Love Sewing? Here Are 12 Small Business Ideas You Can Start

Love Sewing? Here Are 12 Small Business Ideas You Can Start

Sewing is a great hobby to help pass by time while creating magnificent crafts that’d surely be useful in many ways. Along with this, the possibilities of what you can sew are endless as there are plenty of fabrics, patterns, and designs you can choose from.

If you enjoy sewing so much and have already crafted many items, you could try showing them to people. Who knows, it could be a start of a great business idea where you could earn and have fun at the same time. And if you’ve suddenly liked the idea of making money out of sewing, here are small business concepts you could start.

1. Baby Clothes:

Selling hand-sewn baby clothes online seems to be getting more popular, especially as plenty of great designs are coming out each day. With little humans to dress, you can easily play with fabrics, patterns, and appearances that you think would highlight the babies’ cuteness. You can begin by creating baby clothes for girls as there are plenty of design options available. It’d be like making doll clothes but for an actual human. 

When crafting baby clothes, ensure they’re easy to wear and the fabric is soft enough to avoid discomfort. Most parents would like their babies to look their best without compromising their comfortability. Ideally, have as many buttons at the back and avoid designing clothes that only go over their heads since a baby’s head is still soft and sensitive.

Other than making cute baby clothes and dresses, you could also consider making monthly clothing that highlights the baby’s monthly milestones, from their first month to their first birthday. This could be a great outfit for photoshoot sessions. 

2. Adult Clothing:

Apart from baby clothes, you can also sell adult clothing. You could craft something people can use every day and consider getting different patterns and designs to have a wide selection of items for your clients. With adult clothing, you’d have higher chances of having loyal customers as clothing is an everyday necessity. This could help you to earn more money out of your hobby. 

When going for adult clothing, you can either create free-size garments or provide regular sizes, from small to large. While going for the free-size option could be a smart move as you won’t have to worry about inventory issues, many people may prefer regular sizes as they want the clothes to fit them perfectly.

You could go for shirts, dresses, pants, and shorts with different cuts and styles. Just ensure they have beautifully matched patterns that’d encourage people to buy them in sets for a complete look. 

3. Bags:

Aside from clothing, you can also sew bags and choose to sell them either in a physical store or online. You might be surprised at the number of people who’d prefer to purchase hand-sewn bags over regular ones as they could be assured of the quality of each stitch. With sewn bags, you’re sure to provide high-quality products, especially if you use the best materials you can find. 

Sewing bags will also allow you to maximize your creativity. You could provide various bag design options to your customers, such as backpacks, shoulder bags, grocery bags, and even wallets. Just ensure you have enough color options to offer a wide variety to your customers. Also, make sure they’re of standard size. 

4. Home Décor:

Another good business idea is creating home décors. You can consider releasing a line that focuses mainly on home décors, like drapes and curtains. Along with them, you could also create pillowcase covers and blankets that can go over the couch for a cozy feel. You could even provide a set for your customers so they could achieve a complete look without having the need to experiment for the best combination.

To add a cozy ambiance inside a home, using the proper fabric is important. Try to be universal with your fabric choices as much as possible. It would also be helpful if you could provide various color options to cater to many interior designs, thus ensuring a wider audience. If you have enough budget and time, you can also offer customization options where they could give their choice of fabrics and choose from custom designs. In this way, you could ensure everyone’s happy with their purchase. 

5. Pet Clothing:

One of the most popular things you could sew and sell is pet clothing, especially as there are lots of people nowadays who are very fond of pets. And among these pet lovers, there are many who enjoy dressing their animal friends and own various pieces of pet clothing. This you could take advantage of and start sewing the cutest pet clothing you could think of. 

When crafting pet clothing, it’s a safe idea to be as universal with your sizes as possible. But you could also offer designs for specific breeds, like for dachshund dog breeds, which have longer bodies than other types of dogs.

And to ensure more pet owners would be interested in your products, consider having costume ideas. You can offer clothing that allows pets to look like a doctor, engineer, chef, etc. You could even create black-tie event pet clothing, which could be a fun and cute concept. 

As you go along with your pet clothing business, you could try expanding your skills and making pet shoes that’d go well with your creations. By doing this, you can offer your customers a complete outfit, saving your customers the trouble of looking for shoes that’d match their pets’ clothing. 

6. Apron And Oven Mitts:

If you’re a person who loves to be in the kitchen, you’d probably enjoy crafting aprons and oven mitts for customers as you’d know exactly which types of covering would go best with what. Apart from that, you’d be able to expand the design options you could offer.

You could create formal types of aprons, which professional chefs would likely appreciate. Or you could design for home cooks, who’d perhaps go for cute and fun styles that’d make them feel like they’re just playing chefs in their own kitchen. While you could always offer both, having a particular niche would help enhance your brand to a specific group of customers.

7. Table Runners and Napkins:

If you enjoy table scaping and arranging the dinner table even if there’s no special occasion, you know the importance of having a table runner on your dining table. Apart from adding beauty to surfaces, runners could also highlight what you put on top of tables. And since you appreciate the role that table runners play in highlighting surfaces, this is another sewing idea you could turn into a business.  

Ideally, try creating table runners for every type of dining table. You could offer various lengths, which could be used for different table sizes, from four-seater to ten-seater tables. However, try to craft more runners for six-seater and eight-seater tables as these are most commonly used in homes. Then you could pair the runners with table napkins to complete the look. Providing customers the option to buy a complete set would help add beauty to their dining room.

When creating table runners and napkins, try to look for waterproof fabrics as much as possible. Typically, these types of fabrics won’t catch stains as they could be easily wiped out without having to worry about the damage caused to the fabric by spilled food. And if people see you’re using quality material for your table runners and napkins, people would likely consider getting another set for a different setup. 

8. Formal Clothing:

While formal clothing may be a more expensive option, this can truly be fun to create for your customers. If you’ve been eyeing red carpet events every year and love to see what celebrities wear on a big day, designing formal clothing should be a piece of cake for you. However, the fabric choices might be more expensive, especially for quality suits and long gowns. 

When going for formal clothing, you’d need to ensure you’ve nearly mastered the fitting and measurements so the clothes would fit your customers perfectly. Apart from providing regular sizes, having them custom made would be a great option, too, especially since your customers would want to look sharp on their special occasion. 

If you plan to become a formal clothing atelier, ensure you have enough space in your house for client meetings or customer fitting. You need to have a place where you could invite your customers to discuss what kind of design they prefer or to fit the attire you specially made for them. It’d also be best if you could take fashion design lessons to expand your knowledge about formal clothing and provide better and high-quality designs for your clients. 

9. Custom Embroidery:

Embroidery is a great way to customize a piece of clothing, no matter what type they are. With this in mind, you could consider adding embroidery features to your craft to provide a unique touch to your art. While you could always do embroidery by hand, there are machines available that could do the work for you. However, they can be costly but gets the job done in a matter of minutes.

There are plenty of ways to apply custom embroideries. You can do these on baby clothing, customized T-shirts, hairpieces, handbags, and more. Try to play around with which type of thread would work best with your choice of fabric. 

10. Hair Accessories:

If you prefer to craft small pieces as you find it difficult to build larger ones, going for hair accessories would be a perfect option. You can choose to sew hair bands, scrunchies, or even clips. However, it might require you to use garters and metal clips to complete the look. Along with this, you should ensure your sizes are standard as you don’t want them to be too tight or too loose.  

Also, be sure to provide color variations so customers would have plenty to choose from. For an added touch, you could create matching pieces for moms and daughters. Many mothers might appreciate this, and they’d even consider purchasing numerous sets. 

11. Dolls:

Hand-sewn dolls seem to be getting more popular these days as many parents are opting for softer toys that their children could play with. With hand-sewn dolls, parents won’t have to worry if the toys would suddenly fall on their children’s toes as they’re not heavy and won’t cause any pain at all.

Moreover, you could expand your line later on to include doll clothing, which would enable children to dress their dolls up however they want. When designing dolls for children, ensure there are no small pieces that could cause choking hazards, such as buttons and beads. Observing this would ensure your dolls are safe around children of all ages.

12. Sewing Lessons:

Aside from making crafts, you can also conduct sewing lessons for beginners. This way, you can share your knowledge and tricks, which could help your students become better at their skills. There are various ways on how you can conduct sewing lessons for your students. One option is to visit them in their homes and teach them one on one.

Alternatively, you could provide a space in your home where you could admit a limited number of students and teach them classroom style. When conducting lessons in your home, ensure you provide sufficient sewing tools and materials to accommodate everyone. This includes enough number of sewing machines, lots of threads, and plenty of fabrics for your students to work on.

If you’re not comfortable with either of the two options, you could consider teaching online through video conferencing. This might be more challenging, however, as you won’t get to see the actual output and won’t be able to accurately assess the quality of the stitches. 

Conclusion:  

If you’re confident with your sewing skills, it won’t hurt to try to turn it into a business. In this way, you can do something you love while earning money out of it. While there are plenty of options you could try for your craft, ensure you go for an idea you’re confident about and that’d make you truly happy. This would allow you to have fun while working, allowing your crafts to be of perfection. More importantly, you won’t think of your work as a job but rather a gesture that brings smiles to your customers’ faces.