It's been a year since I started my business venture, just shy of 40 and with a newborn in tow. Looking back now and reflecting, it's been quite fun to see how it has taken off. If you want the details, read on.I had been cloth diapering for years - my first two kids and then a late entry third little darling. Somehow, in those final days of that last pregnancy, I got a wild hair and started sewing pocket diapers for the new baby-to-be. Not just a few, oh no. I sat on a hard lab stool sewing for hours, cutting fabric next to the basement washer and dryer, picking out stitches with the seam ripper in front of the TV...until I had about 30 pocket diapers ready to go. It really took my mind off early labor!
I remember making the first few diapers from fabric ordered online (none of this diaper making stuff is sold in b&m stores) and then desperately checking the UPS tracking site for the next fabric shipment, and then the next after that, hoping the fabric would arrive before the baby did.
Amazingly, it was all a success. The diapers worked! The baby was dry and happy and growing. When time came to make a new fleet of size mediums, I started contemplating opening my own diaper shop. I have always wanted to have my own business but never had a concrete idea for a product. So I started in with drafting my own patterns. I did at least 10 versions of size medium, probably more. Each day I would change the pattern, just to see what would happen, sew the diaper, and then pop it on when baby woke from her nap. (The final patterns were scaled up and down from the medium and then adjusted and tweaked over time.)
As I came closer to opening shop, I had a chat with my sister, who is not the least bit into cloth diapering, about my store idea. She has a great logical mind and of course asked the obvious question: "So nobody else is doing this [selling pocket diapers]?" Um, no, lots of people are. "So, what's going to make you different? Why should they buy from you?" Hmm...why indeed?
I realized then that a great pattern wasn't going to be enough. Lots of people have great patterns. And fresh color combos for the pocket inner and outer weren't going to be enough. Others were doing that, too. Bummer! I mediated on this for a few weeks. Started looking into whether fabric paint would really stick to the waterproof outer fabric. In addition to sewing, my other great love has been painting. It didn't immediately occur to me to combine the two, I was just pushed there.
This lead me to several months more experimentation and testing, calls to manufacturers, much frustration and a few critical sucesses. Eventually Painted Patootie was born, and opened shop on Hyena Cart. The photo above is one of my first diapers, made in fall 2006.
My goal was to sell 1 diaper the first month. I sold 12. I started having repeat customers. Getting friendly emails. What an amazing ego boost! Heck, who cares if the bathroom gets cleaned? I've got diapers to paint!
A few months later, customers were asking about matching shirts for their diapers. What a good idea! (Most of "my" best ideas actually come from my customers or my DH.) I'll just do it! I took orders. The paint bled, it smeared, and I ruined many $$ worth of tshirts. I sent back some sad emails and refunds. I found painting shirts to be very annoying at first--cotton takes paint entirely differently from polyester knit and there was a whole new learning curve to be had.
I started reading online shirt making forums and got a whole new education. In time, painting shirts became a nice change of pace--someone else already did the sewing, so after it is painted and cured, off it goes. Naturally I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to test shirts from every manufacturer of infant blanks on the market to find the best ones.
And hey, why just paint? How about dye? My family has quite a few *ahem* lovely, for home use only, shirts from my learning-to-tie-dye period. That part got better after a while, too. I've even gotten pretty decent at using color theory to mix my own dye shades to match diaper fabrics. Then, I could paint the dyed shirts. Or applique! Or paint fabric and then applique the painted fabric on to the shirt!
And why just pocket diapers? How about covers? Time to draft some new patterns, for pull on covers and side snap covers. More materials to source too--the best fold over elastics or bindings for the new lines of covers.
With the new items and especially with wanting to expand the shirt side of the business, it was time for a new name. Painted Patootie was still great for all things cloth diapering, but I had originally set it up legally as a "brand" of Fishnoodle Industries. (Fishnoodle because its a funny word, Industries because of Seinfeld's "Vandelay Industries"). So all the shirts became Fishnoodles. With the new, more versitile name, Fishnoodles is it, for all future growth and explorations.
And with that, I will close with a photo of my most recent Painted Patootie design and the coordinating Fishnoodles tee.
