How Strawberries Taught me Two Lessons

During the week I decided to made lots of the strawberry keyrings that I blogged about last week. I couldn't help myself after getting that beautiful fabric in Vibes and Scribes in Cork, strawberries and polka dots are meant to be bossom buddies!

Firstly I broke the number one rule of 'measure twice cut once'. Instead I barely measured and cut out 20 circles, all way too small. I then proceeded to waste 3 hours sewing while never really noticing the tiny size. I blame complete exhaustion for my total lack of wits that day. Eventually I noticed I was making lots of miniscule strawberries, but I'm way too stubborn to give up so I went back to the drawing board, remeasured and started again. In the end after much post watershed language I got this bunch of key rings finished.

Another lesson I learned on this project was to shop around. I needed to buy the rings to go on the keyrings, I priced some at my local shoe repair shop, I was quoted 50 cent each, or wholesale 30 euro for 100. I thought this was a bit prohibitively expensive so I tried somewhere else instead, where I got a whopping 100 rings for only 4 euro. So don't be afraid to say no, always ask for wholesale price when you are buying in bulk, and it never hurts to flirt a bit too!!

Note: After timing myself making them I decided to charge 4 euro each for them. They take longer to made then I had originally estimated, and these are larger than the first prototypes. I still think it's a fair price and it's a handy small handmade gift that won't break the bank.