Many crafters are told that items are too expensive and they can be purchased for less at the local market or in the supermarket. Most of the time this is true, and it is also true that often the reason for this cheaper sell price is because of the following:
- Mass produced in countries such as China or India who employ underpaid workers.
- Poor Quality materials.
On occasion you will even find that crafter’s will be selling their handmade products at a cheaper price and the reasons are usually one of the below:
- It is a hobby and they are trying just to cover material costs thus not paying themselves.
- They received materials for free as part of a donation or in return for publicity… established quilt designers will often get this when making quilts for magazines which they then sell.
- Just trying to generate income and pricing reflects similar items on their selling platform.
I have been asked several times over the last few weeks about how much I would sell a similar quilt to the Tula Churn Dash that I made for my bed, So I thought I would give you a run down regarding costs for a handmade item using my quilt as the example.
Materials
- Fabric – As from my previous post I had to purchase 19 metres of fabric at £16 per metre. £304
- Backing – I purchased 3m of 108″ wide fabric which cost £27 per metre. £81
- Binding- This was made from scraps of materials used in the top so for this quilt I was able to generate the 360 inches of 2.5 inch binding from those. £0. If I had purchased this separately it would have used 1 metre of fabric at £16.
- Notions- The size and complexity of the quilt will determine how much notions are used. Since this is a large quilt I will asume, for purpose of example, that I used 1 machine needle (£1), 1 rotary blade (£3), and 1 reel of cotton (£9).
- Wadding- I purchased this from Cathy who did the Longarming for me on this quilt. She charged me for 2.51 metres at £11.46 per metre. £28.78
- Total for materials is £426.78
Quilting
I outsourced the quilting due to the quilt being so big. Cath quotes per inch of the quilt but for clarity my invoice charges £23.75 per hour and Cath spent 5 hours and 20 minutes which came to a complete cost of £126.59. This includes all Cath’s time, materials and cost for running her long arm machine and business. I then had to pay £13.96 for the courier to deliver my quilt back to me on a 48 hour service.
Total cost for the quilting service is £140.55
Production Time
Making the quilt top took me a total of about 15 hours. Let us assume that I am happy to work for minimum wage which in the UK currently stands at £8.72 per hour. £131.80. Then I spent a further 5 hours squaring and binding the quilt after I received it back from Cath, which again we will assume minimum wage. £43.6.
Therefore paying myself minimum wage I would charge £175.4.
Total Cost to Make
Our total cost to make this quilt is now £742.73
And this doesn’t include the fact that I should be charging more than minimum wage or include any profit!
Did you know that many companies who purchased mass produced items in Asia to then sell on use the rule of Recommended Retail Price is equivalent to 5 times the cost to manufacture the product. (This reduces as more people are involved in the supply chain, the size of the business and their ability to pay for mass quantities etc. So think the likes of Amazon, Lego, large Fashion retailers etc). Using this logic I should be charging £3713.65 for this very simple, though large, quilt.
So during this holiday season please think about what it is you are paying for. Good quality materials are not cheap. A crafter deserves more than minimum wage for the skill involved in creating the product for you to by. Often these product are handcrafted to your specification and thus one of a kind.
However, for the little extra expense you are providing so much more:
- the money is staying in the local economy for longer
- you can meet and talk to the creator directly
- customer service is personal
- product is likely one of a kind
- your money goes directly to the person who made the product rather than dwindling through the supply chain.
- Home business creators are likely to support other small businesses to buy materials
I hope you found this interesting and what surprised you most about the costs?
See you on Thursday
Faerydae Stitches 