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Post by krisinmi on May 23, 2020 19:49:43 GMT
For those of you who sew for others in terms of income rather than as a gift. . .
My dh was approached by a friend of his and asked what I would charge to 'make a quilt out of old clothes' for this person's grandson (age 6? I think). So of course now dh is asking me to come up with a dollar figure.
I of course asked a bunch of relevant quilt-planning questions to get an idea of the scope of this project: size, type of material, will the backing also be pieced from clothes, am I doing the disassembling of the clothes prior to cutting pieces, etc. . .
Waiting answers to my questions before I feel comfortable quoting a price. I'm wondering if I should quote based on a dollars per hour for the amount of time I figure the whole project will take, or if I should quote in sections like
--cutting clothes apart and ironing before cutting pieces
--cutting pieces
--sewing top together
--sewing backing together if it's also pieced
--shopping for and covering cost of backing and batting if they aren't providing those
--finishing the quilt (sandwich and tie or quilt and bind
That way if they want to save money by doing portions themselves; like disassembling the clothes and providing batting and backing, they have that option.
These people (and dh) really have no idea of the scope of a quilting project, but I'm not about to cheat myself on the time and labor involved when I have enough of my own projects to last me the rest of this year.
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Post by Woodpecker on May 23, 2020 21:56:28 GMT
There seems to be a lot of time involved...I’d get paid by the hour, but tell the person how much before you start. I’d inform them of all you list above so they know how much time goes into it.. Only reason being you’ve not done this before & you’re a pro...it will be beautiful.
Now someone else needs to come up with how much per hour? I’m sure someone who knows how to do this will give you a direct answer. I here of a lot of people doing this lately. I myself would love to have something like that, made with my daughters favorite clothes❤️
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Post by feather on May 23, 2020 22:30:03 GMT
Sometimes people charge 3 or 4 times the cost of materials but I'd go with materials and dollars/hour like woodpecker says. What is your time worth?
Let me give you an example. Mr feather was willing to work as a metal detectorist for $20/hour, after the job was done the land owner gave him $35/hour, and then when she called him back she gave him more like $50/hour because he worked hard and quickly. This was about property survey lines, which may cost $600 to $1000 to have it surveyed, so this was a cost savings. This was not a negotiated amount/hour, this was what the land owner deposited without speaking of it into a paypal acct. So it has much to do with whether you work hard and quickly and then add the cost of materials.
For sewing, start at $20/hour or more if you like, I'm sure that sounds outrageous, but if someone shows up at your door for you to sew for them, then don't sell yourself short.
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emsmom
Junior Member
Posts: 64 
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Post by emsmom on May 24, 2020 21:52:44 GMT
I agree with feather. I sew for a living. You should probably bill them at cost of materials plus what ever you want to make an hour for labor. The figure $20 a hour is reasonable. If this is an important item for them, they will pay it. If they are shopping for the cheapest worker they can find, you will regret working for a low amount. Quilting is a very skilled craft. Charge what you are worth. Good luck.
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Post by feather on May 24, 2020 22:42:51 GMT
I agree with feather. I sew for a living. You should probably bill them at cost of materials plus what ever you want to make an hour for labor. The figure $20 a hour is reasonable. If this is an important item for them, they will pay it. If they are shopping for the cheapest worker they can find, you will regret working for a low amount. Quilting is a very skilled craft. Charge what you are worth. Good luck. Thanks for agreeing but beyond that, there's a lady that bought a $3000 quilting machine, she is supporting herself and her husband with cancer, up the road, and her fees are higher and I certainly can understand why. Like farmchix quilting, it's an expensive endeavor, it's not a blanket, it's a quilt. If you are a teacher, ask USELESS, and there you are talking more per hour, a machinist, more per hour, a plumber, well as Tim says, "don't get me started", lol. |
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Post by Maura on May 25, 2020 3:46:49 GMT
I agree with $20 per hour, plus materials cost. People think they can get a quilt for $100 and you need to dispel that. I like the idea of writing down what you are contracting for so they can get an idea of what the cost will be. I think you should have some idea of how much time you will put into each section. I think you also need to know how big the quilt will be. For a six year old it should not be bigger than for a twin bed, and smaller if it is going to weigh more than a regular quilt.
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Post by krisinmi on Jul 10, 2020 23:52:33 GMT
Update, for those who might be wondering how this turned out.
I gave dh a list of questions I needed info on before I could give a firm quote and said the minimum charge would be $50, and price would be adjusted upward based on answers to the questions (of how much I would need to purchase in materials and how labor intensive it would be dismantling the used clothing they planned to provide.)
It's been about a month and a half, and we haven't heard a peep from them in regards to a quilt.
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Post by Woodpecker on Jul 11, 2020 13:29:18 GMT
Gee, if they thought the price was too high, they would have replied, right? So, you're holding off on any work until you hear from them...good!
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Post by Melissa on Jul 11, 2020 15:51:42 GMT
krisinmi, People don't realize the time involved... $50 is actually way too cheap even for a starting price!!!
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Post by Cabin Fever on Jul 11, 2020 16:02:59 GMT
My wife gets asked what price she'd charge for knitting an item all the time: sweaters, ponchos, mittens, scarves, etc. She'll usually say, the price of the yarn will be about $XX and my time will be about XX hours. How much do you want to pay me per hour?
For instance, someone asked how much for a bulky knit sweater. She said,"the wool would be eight skeins at $12/skein or about $100. My time would be about 100 hours. How much would you say my time is worth?" Now no one is going to suggest your time is worth only $1 or $2/hour. But even if they did, the sweater would cost $200 to $300, which no one is going to want to pay for one.
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Post by Tallpines on Jul 11, 2020 16:34:24 GMT
We always hire people by the hour!
That includes the 2 carpenters that built our entire house .... from the ground up!
The best thing about doing it that way, was that it gave me the opportunity to make changes as the project proceeded.
If a “change” required extra hours (or days) it did’t matter to the carpenters .... because they were being paid by the hour. Not the job.
Every one knew there would be adequate compensation for every hour of their time.
We paid them at the end of each week.
Every one was happy.
They have returned many times for additional projects.
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Post by mollymckee on Jul 11, 2020 16:46:43 GMT
I think friends or friends of friends and relatives expect you to say “I’ll be happy to do that for you. I won’t charge you, I’m always looking for something to do”. They really don’t have a clue how much time and money hand crafted things take. They think it’s cheaper to get something homemade. Not everyone, but enough people to be annoying.
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