon.

Later, gators!

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