Week 15: The End of Nouvelle Boutique

At last, this project is now considered to be over! I'm almost kind of relieved because I knew that blogging about this project every week or having to work on certain aspects of it definitely stressed me out. However, at the same time, I'm also a little sad about how it seems to be ending so soon, especially after Mimi and I have finally succeeded! You can say that I'm a little bittersweet.

However, our success has made me so extremely happy! Mimi and I were able to make a total profit of $40.78, $21 of which we will be donating to Working Wardrobes to help women find jobs and dressing for success.

Though this isn't necessarily the amount we had in mind (we wanted more from the beginning), we were just really happy to end this year not in debt to ourselves. Up until two weeks ago, we were about $40 in debt because we had tried to go thrift shopping and re-designing the clothes in ways we thought people would like, but since we had shifted our view to more of an accessories-based store, we've made a much better income! We believe this is due to the fact that we can target more people because there isn't that issue of size and how it looks on, because accessories are just easier to wear.

Though Nouvelle Boutique is going to coming to an end, I hope on starting an online store on Etsy with my friend Ethelynn, where we plan on selling accessories or even clothes that we're going to try and make. Thank you for being with Mimi and me for the last fifteen weeks and supporting us all the way!

Week 14: Success Finally Comes!

After weeks and weeks of struggle to make things that we think people would like, Mimi and I have finally launched our first successful line with the help of our friend Ethelynn. We made bows! And we made them well! I'm super excited about this because so many people have supported getting our shop out of debt by buying them!

I'll provide a few pictures below to show you a few other things we made. Ethelynn and I also made some headbands this weekend.

 This first one on the left is a bedazzled headband that I made. It's using a sequin fabric that overlays a piece of stretchy fabric that we used to make the headband. The bows on the right are the bows that Mimi and I have been working on for quite a few weeks now. However, we have finally got them down with the help of Ethelynn and people are really liking them!

 This gold headband is one that Ethelynn and I made this weekend using a gorgeous trim, and the spiked one below is hand-sewn.
I'm a personal fan of the sequined headband and the gold one, and of course the bows. I'm super excited to have launched this new line of products and I'm super proud of Mimi and myself for finally reaching this point of success with our shop. With the help of our wonderful friends, our shop has finally come up from the ruins and is making a huge comeback from what we started with.

Week 13: The Panic Rises

What are we going to do?!

Our project is due in early June, and it is already May 19th! That means we only have two to three weeks to regain our losses, raise a decent amount of money for Working Wardrobes. I'm starting to feel a panic rise within my chest because we've lost quite a bit of money and we still have quite a bit of clothing that no one seems to want to buy. ): We have also decided on not making anymore clothing just because our red range is already so large. Making more clothing at the risk of not gaining any profits makes the idea of our losses worse.

Though it's too late to add to our project, Mimi and I were talking about doing Youtube videos to make up for the failure of our store. The videos could include make-up, hair, and clothing ideas that we love. Though this won't benefit Working Wardrobes as we had hoped, we thought it would be a cool idea to expand our experience with "the industry" because we could meet/get to know other youtubers who have more experience in what we had tried to do.

I'm not entirely sure if we're going to go through with this idea, because like I said, we only have around three weeks left, but I think it'd be super neat if we did do it. (:

Week 12: Some More Ideas!

Recently, I have seen a lot of t-shirts with kind of an embellished pocket. Some shirts have a different colored pocket (i.e. white v-neck with a purple pocket) while other shirts have a printed pocket (look at picture to the left).

Since the design is such a huge hit right now, I was thinking that we might be able to make a few to see how they would sell with our audience. Of course, the production of this item would have to wait until AP Exams are finally over (this week, wish me luck!).

In addition, I was also thinking of maybe having an option of adding elbow patches. Since I'm a total sucker for them, I figured some others would share my taste. People could order the elbow patches, send in whatever they want the patches added to, we add them, then send them right back. It would kind of look like this once patches are added:

Since these are all just ideas, there's no guarantee that the items I wanted to try and make are going to be end up being made. We do have a deadline for our project, and our main goal is getting out of the red margin of debt into the green so we can send our profits off to Working Wardrobes! Please continue to support us! (:

Week 11: New Ideas That Must Wait

Dun-dun-dun. AP Exam Week has officially begun. Because Mimi and I have our fair share of AP Exams that each of us have to take, we're going to have to temporarily put a hold on producing any new items for our store. However, I have been browsing around and I have a few ideas for things we could make after exams are over.

This cute black u-neckline tank top looks simple enough to make, which is why I definitely want to try and attempt to sew it myself. Because it is spring, I'd probably avoid black and opt for a brighter color or some floral print. I feel like this top is something a lot of our age-group would wear because it meets the one-inch requirement that our school enforces in the dress code while still being airy and cool enough to wear on those hot-spring-entering-summer days. I would try and make this out of a lighter fabric, perhaps chiffon, to play on with the light and airy vibe of the tank top.

My next attempted piece would be a circle skirt, which is shown to the right. A circle skirt is really just a fuller skirt that sways and blows and flows when you walk. I've always kind of had an obsession with them because I just think they look so feminine and beautiful. Making them seems easy enough, and I think the hardest part would be making the waistband to fit various sizes. For the fabric, I would probably use either a light jersey material or something really soft and flowy, maybe chiffon as an overlay and something else as a base. 

Though these ideas can't be attempted until after AP Testing is over, I'm definitely excited to try them. (: 

Week 10: The Hardships Continue

To say that Nouvelle Boutique has been a bit of a bust lately is an understatement. We can’t seem to make anything new because Mimi and I can’t find anything to make for our audience. We had tried the bows (which was last week), and that had failed epically. Not only did we lose money from that said “investment,” we also didn’t end up with any new products.

We are trying a scarf because we found this really pretty fabric at Joann’s Fabric store, but it seems that the infinity scarf we attempted to make is a little too short. However, it still works if we only wrap it around once instead of twice.

the fabric for our scarf

Mimi and I recently talked about changing our idea for our DIY project because Nouvelle Boutique wasn’t really working out. We don’t have anything set in stone yet, but a few of ideas include opening an online bakery for FVHS students who want to get their friends something cute for their birthday, or just a snack (which is impossible because AP exams are coming up, and let’s be honest, we all need to study), or just scrapping the idea of a store entirely and becoming like Patti, the Millionaire Matchmaker.

Quite honestly, we’re in a state of confusion, and at this point, we might not even have any profits to give towards Working Wardrobes. ):

Please wish us look on our advents of finding a potential new ideas, and please leave any comments if you have any suggestions! Any help at all would be greatly appreciated (:  

Week 9: Another Week Goes By

Hey everyone!

It's Christine reporting the things Mimi and I have (tried) to get done after meeting yesterday.

We decided that we wanted to start selling bows because they're really cute and we know a lot of people who are already interested. However, the process of making the bows wasn't as smooth as we had hoped...

After hours of gluing and mending and cutting and gluing a little more, we finally made a grand total of...3 bows! In our defense, we did spend an hour at Joann's Fabrics and Crafts finding appropriate fabric and other things that we could make to sell.

P.S. Excuse the hairtie...

In addition to our bows, we also found some cute fabric to make an infinity scarf with. However, it ended up being a little short, so it can only wrap around once rather than the traditional two times. Nonetheless, I will definitely try to have it done by next week so we can have a picture up! (: 

As for our sales, they haven't been going as well as we would have liked. We're still trying to figure out what would sell to (hopefully) increase our sales, but our attempts have been futile. With my parents' guidance and Mimi's fab fashion sense, we hope to make more infinity scarves that are long enough! 

Please wish us luck on our attempt to expand our shop!