How to charge?
 

When it comes to paying for an item that involves sewing - I would much rather pay by the inch or by the completed item.

Why? Because I am extremely slow - and I would not want to pay someone else for three hours of work to make one simple 9-patch block.

Some people can create a quilt from start to finish in hours - it takes others "ages" to make a similar quilt.

It does make sense to have an idea of how long it takes "you" to do/make something - and charge accordingly.

So - if it takes one person 40 hours and another person only 20 hours to make similar quilts, what is a fair price to charge for labor?

I don't think that quilts should be priced by the hours put into them. If you did that, you'd never get your money back. Quilts should be priced by their desirability. If the quilt is really a well-made showstopper, then it should be priced accordingly. If it doesn't have that, "wow factor," then no matter how many hours are put into making it, it won't pull in as much money. That doesn't mean that it isn't anything less than priceless to a friend, or family member that receives it as a gift.

Just my 2 cents.

~ C

My short form is: Charge what you want/what it is worth to you. They can decide if it is worth it to them. For example, you can't get me to make a mask to sell it, other people are happy as can be.

I don't really want to make quilts for payment, so I usually say something like, "well, minimum wage in Seattle is $15/hour and with 40 years of experience I figure I deserve at least that. That top would take something around a full 40 hour work week, so that's $600 there, plus another $600 for the quilting -- and now lets talk about the fabric. It will take 10-12 yards at $12 a yard, plus the batting and backing and any extra rulers, patterns, or parts I may need -- I'll throw in the $10-20 worth of thread...

No one has yet agreed to the price.

Iceblossom, I like your answer! People who don't sew/create don't realize what goes into it, in experience, ability, time, and expenditures.

Iceblossom, I love your logic.

I give away my quilts and donate tons of them. I just enjoy making them. I buy everything that goes into them.

Too much hassle to price them out and I don't have to worry about lots of things.

The only time I charged someone to make a quilt was for a t-shirt quilt. Everyone has a stash of old t-shirts that have special memories, and they all want a t-shirt quilt when they see mine. I finally learned not to say, "Sure, I'll make you one." I have a bag full of t-shirts in my storage now waiting to be my next project, for a friend, no charge-It was a weak moment!
I just posted in another thread about charging for t-shirt quilts. I've only been paid for making a few, which I spent the money on fabric stash!

I charge by the blocks and by the size of the finished quilt. So if there are 20 blocks (12" blocks), that is #300 at $15 per block. I then charge by the the square inch for the borders and binding. The average cost for me to make a quilt is about $500. That is with the customer paying and bringing me all the supplies. Fabrics, thread and batting. I haven't made quilts to sell now for about 5 years. I have finished off a couple of "mistake" quilts for friends but did not charge them. These are quilts that some one else started but did not finish and made a mess of things. I still have one such quilt to finish.

I should clarify that the line I really use is that "I give freely but I don't work for cheap". Most of what I make is for donation, and I make them because I enjoy making them. I believe the standard in donation quilts is to do them exactly the same as if they were for the person you most love in the world. There is less personalization because I don't know who they are going to, but workmanship and materials are otherwise indistinguishable.

I've done quilting/sewing things for pay and there is absolutely zero wrong with that, it's just not what I want to do and my first reply wasn't very helpful in that regards. I just don't want to work on other people's deadlines or with what they want as opposed to what I want to do, so it still remains to decide what you feel is reasonable.

I do, however (and have for some time) put a value on my time of that $15 per hour. It started when I put in the commute time to get to my job, 2 hours a day in traffic (1 hour each way) really brought down my hourly wage! It helps clarify things like if I forgot a coupon I wanted to use, it is worth $7.50 (round trip) to go back and get a dollar off coupon? (answer is generally no) It does give you a different perspective from, "oh I have all day/all this time available" when it you phrase it as "what am I going to do with my $120 dollar day".

I'm currently putting together a UFO that I will be returning to it's owner. I'm doing it because I find it fun. Again, most of my work is for donation and in this case I'm donating time to someone else and it's all good. That's what I'm going to do with my day today -- that and some house cleaning.

Iceblossom-I like your thinking process. I don't make quilts to sell. I make quilts to give to someone to make them happy and to get a smile. A couple of months ago I was asked to help make scrub hats and masks for the hospital nurses and doctors. I gladly made quite a few and felt very good about trying to help out.