What's been happening behind the seams at CFS HQ!

Howdy! It's been a while since I updated anywhere on socials or email (except my local friends, there's a lot happening here in MD). 

It's a little late for a 2025 recap since it's mid-February, but hey, business operates on a different timeline, and I'm playing catch-up.

Here's what's been happening, and what's coming in the next few months!

First and most current thing actually, is I just put all of my Cloth Wipes (plus the solid color NonPaper Towels) on clearance! They're 20% off while supplies last, to make room for new ones and clean things up a bit. More on that later. Shop all clearance here!

 

The first half of 2025 was scary.

As you probably know, we lost Joann Fabrics, the main supplier of my flannel fabric, which accounts for at least 90% of the materials I use. So uh, a significant portion, to say the least.

I won't bemoan the loss because it's not really helpful after the fact, but this marked a turning point for Cruelty-Free Stitchery that I did not expect.

Sales were looking scary the first half of the year, and I had actually started applying for other jobs. None of them worked out, thankfully.

But with the economy in limbo, the already high cost of living in Maryland, everything getting more expensive by the day, I was right at the end of my financial rope. Especially since I maxed out my credit card at the Joann liquidation sales lolol. Funny but not funny, because if I hadn't - I wouldn't have been able to make it through the rollercoaster you're about to read.

I just did my taxes for 2025, and had a pretty surprising revelation.

Somehow, despite scrambling to find new suppliers, raising my prices because these new suppliers cost literally 3x more, and tariffs coming for the other materials...

my sales year-over-year from 2024 to 2025 were up 124%.

Yes, that's more than double! I couldn't believe it, either. 

Last year was so busy with markets and hunting down new suppliers, which amounted to a part-time job in itself, I didn't notice the growth as it was happening.

Here's how it went down:

So Joann liquidations started in April, and I scrambled to get as much flannel as I could from any store in a 50mi radius.

In the middle of this scavenger hunt, I joined a local shop called Locally Crafted in Gaithersburg, MD at the beginning of May.

I had done a few makers markets with them in the year since we moved to the area, and they invited me to be in their store! Working with them has been incredible and a valuable learning experience. Like seeing how customers respond to the products, how the packaging holds up in-store, what people are asking for, etc.

[My display at Locally Crafted the first month, with old style packaging.]

This actually really helped because a few months in, I changed my packaging for all of my sales channels, and now I get customers who assume I am a much bigger operation, because of how professional it looks. Still just me! (More on this later, too).

Up to this point in the year, most of my in-person markets weren't doing so well. I wanted to try them all, or as many as I could. All I got was a pulled chest wall muscle, a hernia, and some dismal sales reports. A few markets actually had a net loss for the first time ever.

June and July markets were unbearably hot, so I decided to take off all of August. I took that time to work on my Faire shop, which I had been accepted to for quite a while, I just kept putting it off in favor of markets. 

(Faire is basically like Etsy but for store owners to buy wholesale from small makers and businesses).

Through my career, I have heard all about how wholesale is the "bread and butter" for a lot of small businesses. I thought I could use some figurative bread and butter so I could afford literal bread and butter.

I had previously done wholesale for a handful of small shops, almost all of which knew me personally from one thing or another, but it wasn't substantial.

So in August 2025, I finally opened my Faire shop. I didn't know what to expect or if anyone would buy, and I really stressed about having stock.

I got FIVE sales in the first month. That's a minimum of $130 each, some were several times that amount.

It didn't stop, either. 

The sales from just August through December on Faire eclipsed my online sales for the same time period.

In addition to the wholesale being "bread and butter" - I knew I wanted a regular spot where locals could find me and repurchase NonPaper Towels and other things if they needed them. What better place than a farmers market??

In October 2025, I signed up for the weekly farmers, artists, and crafts market in Olney, MD. I set up there as often as I could from October to December, depending on weather and other markets, and it's been invaluable to connect with the community on a regular basis and meet folks who are just as passionate about sustainability.

Not to mention their "holiday market spectacular" where I made more sales in 3 hours than I did at most 5 or 6-hour markets elsewhere. I actually told myself beforehand if I made $1,000, I would buy a new tent - which I desperately needed to survive the next outdoor market. I made $1,049.51.

Then in November 2025, I joined a second local(ish) shop - a holiday pop-up in Annapolis hosted by Makers of Maryland. I wasn't sure, again, if I'd have enough stock - but I did it anyways, and ended up being one of the top three sellers!

The shop did so well in Nov-Dec, they've kept it open!

In December 2025, I attended my second Annapolis Holiday Market - an outdoor, 5-day event (one Saturday then the next Thurs-Sun). In 2024, I made so many sales with just a tiny setup, I decided it was worth freezing my tail off again, and I was right. 

During the first hour of the first day, I broke my record for most sales in an hour (20, previous best was 13), and by the second hour, I broke the record for most sales in a day in 2025, then by the end of the day, it was the best single day of my career. 

I sold out of Cotton Rounds and Spork Pouches, and all but a handful of Snack Bags. Which is funny because those are not ever my top sellers. I brought nearly every NonPaper Towel I had, and sold out of half of my featured display prints.

People recognized me/my products from Locally Crafted, which is over an hour away, and a lot also remembered me from last year's holiday market.

I did take about 3 days off after that!

Now it's 2026.

The train kept rolling. I thought January would be slow like usual, so I could take some time to reorganize my workshop and get some personal sewing projects done. Haha I thought.

I sold over $10,000 worth of inventory in December, that I obviously had to replenish. My website, Faire, and consignment shop inventories were all looking slim.

Thankfully, and I do mean THANKFULLY, this allowed me to place a large opening order with a new fabric supplier, and reorder some other supplies in bigger quantities for cheaper.

This meant lots of cutting and sewing, and rushing to get new products out on Faire for the Faire Market at the end of January (their semi-annual sales event). 

And at the beginning of February, I added a third local(ish) shop - the flagship Makers of Maryland store in White Marsh (north Baltimore).

What's next?

First on my list, reorganize my workshop so it's easier to navigate and access things I need for the business. (My workshop is literally the primary bedroom of our townhouse. It's big for a bedroom, but not for commercial sewing lol).

Hiring!

I was losing my marbles in January with all the sewing, and now it's time to delegate.

Not sure what that looks like, what roles, etc but I'm excited!

New and changing products!

As I mentioned at the top of the blog, I've started to clearance some older products. 

Last year I switched to entirely white threads, from the previous lilac purple. (I loved the purple because it was different, but sometimes, different is not worth the investment!) So anything left laying around with purple threads has got to go. 

The solid color products are getting cleared out as they don't quite sell as well as prints, so I'm replacing them with the new supplier, just in fewer colors and in different combinations.

The new NonPaper Towels are coming, they're made and just need to be photographed and listed. I want to add some 1-ply print Cloth Wipes too, which I only did before in solids. Those are coming a bit later because I cut all the material I had into NonPaper Towel size, so I'm slowly replenishing the material.

As well as more prints of the Snack Bags, I have 9 new prints on-hand that are also coming soon. The Snack Bags have sold SO well, pretty much everywhere I put them. 

Scrunchies are staying, though narrowing down less-popular prints and trying a few new ones. 

The Spork Pouches and Straw Pouches are probably going away, or at least narrowing them down to just a few different prints and re-working the construction. 

Soap Savers were another unexpected bestseller, so they're definitely staying in their current form.

Our county just completely banned plastic bags, so I'm considering some produce bags that may be exclusive to the farmers market, but I haven't had time to consider it much.

A huge THANK YOU!

Thank you for being here, supporting small businesses, trying to be a little more eco-friendly, and for reading this really long post.

I'm writing it instead of doing something else I really have to get done today, so I will leave it here.

Reminder - get you some solid Cloth Wipes or assorted solid NonPaper Towels for 20% off - the 1-ply Cloth Wipes are the BEST tissues - if your allergies are gonna act up soon, your nose will thank you for not using paper tissues.