The Sewing Place
The Emporia => Sewing Professionally => Topic started by: annieeg on May 15, 2020, 12:34:15 PM
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I've made my sister a few things FOC (she does pay the Postage) and recently sent her a tabard which she's very pleased with.
She wants another tabard and has offered to pay me, and TBH, I could use a few extra pennies as I'm now out of work and don't get my State Pension for another year.
It takes a reasonable amount of time, as the edges and neck are all bound with bias and there's a large pocket across the front which I section off into 4 parts. I think if I worked solidly I could cut, sew, and finish in about 3 hours.
What does anyone think would be a fair "mates rates" price to charge for time and materials ?
(Its going to be made up in thickish, good quality cotton fabric from my stash.)
Annie
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Always a tricky subject.. you definitely want to cover the cost of the fabric, what you charge on top of that is debatable. Have a look at what RTW would cost...
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Perhaps you could tell her how much the materials cost and how long it would take to make. Then ask her how much she thinks is reasonable to pay . It would give her an appreciation of what is involved and be less awkward than suggesting an amount.
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Hi, have you met me? I am OCD about all this crap. You can scroll to the end to get a really simple formula for charging, or read the OMG you're nuts version.
But: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8mkValuei0
Shows how to make a cost sheet for RTW, but principles can be applied to one offs.
A major problem I find is that the cost of material+labor+overhead=too high, especially using retail sources. And forgive the American prices, but all of these are resources anyone can use, they aren't my wholesale accounts.
So we are going to assume that for the same of argument, that you got the fabric from Fabric Wholesale Direct (so I can get a price on it) and $4.99 a yard is the price point. You need 2 yards. Now going to Wawak for the rest: bias tape is $1.40, need 2. Add in a little for a needle and thread (needles cost me about .10 each for a domestic) for a total of about .15. You said 3 hours labor, and you've made it before, so we can kick out the pattern cost, which leaves us with sewing, laundry and cutting. At $10 an hour, that's $30, plus laundering $1. I am leaving off the shipping here, because we probably won't need anything extra out of pocket to pay for, other then the actual cost of shipping.
Fabric=$10
Trim= $1.55
Labor=$31
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Total=42.55, round down so $42
At this point, you should multiply that by 1.8 or 2.2 for a "wholesale" cost, but it is already pretty high, and you're not in it to make money so much, or you can round it up to $50.
There are a few issues sewing professionally: you tend to take longer learning how to do things faster, so you tend to take a labor cut. So using the same formula and fabrics for my business I would get $26-30 as a cost, including my 1.8-2.2 mark up (about $4 for overhead). Main difference is that
a) I have a cutting table most don't have, so cutting is a matter of setting it down and I use a cutting knife for simple things, which makes a cut out less then 10 minutes.
b) I would make my own bias tape. I have tools to make the cutting of it down to mere minutes (it's a ruler, rotary all in one that does all my work once I find the grain) and I do this often enough I can make 10-12 meters/yards of it in about 15 minutes from cutting out to finished. (Yes, I make a lot of bias tape.) It does not add considerably to my labor.
c) I have binders that make the bias tape attachment go fast.
d) I can sew this in about half an hour, or should at industry standards, making my labor affordable. Same as the video spreading the labor costs in a way.
e) I use industrial machines.
So using tools, experience and repetition, I cut my labor down to 1 hour for it all, and honestly, it may take me more time, depending on what I am doing that day and what I got going on. This is the best case scenario.
Mostly, you don't want to be out of pocket for anything. When you aren't as OCD and I am, it can be simpler and you can charge 2 or 3 times the cost of materials to make it (in my scenario, it would be about $24 to $36).
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I would be too busy for now....
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Why dont you sell your quilts Imi ???
Is a question Im sometime asked ... Because unless you are seriously minted you would be aghast at the costs involved let alone the time taken...
Case in point; For my lovely friends and neighbours Luke and Lucy who got married last year after 20 odd years together I wanted to make them a quilt as a wedding present (https://photos.app.goo.gl/48y6XEYJzSrypU8w9) ... Yes it had to be double bedsized which would involve me making it in four quarters or taking it to a longarmer for £125+
Lucy came over and discussed what she wanted, style, colours etc and settled on soft Blues and greens ... not my colourways at all so I had to buy some of the fabrics ... After this meeting she added .. Oh and Of course We will give you a few pennies for fabric ... I insisted this was my gift as altho' I knew she wouldnt literally hand me a fiver in change I didnt think she would have any idea as to the true cost ...
I totalled it up as I went along and the materials alone cost
Add to that the time taken for the quilting ... each quarter took me 9 hours to quilt with the top two quarters taking longer because of the faceted hearts, say an extra hour or so each ... and without the time taken for cutting and piecing which I didnt log the quilt would have cost
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I won’t take on sewing jobs for other people unless I love them enough to do it for nothing.
If you charged a fair rate very few people would pay it, as people don’t normally realise the work involved. I understand your sister doesn’t want to ask you to make something for nothing but can’t you think of a trade off rather than a cash price.
Mind you I do have a dear friend who asked me to shorten some curtains, a job I hate. It didn’t take me long and she rocked up with a litre bottle of Gordon’s so everybody was happy.
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Where I worked in the sewing shop my boss was a quilter. She used to make for the fun of it and leave quilts lying around in the shop to showcase the fabrics and the courses. She was often asked if they were for sale. No they weren’t. She did offer one or two people the opportunity and quoted a reasonable price in 3 figures. No where near what they cost in fabric alone. Their response was to laugh because 'you could buy something cheaper in a shop'. Can you guess what the response was?
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Never fails. People do not realise the cost of everything required to make a garment.
I've made two simple shift dresses - no fitting required - for the OH's SIL, and before I started I made her aware of the cost of fabric, then agreed an hourly rate of £5 and I gave her an idea of roughly how many hours it would take me. She was happy on both occasions and gave me a little more cash, with a wave of the hand. Thank you very much ;)
About five weeks ago the neighbour who's back garden runs crosswise to ours asked if I could make some cushion covers for his 'lads' at work. They had some large bench cushions and he would get me the flame retardant fabric to make them from. No mention of cash but I've not heard anymore about it. I can only assume that he's discovered how much it would cost for the fabric and had second thoughts... :S
My suggestion is to let her know how much the fabric and gubbins cost and gauge her reaction. Bearing in mind good quality cotton is about £8 pm?!
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Cost of the materials and three hours of your time at minimum wage.
If you do it for any less then make her promise not to tell anyone what you charged or else you will have other people wanting a bespoke item at knock down rates.
You could offer her one in lieu of her next birthday or Christmas present.
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Really appreciate all the replies. I think I'm going to suggest £15 plus the cost of postage. If she thinks it's too much (bearing in mind I've already made one FOC and 2 xface masks) over the past couple of weeks she won't ask me again.
When I go to stay with her there's usually a sewing task or two reserved for me to while I'm there which I do to say "thank you for your hospitality" . So I consider that I have been generous with my time in the past.
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This is one of my huge pet peeves with my family: sewing tasks when I visit. Not going into the rest of the crap my family pulls in general, I once had a prom dress waiting for me to add a corset back, alter, hem and fix over a weekend I was there. (It would have taken me most of the weekend.) There was no actual hospitality involved; I stayed in a hotel and went out to eat.
The reply? Well, you do it for a living, so it should be pretty easy. Besides, you don't like the outdoors, so it's no big deal. (I do indeed like the outdoors, actually.)
I don't mind my mother in law (her son paid a lot of money for me to do this, and is right now keeping me from closing down permanently), or even my DH's niece who needed some for her formal, and very likely will ask again. They live a few miles from my shop and will come in. And I offer to do it, but waiting for me? Sets mah teef on edge. My in-laws come in when I am open, not on vacation!
But it is nice you do it @annieeg. You are a far better woman then I am.
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@Kwaaked
Usually I was relaxed and willing to do the jobs but the last time my BIL approached me about altering a suit :faints:
I said it was beyond my skill level so my sister and I took it into a tailors for a quote which came to 3 figures. I think it served as an awareness of what alterations cost!
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@Kwaaked
Usually I was relaxed and willing to do the jobs but the last time my BIL approached me about altering a suit :faints:
I said it was beyond my skill level so my sister and I took it into a tailors for a quote which came to 3 figures. I think it served as an awareness of what alterations cost!
:o :o :o :o 3 figures as in £££? I'm in the wrong line of work. :S
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Altering a tailored garment takes skill, and time. Both add up to ££ and you can be sure that the bit that needed altering would have been one of the first parts to be constructed so would need the most unpicking. I'm not surprised it was a three figure sum.
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I don't generally do alterations for people and if I do, it means I like you an awful lot and you are probably inner sanctum in my hierarchy of friends! I altered a (designer) dress last year for a friend, including shortening the bodice (she is short between shoulder and bust), which mean altering the sleeves and neckline, taking the back in (where the zip was) and shortening the skirt. It was probably just over a day's work (couture techniques and lots of handsewing inc) and I timidly charged her £75 and felt that was a lot, but she felt I hadn't charged enough! Still, it gave me the money for an evening out (so win-win) and it was quite therapeutic doing the hand-sewing (once I'd got over the fear of hacking into a designer dress!)
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I was going to suggest double that amount @annieeg for labour costs . As @Goth Gardiner suggest 3 hrs at min wage plus materials sounds fair. Maybe her awareness of your current employment situation has prompted her to be a bit more generous of late.
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Not sure if I mentioned this before, but an old friend asked me to take up a very flared dress by about 5" last year made of polyester jersey (horrible fabric :x).
I had to measure all the way round the very circular hem, cut it and then hem it on the overlocker. Proabably a good 2.5 hours work.
When I took it back, she asked me how much - I said £8.00 (which was cheap bearing in mind the time/work) - she then said she had thought to pay me £6!!!!
I told her if she thought it was only worth £6, then that was fine.
She thought about it a bit more and then agreed £8.
I won't do any alterations for her in future....
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I won't do it anymore. I have been asked to shorten enormous curtains that were seriously poor quality from Dunelm - she said she would give me a tenner - and got quite a strop on when I said no. The worst job I ever did ( I used to mend horse rugs) was by a horsey lady who had a very old bomber jacket (fit for the bin) which she wanted the zip replacing. However, she wanted me to use a zip that she had found - it was 3" too short - I explained the difficulty, but she still wanted it done. It took me about 90 mins to unpick the zip, then ages to try and put a too short zip in. I didnt make too bad a job of it, but she refused to pay me £12 that I charged her as 'the jacket wasn't worth it'. That was the last time I sewed for money, and packed the horse rug repair in as well! People just dont want to pay - nowadays i say 'well, perhaps you could try to do it?". Grrr
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Compare to what I charge: $12-20 for a dress hem up to 25" and $25-35 over that (depending on if machine, machine blind hemmed, cover stitched or hand and zippers are $35-50 and I provide the zipper. I am also not even the most expensive one in my area.
Suits are a lot like bridal gowns...lots of precision work and special requirements. Not surprised it was three figures.
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@KayK you've reminded me of the time a couple of years ago the NDN asked if I could make curtains. Her eldest daughter and husband had just moved into their own house and were struggling to find any they liked.
"Well, they did see some but they were £90 and that's more than they want to pay. "
I politely pointed out that I probably wouldn't be able to make them any cheaper. Inside I was screaming :facepalm:
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Everyone, you need to value yourselves and your time more.
Come on @Manuela , tell us what you told the woman who wanted you to make her a dress...
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A friend's daughter asked me if I could replace the zip in her husband's trousers. I referred her to the dry cleaner. 'they want £15' I suggested it would be more cost effective to buy a new pair. 'well they're good quality, expensive trousers'. So £15 is cheap then. I don't expect to be asked again.
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Sets mah teef on edge.
love this :D
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Years ago, I used to work for a Dry Cleaners in town.
An elderly man used to drive between the local branches, dropping work off/collecting work etc. One day he came over to me and handed me a dress to shorten for a lady who worked at a different branch and asked if I'd shorten it for her.
I didn't know her. She could have left it at her own branch to go through the system ( and would have received a staff discount) but she especially wanted me to alter it for her because she knew my work was nicely done.
It was a jersey dress, so I didn't dare sew it on the industrial machine at work. It was a vile machine which I never got to grips with, so I took the dress home. I wasn't working from home at this time, and I hadn't got any ballpoint machine needles so I had to buy some. They cost me 95p 0_0.
Altered it. Took it back to work and it got back to the lady.
Next time the old chap came to the shop he smiled and said how pleased she was with the dress and handed me a £1 coin from her. ><
On another occasion, he got me to alter some trousers for him and I got a couple of packets of sweeties for doing that.
The final straw was when he started talking about some old red velvet curtains :S which needed shortening? or narrowing down or something. He asked if he could drop them off for me to do and I said I would, but I jumped in first and told him how much I'd be charging for it, which wasn't much, but I couldn't allow him to pay me a couple of quid, or literally, peanuts.
He looked offended.
I didn't, and still don't care. :P He never mentioned them again.
Fine by me. :)
He, his wife and sister-in-law all worked for this company. They knew exactly how much alterations cost.
Sandra.
xxx
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The trouble is when you do anything from home for other people they still have the mindset you do it for "pinmoney". That's why I won't do it for anyone now, not even family.
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We seem to have developed a weird barter system here. If you fix my trousers I'll tidy your garage. It works very well. The last swap before lockdown was fix my fence and I'll help your mum plant up her herbaceous border. 0_0
There's a lot of 'I'll take that tree down if I can have the bits'. That's the most popular. :)
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Annieg,
my general approach to life is care, share and be kind whenever you can so this is my take on the situation.
It's your sister who has asked and perhaps you could explain you don't know what to charge so ask her what she'd be prepared to pay for something of similar quality if she bought it ready made. That was you can enjoy making something for her and neither feels that anyone has taken advantage.