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Welcome to the Designers Plants & Coffee Podcast, where we discuss how to succeed as a designer

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while staying true to yourself, finding peace in the process, and making money doing what we love.

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Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Today, we have upcycling expert, DC native, Sheree is the owner and creator of Shredded Blues.

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Welcome to the show, Sheree. Hello, everybody. Hi.

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So I think I want to start out with the most obvious question to ask you.

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How'd you get the name Shredded Blues? Oh, okay.

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So one day, me and my daughter was trying to find a name for my business.

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Of course, she came up.

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She said she came up with the whole thing, and I owe her 10% when I make it. Okay.

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And is it a meaning behind it?

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Or she just was like, that sounds cool.

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I'm always shredding up denim, just taking it apart, putting it back together.

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So she called it Shredded Blues and everything. Denim is blue.

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So how did you get started with upcycling?

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Upcycling came about when I wanted a denim bag and I couldn't find one.

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So I had some old pair of jeans and I just took them and I cut them up and I just started putting

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stuff on them and I made a bag.

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So along the way, I added more stuff to the bag and I just started creating that bag.

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And everywhere I went, somebody wanted that bag and I didn't think nothing of it.

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I was like, okay, I can make you one, but I never did.

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I was procrastinating, but now everybody was like, I want one of those bags.

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So where do you sell your bags?

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Well, I'm trying to sell my bags on Instagram, but I'm looking into getting a website.

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Looking to Etsy, but that didn't work for me, but I'm trying to.

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And also I did a pop-up all night, which is coming up this year.

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So I decided to do that again to see where that go from networking.

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So how do you find the material for your bags?

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I mean, I know you have old jeans, but I mean, it's only so many jeans you can get. So you go thrifting.

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How do you get your materials? Yes. I love thrifting.

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The thrift store is my friend, or I get people to donate their denim.

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Like my girls, when they donate their denim or whatever, I just take it and keep it.

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I'll cut it up or I'll go thrifting because it's cheaper at the thrift and then you can use sustainable fashion.

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So all my bags are made with sustainable fashion. Denim is the way.

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So denim, denim, I've seen your bags.

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Where do you get the idea for the different styles of bags?

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Do you just come up with them?

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And do you also name your bags?

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Well, I haven't started naming my bags, but the ideas just pop in my head as I go along.

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Because when I started doing the bags for the pop-up last year, the ideas was just popping up

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as I was making the bags.

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So I came up with a lot of different styles.

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I mean, I can show y'all some.

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This one is the latest one I created.

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It's a small one because some people like small bags, but I like big bags.

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I do because I can throw everything in it.

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These small bags, I was like, nope, I feel lost with small bags.

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I got to put everything in the bag.

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So I did create this one, a little small one.

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It's like a nap bag.

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And I put a little flower.

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The flowers are my signature.

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I cut all the petals and then I sew them all together.

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And then I put them together.

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So how long does it take you to make like one bag?

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Like that bag that you just showed us?

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This bag, this take me about six hours.

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And how much would you charge for that bag?

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This one, I started off with $50 for this one. Because it's small.

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Oh, also I forgot to say, I did this embroidery by hand.

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I do want my bags to have embroidery name tag, but I did this by hand.

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And this takes a while. Yeah, that's a lot.

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And I'm surprised that it's only 50 bucks.

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I was getting ready to say, we need to talk about that price.

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You need to raise the price.

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Between the hand cut flowers, the hand embroidery, all of that. Yeah.

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Y'all have to help me with the prices because when I, oh, it seemed like I overpriced my bags

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and people say that's too much.

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And then I underpriced it. That's too little. So.

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So what I would say is the way that you market your bags is probably going to be better if you

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say handmade, because when you start hand doing the petals, hand doing the embroidery, and it

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takes you six hours to make the bag, you put that in your marketing so that you can raise the price.

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I'm surprised that Etsy didn't work because Etsy, that's what that is.

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It's supposed to be like a handmade type thing.

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Actually, that's what Etsy used to be.

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Etsy is very different now.

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So, I mean, that you can put that into your marketing when you do get to the point of building

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your website and doing that, that's what you need to put in there and you can charge a lot more

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because I mean, your time is worth a lot. It's the details.

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And I will tell you as a bag maker, the smaller the bag, the more work goes in.

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I always find that with the smaller pieces, it takes me so much longer to do them.

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Another thing that we're all recently working on that might work for you is to show a little

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bit of behind the scenes.

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You know, like when you're cutting out those petals or when you're sitting there and stitching

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your, just take a quick 10 second video and start just putting snippets out since Instagram

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is your platform where you sell.

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Put those details on Instagram because people have to see it to recognize the value.

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Because if you just say, oh, I take old jeans and make them into bags, they'd be like, well,

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I'm paying for somebody else's old jeans.

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And I'm cutting 150 rose petals and I'm taking some silk thread and I'm embroidering my logo on it.

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That's the stuff actually you should, you should show.

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Just get like a little small tripod, put your phone to it and just do like a time-lapse.

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You know, you don't have to say anything.

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You don't have to explain yourself.

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All you have to do is show the process that you're doing and just speed the whole thing up and make it a clip.

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Don't give away your entire process. Leave out some, yeah.

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Like the petals because, and especially because the flower is your signature thing for your

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bag, you should really do that for every bag. So show your process.

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Three seconds of you cutting something out, two seconds of you going up and down with your needle and thread.

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You know, they want to see it to believe that somebody actually does this with their hands. Yeah.

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And that commands a higher price. Yes.

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And also if you were to do the, name a few of them, maybe one of a kind, like only have like

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the one that you're selling and the, and like the one that you're keeping and say like, this

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is the one of a kind.

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Yes, I can do that.

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I'm going to try to branch out more. I've been trying.

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So, I mean, since this was kind of like, you know, a coaching, do you have any questions for us? Yes.

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Like, like I said, the pricing, I do need help with that because I don't know.

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Some people, they come and look at my bag.

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They were like, oh, these are so, so unique, but then they look at the price tag and like, nevermind.

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So why don't we, why don't we put that challenge to our audience?

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Sheree, we're going to get a really good picture of your small bag and you're going to give

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us a little bit of your behind the scenes and we're going to put it to our audience and ask

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them, how much would they pay for that bag? Okay. That will be good.

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Like the big bag, like I can show y'all one of the big bags, this one, but this is one I did.

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They don't understand this takes work and that's the bag with the embroidery on it.

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So what's the price on that one?

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I said four, but somebody said it was too much.

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No, you have to show behind the scenes for each bag.

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So people understand the work that goes into it.

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I mean, I do a lot of work.

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Maybe that's why I probably don't have a lot of products because it takes work. It takes time.

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I be trying to recruit my children, but they be like, I don't know how to do none of that.

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So I see there's clothing behind you.

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Do you also do clothing and garments besides the bags? Yes. For myself. Yes, I do.

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I wanted to do clothing for other people, but then, you know, grown folks kind of difficult.

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So I'll make some for teens, but older people, I just make it for myself.

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This means so much to me that y'all even thought about me.

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Oh, we love to have, listen, we love to have anyone that is creating and doing their own business.

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We love to support people doing their own thing because it's hard. It's hard, you know?

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So it was just like, yeah, it was hard.

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So anyone doing something positive and creative and stuff is good, you know?

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Of course you want to share it, yeah. Thank you. Thank y'all.

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There's enough to go around.

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So is there anything else you want to share with our audience? Any words of encouragement?

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I know when I was reading your bio, you had a little quote in there, which your ultimate goal is.

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Do you want to share that?

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The ultimate goal is to get people to buy sustainable fashion.

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Also, I would like to see sustainable fashion in a department store, a major department store. I really would.

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Because that was my goal when I first started creating bags.

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I was like, oh, I wonder if I can get inside of Macy's or Nordstrom's.

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I would love to see that.

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And I want to ask, I see your earrings. Did you make those? Oh, yes. I made this.

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I'm going to give you another piece of advice.

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Things like the earrings and the smaller pieces, like earrings, maybe hair things, stuff like that.

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That's going to be where you make your money.

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Because it doesn't take as long.

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That's going to be where you make your money. So you got what?

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A couple of weeks before art all night? Make earrings.

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Have those earrings out there, because that is what is going to draw people in.

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And once they start to buy and wear those smaller pieces, it's going to bring your people who

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want to invest in those bigger pieces.

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Because quite honestly, I never wanted to make jewelry.

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But when I started wrapping these earrings, they became my bread and butter. Okay. That's all for now.

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I'm Ziya from Region Design Lab, along with Letitia from Keeping You in Stitches, Naima from

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Fearless Thread, and our guest today, Sharae from Shredded Blues. See you next time.