The Sewing Place
The Emporia => Sewing Professionally => Topic started by: Tinkyandi on November 17, 2020, 20:51:46 PM
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I am curious ... how long does it take you all to take up a pair of jeans?
What do you charge (you don't have to answer this)?
What is your reasoning for your price?
I'll answer as well after a few folk have. It's not a competition, I'm just curious. xxx
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About 20 minutes...I don’t charge because I refuse to do alterations... :laughing:
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Jean hem? About 15 minutes.
Cost? 10 for new hem, 12 for existing hem and 15 for work jeans...there is a brand in use here that requires a special machine that the needles are a lot more expensive for and special thread I have to buy from the brand.
Reasoning? Retail math. It covers my overhead, cost of supplies and my hourly wage.
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That's dollars as Kwaaked is in the USA
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About 30 mins. 10 of those measuring, remeasuring & pressing. I don't charge because I'll only do it for immediate family.
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Yeah, I am in the US, but I think I'd still be 10 and 12 even in Euro or pound. Easy enough to figure.
Do you have taxes on alterations in the UK?
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I don't take up trousers or jeans, probably never have. We are all tall and find it increasingly difficult to buy jeans and trousers that are long enough, DD, 6'2" wears 37" inseam for instance so RTW trousers needing taking up are very rare indeed.
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To answer my own questions ...
Takes me 10 mins for a straight forward cut and re-hem and maybe 15 mins for those awkward 'take them up half an inch' jobs.
I charge £5 (don't shoot me yet, lol)
My reasoning is ... jeans and trousers are my bread and butter jobs, and I can be on a good hourly wage just doing them. So it helps me keep my costs down on other jobs. It keeps my customers coming back time and again. They usually come the second time around with about 5 pairs to do at once lol.
I don't need to advertise and most of the time I'm too scared to as I get bogged down with work. All my custom is word of mouth usually. I have even taken on a couple of ladies to help keep things flowing. They get paid what I charge the customer and pay rent instead. Seems to work.
I do have a terrible habit of not being able to say no to a job though.
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If I was to take jeans to someone to be shortened I would think that £5 was a very fair price for a good job. :thumbsup:
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I don't know where you're based @Tinkyandi but I think it would be at least £15 round here.
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Shortened - plain from £15
Shortened - turn ups from £20
Not me,my niece. <3
To be honest £5 is too cheap, in my opinion, especially for a good job.
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@Tinkyandi far too cheap. Although it used to take me about 20 mins, i could spend 10 mins unpicking original hem and tacking new one up. I always used to tack as they are sewn from the right side i needed to make sure i had every thing tucked in. I charged £8, apart from the chap who spent £350 on his jeans and then i charged him £15 (my reckoning was that he could afford it).
Bear in mind it is 5 years since i stopped "sewing for others" so would probably charge more now.
It may seem like a good hourly rate but take into consideration the wear and tear on your machine, cost of running your business, even if you are based at home you are still paying for electricity and heating, insurance, both public liability and your house insurance plus increase in Council Tax if your business is home based and paying for supplies including postage cost and your profit soon dwindles.
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I haven't done any alterations for about 10 years but I used to charge £8 for jeans and £15+ for an invisible hem on skirts and trousers depending on how wide the trouser legs and skirts were.