This morning I caught a post on a quilting Facebook feed… a member posted a picture of a delightful baby quilt and asked what she should charge the neighbor that just asked to buy it from her. She mentioned that the quilt was made from a panel with pieced borders, and that the quilting was done in threads to match the fabric colors (oh, the thread changes!). She mentioned she was thinking $85. A fellow poster thought $100 was better. Another said it depends on the closeness of the friendship.
First of all… I’m not naming names here because I don’t want this person to feel pilloried – far from it, I absolutely appreciate her question and have one heck of an opinion about how it should be answered… a rather, ahem, shall we say passionate opinion – you are warned! Her question, which I hear dozens of times a year, is absolutely legitimate. How does one price a handmade piece of work?
And to note – there is a difference between what it’s WORTH, and what you can ACTUALLY GET for it. So keep that in mind and I’ll address this difference at the end after I show you how I calculate the WORTH part of it:
1. Determine the cost of the goods involved. Fabric is averaging $12 a yard, and even if you bought the fabric years ago, it will still cost you $12 (plus sales tax) a yard to replenish what you used. Same goes for if it came out of your scraps. You still bought the original yardage that the scraps came from… they didn’t give you a 25% discount assuming that a quarter of it would head to your scrap basket! If you got it on sale, wonderful! The savings are for YOU. You hunted it down. And it’s probably the only “freebie” your going get out of this process so take it and run.
2. If you don’t want to count out the yardage of all the little pieces, instead calculate the total area of the quilt top (let’s say it’s 48″ x 60 for a generous lap quilt), and then multiply it by 3 for a simple quilt, and 4 or more for a more complex one – then divide it by 1440, the area of a yard of 40″ fabric. Why these numbers? The fabric it takes to make the top of a simple quilt is about double the surface area because of all the fabric lurking in the seam allowances – and don’t forget the binding! The other “one” is the backing. And use 5 if you paper pieced most of it (because there are way more seams and you have to cut bigger for paper piecing). So for this simple lap quit: 48 x 60 = 2880, 2880 x 3 = 8640, and 8640 / 1440 = 6. So 6 yards at $12 a yard is $72 for materials.
3. Do you wash and iron your fabric before you use it? Add 25% for the time and water and electricity and wear and tear on your (probably expensive) iron and your Netflix subscription for the movies you watch while you iron. Ladies… it’s 2012 and in 2012 we do not iron for free.
4. What did the batting cost? The thread? The embellishments? Add those in. Yes, the thread – because you have to replenish it! And you are probably using a lovely, high quality, long staple cotton goody that can’t be had on sale at the big chain store so yes, you must charge for your thread. And note that there are other consumable products that you could charge for here: machine needles, blades, template plastic, fusible web, etc.
5. Now we get to TIME. How long did it take? Not just the cutting, pressing, sewing, but the “sits and thinks” part of the equation. The pondering, plotting, and extra trips to the store for one more FQ of the perfect print for that corner. The stitching of the binding. The label. All of that. I’m going to, for the sake of easy numbers, say my simple lap quilt took 15 hours – in other words, about a day to choose, cut and piece (assuming all the materials were already in my studio), and another day to layer, quilt and bind. Yes, the binding you do in front of the telly at night is still hours spent on the piece.
6. How much do you think your hourly rate should be? $10? $20? $30? You are certainly worth more than minimum wage. You are a skilled craftsperson. In my case, I’ve been quilting for 25 years and sewing for 43. This is not an insignificant statement. If you hire that depth of skill to lay tile in your house or make cabinets for your kitchen, it will cost you more than $20 an hour. My years of skill ensures the quilt is well constructed, made of quality materials (chosen with a discerning eye and years of practice), and executed with knowledge and a passion for the artistry and craft. This is WORTH a lot. So I’m going to go with $20 an hour for my simple quilt (I would go up for something more complex, and add even more if it was a commission for a pain-in-the-patootie client). Thus – $300 for my labor, and I’m rounding up to $100 for my materials (high quality cotton batting, threads from Aurifil and Isacord, etc). So my lovely little lap quilt is $400.
WORTH vs. What you can get
And I hear you laughing. No one’s gonna give you $400 for that, you say. And you are probably right. But here’s the thing… the fact that society has poo-poohed our grandmas’ prowess with a needle while celebrating their husbands’ prowess with a plow is a sad history that we need to rectify. “Women’s work” has been terribly devalued. And ONLY WE CAN CHANGE THIS. It is up to us to educate the public that what we do has WORTH. And we have to do this with confidence. We have to OWN IT.
So the way I tackle this is to state the gist of my calculations to the person that offers me a department store sale price for my work. I state the price, and then I educate them on what it takes to make a good quilt. The fabric quality. The time. The years I’ve spent honing my craft. I point out that I don’t work for minimum wage as this is much harder than “do you want fries with that?” Then I re-state the price. I own it.
Most of the time they don’t buy, but that’s OK (and if I absolutely want them to have the quilt I give it to them for free). I won’t sell it for less because I feel so very strongly that to sell low is to continue the myth that our work has little value. Either I get what I’m worth or it’s a precious gift. I’m taking a stand for the team, OUR TEAM. Every time we let hours of work out of the house for $5 an hour and free materials without the educational part of the discussion we are letting down the team.
I truly get that our original poster might only be able to squeak $100 out of this sale. And that she might have to put aside any philosophical stands to get her hands on that $100 to shore up the grocery budget (and I have absolutely done this when I needed to). But I really hope she adds the “lesson” to her invoice when she picks up the check!
I totally enjoyed your post. One time my sister told someone that “I” could probably make a baby quilt for her to give as a gift for $25.00. I about fainted when my sister offered my work for that price. So what I did was make a baby quilt and gave it to her for free. I have a couple people right now asking me to make a quilt for them and I know at least one of them can not afford to pay the price for a quilt so I just delay with an answer. You gave me some great info on how to approach this now.
because people who DON’T sew have no idea how much TIME and MONEY goes into a quilt. no matter how small.
Thank you! Your time and effort to calculate the cost of the baby quilt should be added, as well! ;) Seriously, thank you for sharing this. I agree with Jenelle . . . great info on how to approach in the future.
I too have struggled over pricing, so thank you very much. I recently took a couple of small quilts to a local shop that sells locally made crafts. You have to be a senior citizen to place things in this shop and they don’t charge the crafters anything. It’s in a tourist section of our city, Nice! When I was asked to price my items, I was looked at like I was crazy. I asked $50 for a set of 4 appliqued placemats w/ napkins. There was a set of 4 very simple placemats for $20. The lady taking in the items looked at me like I was nuts, lol. I said if they don’t sell, I’ll take them home and use them. I had a baby/throw quilt, the same lady said $40 would be reasonable for that, I laughed at her [there was at least $50 worth of quilting.] Another piece is a toddler bed/throw size and am asking $150 for that, again she looked at me like I was crazy, lol. When I told the woman how much was invested in the pieces, she was amazed. We’ll see if anyone knows what a bargain they are getting. If not, I’ll wait until someone I know has a baby or I’ll donate them to my guild for a charity fund raiser. Thanks again for the education.
Plowman didn’t make any money either, and men do quilt, and they do not command different prices. There is no gender bias in quilting prices.
Bravo! Most people have no clue of the time/talent/cost of materials involved. A long time ago, I decided to make quilts as gifts only–then I can control the process and make what I truly feel called to create. If someone expects me to make a quilt for him/her or asks me to make one for $50 (really??!!), they are crossed off my future gift recipient list! For some special friends, I have made things by request and I give them to them for free. When they insist on trying to pay me, I ask them to make a donation to the local food bank instead, which makes everyone involved very happy. When I calculate the worth of the quilts I make, I factor in $20/hr for time spent–this is simply a mental exercise to reinforce to myself the value of my talents.
This was a great article. They have no clue how much this hobby cost. I will be sending my quilt club to your site to read this as we all this question asked of us…
Thanks for sharing this was so helpful. I truly love the art of quilt-making and those who don’t know the work that goes into the entire process. My biggest disappointment in giving quilts to some people they don’t show much appreciation are definitely the ones who never receive a quilt as a gift, but at cost.
Again thanks
Very informative post, I didn’t realize the cost of better fabric, I only know of Hobby Lobby prices, or the rate per hour a skilled craftsmen should get. I guess just like any original handmade common item I will never be able to cover the cost and will have to buy it from Kmart. I don’t buy shoes, clothes, kitchen cabinets or any other item form craftsmen, I guess I shouldn’t expect to get a blanket for my bed handmade either.
What a shame the commenters attitudes toward people that are uneducated about the monetary value of their pieces. For some of them you would have to subtract the lack of love that I thought was always in a piece. Keep getting what they are worth, for they are surely worth it but back off on the hate to the pheasants that you wave it in front of knowing they can’t afford it.
For Robin: The love is in every piece ever made, otherwise, it would not be done. And I can understand how you can discern “an attitude” from some of the posts/comments. But it appears that your “attitude” in the last sentence is far worse than all the previous ones, no matter how cleverly written. But, please understand. If day after day, week after week, month after month and year after many years, you had been “slapped in the face” by a family member or friend with an amount offered that is far beneath even a reasonable amount of just your costs (including labor), then you, too, might have a right to an attitude. It isn’t hate…just a strong voice in trying to right a wrong that is long over due. If one is going to shop for diamonds, they should have an idea of the costs of diamonds prior to the shopping trip. They should know about the different grades, weights, clarity, etc. before going to Tiffany’s say, instead of Wal-Mart. The same goes for handmade quilts. And I’ve never seen any quilters standing on street corners waving their products to try to make anyone feel bad because they cannot afford to purchase one of these treasures. If one wants to purchase a Cadillac, don’t go shopping on a Chevy budget. Play fair.
Mam’mam thank you for your reply. I have been trying to find the words to respond to Robin. Everytime I wrote something it sounded like I had attitude and I did not want that. You put it perfectly. Thank you.
Mam’mam: I didn’t say they had an attitude just commented on their position. One person crosses people off her gift list for their ignorance in price that she comments they have no clue about, others think it’s funny to tell people they can’t afford it and one takes hers to work for show and tell. The quilters that showed such upset at people’s ignorance in price are the ones that I was commenting about. On one hand they felt people were clueless and on the other put them down. If they were talking about the same people that once they have the price explained to them still tried to talk them down I would understand. My aunt quilts, if I would have ever asked her to make something for me I wouldn’t have offered enough, it would have been more than something from China but not near the true cost, I hope she would not have had the same thought about me and would have just explained it and let me say “oh, sorry I thought they were less than that.”
I thought the post was great and it let me know that the $200-$300 that I have seen on quilts and thought was high and could not afford was actually too low. I don’t go to quilt shops but I do see quilts at craft fairs as the highest priced items there and in the local restaurant’s gift shop. Now I think they really shouldn’t be there, they are being sold in the wrong market.
To be fair, I guess I did get to this post and comments through pinterest and it is somewhat like being a student in the teacher’s lunchroom. You all should be allowed to make comments to each other about your trade.
I charge $50/hr for my time, regardless of the complexity of the pattern. If the pattern is simple then it takes a lot less time. I also charge for the cost of materials. If it’s a commission then I’ve made enough quilts to give an accurate estimate. If it’s something I make for future sale I base my price on time and materials and if it’s extra special I may charge just a little more. My quilts are expensive but almost all of them sell eventually. I appreciate the topic. Thanks for bringing it up. I agree 100% about recognizing our worth as skilled makers and crafters, and politely educating people who inquire. I’m also always willing to direct people to books, blogs, guilds, and workshops at their local quilt shop if they want to learn how to make one on their own, if they can’t afford to buy, or don’t have a loved one or friend to make one for them.
I enjoy what you guys are usually up too. This type of
clever work and coverage! Keep up the amazing works
guys I’ve added you guys to my blogroll.
Brilliant. T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. for posting this very eloquent, professional written explanation. I educate my world every chance I get – the THE TEAM!