We were lucky to catch up with Bella Mae’s Designs recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Bella Mae thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?
Technically, I started my costume sewing business at age 13… I know, crazy!
When I sewed my first costume, I was 13. My reason for sewing this costume was to start my online commission sewing business. Once the photoshoot was complete, the dress was listed on my Etsy shop and I was open for business!
For the next 2 years, I had a couple orders here and there; it was by no means a thriving business. But for a 13, 14, and 15 year old, it was a wonderful opportunity to learn, explore my creative side, and earn some income!
At age 15, the tides turned when I replicated my first Cinderella dress. That’s where my business took off and kept me busy while also finishing up high school. Several years later, in 2020, my 6th replica of the Cinderella dress would kickstart me into the world of being a YouTuber!
As for the question of starting my sewing business sooner or later in life, I sometimes wish I had waited to start my business till I was older, leaving more time enjoying my younger years…but on the flip side, I learned so much as I traversed those younger years of running my business, lessons I wouldn’t give up for the world! So honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing; I believe it was exactly what God wanted for that season!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The question “What do you do?” is asked. I reply; “I’m a seamstress Youtuber.”
A face of questioning, bewilderment, intrigue. and confusion follows…
“What does that mean? How does that work? You’re the only person I’ve ever met who had that as an answer!”
It always makes me laugh! It’s not a response I ever thought I’d have. I claimed the title of seamstress for many years, but the added “Youtuber” wasn’t a plan or even a desire. But it’s where I am now!
I started off my sewing career at age 13. Throughout my high school years, I did commission work for costumers around the world, sewing costumes from historical, to fantasy, to movie costume replica, to my original designs. With each project, an opportunity to learn and grow in my field was created.
But with several years of commission work, by the time I graduated high school, I was feeling very burnt out. I loved sewing but with the pressure of meeting customer expectations as well as my own perfectionistic expectations (I LOVE the detail work and designing; all of which I wasn’t fully able to incorporate into my commission work because of the high prices it would create…)
I got to the breaking point.
I either needed to quit sewing all together (and I did for a bit, doing a college class to enter the field of nursing) or I needed to do something different…
That’s where YouTube came into play! Having seen some other seamstresses find success in the YouTubing field, I knew it was an idea…an idea that might be worth pursuing. My brothers have been in videography for years and I’ve also dabbled in video creation at a young age; that part of it intrigued me.
So I made a decision; instead of spending thousands of dollars and hours upon hours attending college, I would pour myself completely into becoming a Youtuber.
I would spend those thousands of dollars investing in equipment and supplies to create costumes when no one was paying me to make those costumes. And I would pour my energy and time into learning more about videography, video editing, and content creation.
At the start of the new year, I would start full time posting on YouTube with weekly videos.
Welcome 2020…
Yes, my first full year of YouTubing turned out to be the year where everyone and their brother started YouTubing…but I had a head start. I was already in motion with a plan before that all hit. Honestly, this timing was more then perfect and I fully see it as a blessing from God for allowing me to make this decision to YouTube when I did!
Now, with 3 1/2 years of being a full time YouTuber under my belt, I have the incredible gift of being able to sew, design, and create whatever my mind imagines and then share it with 140k+ subscribers.
I’m able to take someone along the journey of sewing replica costumes, or historical projects, or fashion designs.
My style of videos range form vlogs, to tutorials, to occasional music videos. YouTubing is not without it’s stresses or deadlines, or negativity, but with it comes so much freedom of creativity and the ability to share the love of sewing with so many!
On top of posting YouTube videos, I also design and publish my own PDF sewing patterns for the various costumes pieces I’ve created, all of which can be found on my website and my Etsy shop!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
It all comes down to Cinderella! As corny as it sounds, this one particular dress has shaped my journey in so many ways!
At age 15, the live-action Cinderella premiered. As soon as I saw her ballgown, I knew I needed to replicate it. Within a few months, I did. After posting photos of my replica and listing it on Etsy, there was an incredible jump in my stats. More customers reached out for commissions and more followers joined my Instagram.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m a perfectionist and I love the details…even if it means hand placing 10,000 gems onto one of the Cinderella skirts, or spending hours hand-painting gold leaf onto my Belle dress replica. I will do whatever it takes to make something as accurate as possible and that’s what stood out when I posted about my Cinderella Dress.
But that wasn’t the end of Cinderella’s influence…
After making 4 other Cinderella ballgown replicas for customers, each taking anywhere from 100-200 hours to complete, I decided to make a 6th one with the sole purpose of sharing the process on YouTube to help kickstart my channel. And oh boy! Did it work! I’m now mainly known as the Cinderella girl…
No matter where I post videos of this dress, it does exponentially better than any of my other posts!
It’s all in the details! And I hold to that statement with every project!
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
When it comes to being a YouTuber, I don’t often think of sales. Or at least, didn’t. My first few years of posting videos was just that, posting videos about things I made, and then monetizing the video for YouTube to generate income.
But eventually I had an idea to create and release sewing patterns! I don’t use sewing patterns for most of my projects; I design my own. So this seemed like a great opportunity to not only generate some income, but also serve my viewers so they too can create the costumes I’m making.
What started out as what I considered a small revenue avenue, turned out to be nearly on par with YouTube monetization!
I’ve now also been able to monetize on TikTok which opened up another revenue source that I wasn’t expecting!
Overall, I’ve been so blessed to be able to diversify in many different areas while still focusing on the main thing; sewing and design!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bella-maes.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bellamaesdesigns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bellamaesdesigns/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/bellamaesdesigns
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bellamaesdesigns
Image Credits
Bella Mae’s Designs & Smile for Sophie Photography