South Africans are also creative and online

If you're living in South Africa and want to open an Etsy shop, there are a couple extra hurdles. South Africans can't open PayPal accounts and receive money (unless they have overseas bank accounts). So enter Setcom and 2CheckOut...

I haven't used Setcom, and 2Checkout is ok. Because Etsy isn't integrated with these payment solutions, only PayPal, you as a seller will have to generate links to direct people to sites where they can pay.

2Checkout has a "create invoice" page to send an email to your buyer, but you must first create your product and be careful with the weight, so that the shipping works out the same as on Etsy. There is a complicated weight set-up process, but once you have worked out your postage costs you should be fine. The other option (instead of the weight/shipping price table) is to just include the price of the weight into the Product in 2Checkout. The fees are ok - 5.5% + $0.49 per transaction (including shipping), $49 setup fee (obviously more expensive than PayPal, which is 3.9% + $0.30) but they do allow your customers to pay with their credit cards directly, and they don't need to sign-up. Downside: 2Checkout will only pay you in batches of $300 or $600, and you will probably get charged by your bank for an international deposit (Absa charges around R100 I believe).

I don't have personal experience with Setcom .. all I know at the moment is that other South Africans use it, like skinnylaminx, and are very successful. By looking at their site it seems like it is an alternative PayPal (so potential customers must sign-up) but the fees are quite high - 4.9% + R2.50 and then on withdrawal too - R8 (because I bet there are very few places you could use the cash, unlike PayPal).

I really think South Africa have stuff to offer the world, especially handmade stuff sold from the person who made it (a rare treat), so I hope other creative and crafty people are able to open their own stores despite all the extra complications. Actually I know they are - it's going to explode soon looking at the number of shops that have popped up since I started selling. A previous post on ZA Etsy shops.

Use the Etsy shop local flash app to browse active shops in your area (or in South Africa, Durban, Johannesburg, or Cape Town)

If you are starting a new shop, you might be interested in my experiences with promotion on Etsy, advice from buyers to sellers, or browse my other posts about Etsy.

Craft yourself stylish

I am a sucker for ideas on how to re-use things we usually throw in the bin, so this CD spindle light appeals to me. It's from Kaytet on CraftStylish.

Here are some other super creative ideas from this great craft site:
wall art with vintage fabrics
wall paper decorations (definitely one for the new house)
mosaic with old plastic
baby toy with crinkly plastic (i love the re-use of nappy wipe packets)

this one is for girls only

I finally converted Granny's pink felt ring into a headband for baby C using the hem of an old t-shirt. It looks okay (the felt flower is definitely the best part) she likes to chew it, but will leave it on her head.

After I was done, I realised I should have used the entire length of the t-shirt hem and made myself a flower out of the left overs on the one side, using a tutorial I blogged about in the past.

ikea + shwe shwe = awesome

This is my latest creation. On request of my friend Dave, I made a cushion cover for his Lillberg chair out of Madiba range shweshwe. I wouldn't say it is a total Ikea hack - for me this is something you can do if you've got a sewing machine, can sew, and the patience to measure 3 times over at least.

To save you the trouble, I have made my plan open source.
I am going to be making some for myself and am still deciding which fabrics... what would you do?

This is what you need
At least 100m length of cotton thread
1 x 90cm zip (35.4")
fabric, 90cm (35.4") wide, about 2m/78.7" long (3.5m and I got 4 cushion covers)

These are the pieces (2cm/0.8" allowance)







To put it together, follow these simple steps
1) Sew the zip on using the two zip/back pieces, effectively joining the pieces together.
2) Sew the two sides pieces (right sides together) onto the zip piece.
3) Sew the front part onto the other three pieces making a tube.
4) Pin the tube onto the top and bottom pieces, right sides together (sew inside out and remember to leave the zip a good bit open so you can turn it right ways in the end)
5) Turn right way and do a top stitch around the edge of the top and bottom pieces.

If you want to make the top cushion (which I will in the near future when we arrive in CT) note that it is smaller (obviously the same width, but at least 17 cm/6.7" shorter. I am not 100% sure).

Quilters, get your shwe shwe charm pack here!

Want to make yourself a shwe shwe quilt but don't have enough different pieces? AfricanCotton to the rescue - she has a charm pack (in indigo) for sale.

Dreadlock shower cap

My brother has a full set of dreadlocks and asked me one day if I could sew him a shower cap that could fit him (it's amazing that it's impossible to buy one). I pondered a while, wondering where I would find the right fabric.

It just happened around about the same time that I had read the Dutch book Cool baby, where they make kids rain ponchos out of old umbrellas, and my visiting mother in law's umbrella gave up. Two and Two, and here we have the dreads shower cap.

To make it, I removed the metal skeleton of the umbrella, cut a circle out the middle of the umbrella and hemmed an elastic in the edge.

Unfortunately the design is not yet perfected. I think, because it is shaped like a beret, it drips water down his back. Next time I get my hands on an umbrella begging for new life I'll give it another go. Next time I think I'll also cut a circle out the middle of the cap to get rid of the point.

Etsy Seller workbook

It's a simple but sweet Google spreadsheet - the Etsy seller workbook. I could have done with keeping better records - than stashing my receipts in a cardboard box and not knowing what went with what.

It was the first time I used Google spreadsheet so it took me a bit to get used to something other than Excel. First thing you want to create your own copy, so click on File then "Create a copy". I called mine 'Etsy-sellerworkbook-diggitydugs'. Don't worry about where it is saved (somewhere in the cloud).

Now you can get to business - widen the columns on the 'Instruction' page. Always read the how-to:) To get to the instruction page (known as a sheet) use the links at the bottom of the site.

I would imagine that the non-US user would find the following sheets useful:

• etsy sales - download your sales data and copy and paste into this sheet (well part of it - the other part I find really useful to keep track of the actual postage and any tracking numbers - these you will have to fill in manually).
• etsy expenses - luckily you don't need to enter this by hand - simply download it from "Your Etsy bill" - go to the specific month and then right at the bottom of that page is a link to download your bill as a CSV file to copy and paste
  
• other expenses - a very useful page to track how much you spend on raw materials. You need to enter these manually.

Thanks to earthskyfirewater.etsy.com.