oliver + s

Oliver + S Wholesale Customer Newsletter

February, 2010, Vol. 17

We're busy putting the finishing touches on our Spring 2010 pattern collection these days, and we're excited to share these new styles with you. But for that, you'll have to wait until next month's newsletter.

This month we're recapping a few fun things that we did during January. If you didn't get a chance to follow along with our Formspring discussion or see the first in our new series of blog posts for BurdaStyle last month, here's your opportunity to catch up. 

Enjoy the rest of February, and we'll be back next month with a preview of our new collection.

Cheers,

Liesl

Formspring Page

Over the last few weeks in January, we fielded almost100 questions on our Formspring Q & A page. Some of the questions were personal. Some were professional. And all were fun to answer.

For us, the exercise was a good way to put a finger on the pulse of the market. Here are some themes we saw emerge as we fielded customer questions, along with some questions you may want to ask yourself to help maximize your sales this year:

  • Customers say they want access to more patterns for boys. Are you stocking the boy's patterns we make (the Sandbox Pant, the Sailboat Top and Pant, the Bedtime Story Pajamas, and the School Days Jacket) in addition to all those cute dress patterns?
  • Customers want to know how to trace a pattern and where to buy the materials to do it. Are you stocking pattern tracing paper and tools? Are you offering to teach the skill to customers who purchase patterns in exchange for selling them the tracing supplies? Dressmaking is experiencing a tremendous resurgence of interest. Capitalize on the trend!
  • Customers are very interested in learning how to make basic alterations to patterns. Do you offer classes and books to teach these skills?

We think that you'll come up with some interesting insights of your own if you peruse the questions and answers.

We're no longer fielding questions on the Formspring page, but if you or your customers have additional questions about sewing with Oliver + S patterns, please use the discussion forum section of our website. Answers to your questions are just a post away.


Principles of Fabric Selection

Last month on our blog, Liesl published Approach Juvenile Prints with Caution--the last in the Principles of Fabric Selection series that she started last May. (You'll find all posts from the series brought together here and a summary, published as an article in last September's American Quilt Retailer, here.)

We hope you enjoyed this series and are using it to help your customers make successful fabric choices for sewing with our patterns.

This year Liesl will be writing a new series of posts on fabric and apparel sewing for the BurdaStyle blog. Her posts will run on the last Tuesday of each month.

The first in this new series, a basic primer on fabric construction terminology, appeared  last month. We hope that you'll enjoy this series as well.

Here's what some creative Oliver + S sewers have been up to this month.


For More Information

Email: information@oliverands.com
Website: www.oliverands.com