New Job???
 

I'm thinking of starting a quilt binding service from my home. I would square up the quilt, attach binding that either the customer has provided or choose something on my own and hand sew the binding. I'm wondering if any of you would use such a service and what I might charge someone to do it. I'm doing some work for a friend who has a quilt shop and she does custom orders. I work there one afternoon a week and she likes my work on the binding better than her own. I have traded some time at the shop doing my own work there and bringing hers home with me because I have a better set up. I make $10 a hour working there 5 hours per week. Just thought I'd get some input from all of you about the possibilities. Thanks!

That sounds like it has potential! Lots of people don't care for sewing on binding. I wish I could offer practical advice on pricing. From various pricing discussions we've had here, the method that makes most sense to me for hand sewing, is charging a certain amount per a certain length of thread, as some hand quilters said they did. This eliminates time from the equation, so whether you're a fast or slow sewer wouldn't impact the price. I probably wouldn't use such a service myself, but it seems like there could be a market for it.

I would charge more then $10 per hour. Quilting service is not have to have service so the charge for it should be for a convenience/luxury fee. Those that want the service will pay for it. Those looking for someone to do the work for as cheap as possible won't pay what it is worth.

This sounds like a viable opportunity, but I agree that you should charge more than $10 per hour for this type of work. This is repetitive action and you can end up doing your hand joints a disservice by working them too much. It's true that quilters in the past spent many hours every day hand piecing, hand quilting, and hand sewing on bindings but these tasks all require slightly different hand motions. Spending the same amount of time sewing on bindings only makes the actions more repetitive. Also, we tend to live longer than quilters of the past, which means there is more time for joint wear-and-tear to show up. Five hours a week isn't so bad, but if you are looking to double or triple that number of hours, you absolutely need to charge more to compensate you for the risk of joint damage (or carpal tunnel syndrome, which is more reversible if caught early but can still involve doctor visits).

Many long armers offer binding, the pricing is usually per inch. If you google 'quilt binding prices' you can get an idea of what others charge for this specific service. Keep in mind that prices may vary by geographic location.
If you do decide to proceed, make sure that you develop some sort of written work order: size of quilt, binding style (if applicable) color of thread estimated cost, estimated completion, who provided the binding fabric etc. When the quilt is dropped off, make 2 copies, keep one with the quilt & the other goes to the customer.
Many quilters do hate this step! It's worth at least investigating. You could get some brochures from local long arm quilters, and offer to work with the ones that don't offer this service.

When I started to long arm quilt, I was told to charge $1.25 per foot for binding. When you think of all the work that goes into binding, it's reasonable.

It would make sense to do the per inch charge - because by the hour is just too subjective, thinking as a customer.

I would not pay hourly for a sewing service- I can't determine how fast or slow they might sew.
I would possibly pay by the inch, depending on if the total price was worth removing the hassle of me doing it myself. (I hate binding.)

I would also expect near perfection if I was paying to have the binding done.

I would find out how many feet you could sew in an hour, then charge by the foot. Charge only what your friend and you feel comfortable with. Make sure that both of you understand. Usually because of my set up I could easily square a quilt up in 15 minutes. Be sure to get an approximation on how much thread is used. Sometimes customers will supply their own. Take it one step at a time. This could bring you in some extra cash which most people these days could sure use a little more.

Thanks for the good suggestions. I think I do a really good job on bindings, mitering the corners and my stitches are near invisible from the back. I did a quilt today that was 65 by 45 in about 4 hours. That was squaring up the quilt, making the binding, attaching and then hand sewing. This is something I don't mind doing in the evening while watching TV with my husband. I also make knitted dishcloths and I have so many I need to be doing something else. LOL I might put it out there and see what happens, we are a small community so I have no idea who would like this service. Something to be investigated! I knew you guys would have a good take on this.!

I think this a neat idea but personally I probably wouldn't use the service, because I'm one of the people that feels that if someone else does some of the work it's not truly "my" quilt. I machine-sew my bindings...they're not perfect but nobody I give my quilts to would ever notice the difference so I don't worry about it. And the more I do it, the better looking they get. I won a ribbon at the local fair with one of my machine-bound quilts so it can't look that bad. :)

But I do think there are a lot of people who strongly prefer a hand-bound quilt and either don't have the time or the hand-stamina to do it themselves, so I think it's entirely possible you could turn this into a nice little money-maker. Another potential market might be for old family quilts that need new bindings. Non-quilters would have no clue how to replace a worn binding, so that might be a source of potential customers for you too, if you don't mind dealing with removing or covering up the old binding.

My LQS charges 30 cents an inch for hand finished binding.

I have seen people charge around 35 for it I would price based on size of quilt. I think many who hate binding would be interested

I think its viable... get your prices set then find all the Long arm pros and show them samples of your work. The Long Arm pros in my area do not do bindings they work with others to provide this service to their clients. This time of year in particular they are overloaded with their own work and clients are pressed for time as well.

You have a great idea here! Instead of charging by the hour (:thumbdown:) or by the inch (which is a great idea), would it work to charge by the quilt size? King sized quilts = XX dollars, queen sized quilts = XX dollars, wall hangings measuring less than -- inches x --inches = XX dollars and so on. For odd sized quilts I would measure it and charge the price closest to the size. (Hope this is clear).

Good luck with your endeavor! There are lots of us (me included) out there who don't like to do bindings!

Another thing to think about is quilts that require binding on curved edges.

I figured the quilt you said was 65"x45" at .30/inch and it came out to 66.00 or 16.50/hr for the 4 hours you said you worked on it. Does that sound fair to you? I hope this works out for you since you like to work with your hands while you watch TV.

I think a lot of people would be willing to pay for machine binding, too, as long as it looks really good. I've finally reached the point where my bindings usually look pretty decent but that was not always the case.

one of the quilting shops i have gone to charges a flat rate to bind of $20.00 per quilt.

I like the per inch deal and also would consider thinking about the cost per size of the quilt. I guess I would have to say I do mitered binding only because I'm not that experienced on scalloped edges or curvy! I wouldn't do it for a flat rate of $20, this quilt took 4 hours and it wouldn't be worth my time. I love all the ideas about how to go about this venture. I'm just looking for a little extra cash, I don't expect to make a killing on anything.

I don't mind binding, but I would pay someone to sandwich my quilts. Absolutely hate sandwiching!! Hate it, hate it, hate it. Sometimes I put the quilt top, batting and backing on my table, waiting for the sandwiching fairy to sandwich my quilt, but she never comes.

I agree with ScrappyAZ! I love the binding process! So I would not use the service, but I think that you are very industrious to want to start this type of business. I'm sure a lot of people would consider hiring you. I have no idea of how to charge for your service. Good luck.

I charge $1.50 per foot for binding. I sew binding to the front and hand stitch to the back. Curved edges are more. Depending on the size of the quilt, have customer bring me uncut fabric for their binding and I cut, sew and press to fit the quilt. I one time had someone bring me a binding she has made that was all bias and many small pieces sewn together. They were stretched and did not want to lay flat, when I called her about the problem she said, steam into submission. I do not like to do shoddy work so request flat fabric now and everyone I have done quilts for seem ok with that. I also do machine binding as some people just don't like binding!!!

I did this for about six months. I do show-quality bindings; hand-sewn, invisible stitches, mitered corners, full to the edge. I was charging $.25 an inch. I had lots of people trying to get me to lower my prices by offering to sew the binding on by machine first, and leave the rest for me to do by hand. At first, I said yes to this and lowered the price to $.20 for those customers, but that ended up being such a headache that I quit doing it. So many people A) do not know how to join binding ends, they would simply fold them over, B) always iron the binding in half (which makes for a less-full binding), C) do not keep a consistent quarter-inch seam when attaching binding (which also makes for a less-full binding). I had bizarre requests, the weirdest one was to bind a quilt that was monk's cloth woven with worsted weight yarn, and backed with polar fleece. Very fluffy and fat, and the customer was unhappy that I was unable to get a quarter-inch wide binding on it.
The other problem I had was time. I had customers who wanted a very fast turn-around. One in particular had several quilts she wanted bound at the same time. I gave her a quote and she disappeared for three months. Came back, took me up on my quote, then wanted all of the quilts bound in 5 days because they were gifts.

I think the part that finally convinced me to shut it down was the fact that the work is all or nothing. I'd go for a month with nothing, then I'd get 7 binding jobs, half of which were rush jobs. I'm still raising a family and it's difficult to work on rush bindings when I have after-school sports and clubs, boy scout activities, orthodontist appointments, etc. Maybe when my kids are grown and gone....

Couldn't agree more with Skittl1321. My thoughts are that if I were sending my work out to be longarmed, I would want quality work done-both on the front of the quilt and the back, and near perfect if not perfect looking corners. Charging by the inch for me would be the way to go. With a contract clearly stating the terms, especially if the work is not done by an agreed-upon date and. You will want to have samples to provide as your way of doing it should be satisfactory to the customer before work is started.
Good luck in your venture-I would think there is a great calling for this.

Peckish has brought up still yet another problem that anyone who works for others from home has run into "THE RUSH JOBS". I take care of the books and billing for a friend of mine who works from home, I've done this for 13 of the 14 years shes had her business. After I worked her books for a year, I had to point out to her that she HAD to charge an extra fee for RUSH jobs. It was always the same people who would wait until the last minute and then they would want their stuff NOW, without regard for others (jobs she was working on without deadlines, her family, her ability to sleep). I told my friend that at first some people might not be happy about the up charge, but that most would understand. So I made up the new price sheets and e-mailed them out. The only people who questioned the charges as I had told her, where the ones who ALWAYS had a RUSH. She was concerned that she would lose customers. I pointed out that it would show her in a "MORE PROFESSIONAL LIGHT", and it did. She lost 1 customer for a few months, but they even came back (and pay the up charge for RUSH). It also changed how often she receives RUSH jobs. The people who did it all of the time, now don't do it as much (they plan better). My friend didn't lose any money over this, because she was able to plan her work out better too. It has also given her more family time. So when you setting your price sheet up, plan on an UP CHARGE for RUSH jobs. You know how fast you work and what will be involved in doing the quality of work, so when you give your price and turnaround time you need to know how much the up charge is for faster service (because you will not be able to work on anything else maybe not even dinner - lol). Good luck

Many long arm quilters will sandwich and baste your quilt for a nominal charge.

My mother used to do this to make a little pocket money. I don't remember what she charged but I do remember thinking it wasn't enough. Thank God she didn't charge my quilter sister or I. I was always surprised how fast she could finish a quilt. Her stitches were invisible and study, God rest her soul. I think you should charge by the inch and even more if you provide the fabric and sew it on. Good luck with your enterprise!

That's sounds like an excellent opportunity for you! I would charge by the inch unless you were planning to round off to the nearest foot or do the calculations for a partial foot. Personally, I'd rather not do all the math :-) . My long arm quilter doesn't do binding but I don't mind doing it.

My friend has a quilting business, and charges 24 cents per inch for handgun binding. She also charges $15 per hour for any other sewing or fixing she needs to do on a quilt top before quilting it.

In my area, to finish the binding, sewing it on the quilt and hand finishing, the usual price is by the liner inch. Here they charge from 10-25 per liner inch. I have done one binding for a quilter and it was scallop. I cut a bias and pressed her binding and it came to almost $50. She was so happy for the work she paid the price. Whoever had done her quilting did not do bindings.

a friend of mine does this using customer's fabric - seems like she said 20 cts per inch but not sure...I usually do machine binding on mine but have some I may end up doing hand binding. I pay another friend for longarm quilting but have only paid for hand binding once and that's because it was my first round robin and we had a small show to display all the round robin quilts that year and I wanted it finished and didn't have time to do it myself. otherwise I would have to be a really big hurry and just want hand binding to spend money on the service. It's not my favorite activity but dont hate it enough to pay for it.

That sounds great BUT cost of shipping from our of state is going to be prohibit

I was hoping to stay pretty local so drop off and pick up wouldn't be much of a problem. I'm not sure I could handle a big volume of quilts to be done.

I had a Patchwork shop 7 years ago and I provided a quilt binding service for customers. Back then, I charged $A2.00 per lineal foot + cost of binding fabric if the customer wanted me to provide it. I hope this helps.

Several years ago I was visiting with a gal who worked at a LQS which had lots of well-to-do customers and professional women who regularly shopped there. With the owners permission she developed a shopping, cutting, binding service for these women. They hired her privately and she purchased everything in the shop. She might put together a "kit" for them with cutting all done and labeled. She sewed on and tacked down binding for them. She basted for handquilting. She said they had $$$ but limited time so they paid her to do the tedious parts of quilting. She did very well.

Interesting idea, and some good advice here. One thing no one mentioned, I think, is what about really out of whack quilts? If there is no reasonable way to make a quilt square, what do you do? I've seen some, and in fact made some myself, where something was wrong in the middle of the quilt somewhere so "squaring it off" would mean cutting into some of the blocks along the edge. I'd be afraid to work on something like that, and you might not realize it when you first take the job. Just curious how you'd handle that.

I wouldn't charge by the hour either. I would charge by linear inch like these people.
http://www.aquiltnhand.com/binding_service.htm

One LA I work with charges $.25 per inch for binding and that's for attaching the front by machine and sewing the back by hand. A quilt that's 65x45 would run $55.00 for binding, at least in our neck of the woods. I've never had her do it because while I cannot do the machine quilting myself, I can do my own binding and enjoy doing it. :-)

I agree with PaperPrincess on how to charge ie per inch as being a beginner I would question the per hour rate, you don't really know how many hours were actually spent on it. So having a set charge for per inch and whether you or customer supplies the binding decides the price.