needing to sew i'm sorry

i made my first big etsy gaffe.

247 sales since i first opened (and a few dozen orders off etsy through email and friends) and i have never made a HUGE mistake.

once, there was a factory-torn little hole in some of the fabric i use for my scarves, that i didnt catch and the customer informed me of (she wouldnt let me fix it for her and said it was no big deal but to maybe check the rest of my material in case more had the same little rip...she ws a dream customer!). and then once a lady special ordered a boppy cover and wanted to use home decor fabric (heavy/thicker) instead of the quilting cotton i always use and because of the different fabric it was too small for her pillow (though it fit mine fine), so she sent it back in and i retailored it. those were painful and i worked hard to make sure my customers ended up happy, but it wasnt too bad since they werent errors within my control.

but last week i really goofed. it made me so bitter because it was so stupid and avoidable and because of the timing.

two different customers ordered boppy covers. one was in texas and one in miami. they were both for their own babies and were due any day. aka, these were very pregnant ladies.

well i finished up the orders, printed out my shipping labels, slapped them one the packages and sent them off, glad that they would arrive in time for the florida mama's induction on wednesday.

well, i got a message on monday (2 days before her delivery) that she had received a boppy cover, but it was the wrong fabrics.

i had mixed up the shipping labels! such a stupid bonehead error that could have so easily been avoided.

i had to get in touch with the other mama, tell her that she was about to receive the wrong boppy cover, send them both paypal money to cover reshipping and ask them (9 months pregnant, both of them, remember!) to go back to the post office and ship them to each other.

i normally would have been more professional and had them ship the covers back to me (more expensive for me to pay to ship them 3 times, but more classy) but time was of the essence since these mommies had ordered the covers to be there when the babies were born.

i died a little inside since i know that a trip to the post office at 9 months pregnant in may is the equivalent of a non-gravid doing a pentathlon in a sumo suit on the equator at high noon. but i knew they would want to shave the extra 3 days off the shipping speeds.

luckily they were both willing and super speedy and got the right covers shipped to the right states in record time. the texas mommy-to-be was still waiting for labor to start when her correct cover got to her, but the florida mama had her baby on wednesday, and the boppy cover wasnt at her house until thursday (i am praying a relative went by and picked it up then took it to her in the hospital). i am SO sad that it wasnt there for the first feedings and so mad at myself for incoveniencing these pregnant ladies for such a careless error.

so i endeavor to make it right. obviously i paid for their postage to ship the boppies to each other, but i am also sending them each some goodies in the same fabrics that they picked for their covers. hopefully this will make them fully satisfied and not earn me my first ever negative feedbacks!

i wanted to make a few new things, that i dont already have in my shop, and i settled on a three-pack for each mom:

paci clip, burpie, and door silencer

i saw this idea on pinterest and thought it was brilliant and so easy to do myself

it's just two squares of fabric, some batting, and coordinating hair elastics and, blammo, you have an awesome little contraption that keeps doors from slamming and hardware from clicking when you're trying to sneak into or out of your kids room like a clumsy cat burglar (it does not, however, solve the problem of joints that pop like an arthritic octogenarian and wake up your kids. youre on your own there. and by you i mean me. damn loud-mouthed cartilage!)

there is one known fact in the universe (or maybe it's just our house...i'm pretty self-centered, so its all the same): we either have 854 pacis that are sprinkled EVERYWHERE i go; under my feet tripping me into head injuries, under my butt on the couch causing strange sensations that confuse and terrify me, under my pillow in the place reserved for my pepper spray (for when jesse is out of town).

and then just when i cant take this overflowing tsunami of comfort objects...they ALL disappear and she is crying and i am trying to wash dishes, complete a work project, make out with jesse AND drive the car all at once and i just need her to STOP CRYING FOR FIVE SECONDS before my eyelashes fall out from the stress, but all the pacis have just all defied environmental sciences and the the laws of plastics and spontaneously biodegraded, leaving nothing but carpet stains and mystery odors (that HAS to be where they all come from, right?).

so uh-doy, why have i never made her one (or sixty-five) of these before?!?!

i made one for each of my customers and 50 for me. not really, but it's on the agenda. i just made one, and it has already changed our lives.

the paci-obsessed snuggle-monkey APPROVES!!!

here's hoping my olive branch of sewedness makes my newly non-pregnant mommies happy and leaves them satified with their putapuredukes etsy experience. i might be a pleaser, and it AWFUL!