Slow Fashion - Tumblr Posts
welcome to the fish market π
Handspun Fairy Bubbles
β‘ sparkly sweet handspun that I will custom spin for you β‘
Handspun Fairy Bubbles
β‘ sparkly sweet handspun that I will custom spin for you β‘
Strawberry Season
If you've seen my adorable strawberry sweater design floating around knitblr and you've wanted to try it out, now is the time to grab a copy of the pattern!
Until the end of July, my fruit sweaters pattern is $8 instead of $10 (it's three patterns in one!)
thinking about how I had a few folks at my last market suggest to me (kindly and with good intentions) that I make and sell some versions of the hand knit cardigan I was wearing because people would "totally pay $300 for that!"
I appreciated the sentiment, but people don't understand what goes into handmade clothes! I don't use a knitting machine. Every stitch in that garment is created by hand on needles, and the sleeves were brioche. Even using inexpensive acrylic yarn for the whole project, and accounting for the HUGE sleeve stitches (saving me time making the sleeves)βthe material cost was $55 and the labor was well beyond that.
Let's conservatively estimate the cardigan took me 30 hours to create. Currently, when pressed to put a dollar amount to my time, I use the living wage as a baseline and then go up from there $1/hour for every year I have been actively practicing that particular skill. In the case of knitting that would be 11 years, and the current living wage in my area is approximately $23/hour. Setting aside the fact that this is calculated based on a 40 hour work week and I don't believe that is ethical or sustainable, we'll just leave it at $34/hour. That would make labor alone $1,020.
This brings the "production cost" to $1,075.
Items are not sold at production cost because that would leave your profit margin at 0%. This is not sustainable because it costs money to run a business (think things like paying for computer repairs, buying tools, the tablecloth you use at markets, paying for a website, etc.). Realistically to cover business costs and still come out with a 7% "net" profit margin, which is just a number pulled from averages in the clothing retail business...
... I'd have to sell that cardigan for $1,350.
So yeah! Something to think about when you see the price of clothes that are handmade. :o)
thinking about how I had a few folks at my last market suggest to me (kindly and with good intentions) that I make and sell some versions of the hand knit cardigan I was wearing because people would "totally pay $300 for that!"
I appreciated the sentiment, but people don't understand what goes into handmade clothes! I don't use a knitting machine. Every stitch in that garment is created by hand on needles, and the sleeves were brioche. Even using inexpensive acrylic yarn for the whole project, and accounting for the HUGE sleeve stitches (saving me time making the sleeves)βthe material cost was $55 and the labor was well beyond that.
Let's conservatively estimate the cardigan took me 30 hours to create. Currently, when pressed to put a dollar amount to my time, I use the living wage as a baseline and then go up from there $1/hour for every year I have been actively practicing that particular skill. In the case of knitting that would be 11 years, and the current living wage in my area is approximately $23/hour. Setting aside the fact that this is calculated based on a 40 hour work week and I don't believe that is ethical or sustainable, we'll just leave it at $34/hour. That would make labor alone $1,020.
This brings the "production cost" to $1,075.
Items are not sold at production cost because that would leave your profit margin at 0%. This is not sustainable because it costs money to run a business (think things like paying for computer repairs, buying tools, the tablecloth you use at markets, paying for a website, etc.). Realistically to cover business costs and still come out with a 7% "net" profit margin, which is just a number pulled from averages in the clothing retail business...
... I'd have to sell that cardigan for $1,350.
So yeah! Something to think about when you see the price of clothes that are handmade. :o)
late summer cast on βΛππ«§
I have had this beautiful pattern from Jesse Maed Designs waiting in my library for way too long! I love the design and wearing tanks like this and I've had a hankering to knit a garment for months. Something quick though! It's been a good bit since I've knitted anything. ... and I finally got this on my needles today! Yippee!
no pics to share sadly, but the mock neck tank I'm knitting is coming right along! my row gauge (the height of my stitches) is quite a bit shorter than the pattern gauge, though
I'm trying to do some improv mods to the pattern to ensure a good fit in spite of this, but I haven't really done any... math... just going on vibes. We'll see how badly that comes back to bite me hehe.
welcome to the fish market π
welcome to the fish market π
welcome to the fish market π
welcome to the fish market π
Strawberry Season
If you've seen my adorable strawberry sweater design floating around knitblr and you've wanted to try it out, now is the time to grab a copy of the pattern!
Until the end of July, my fruit sweaters pattern is $8 instead of $10 (it's three patterns in one!)
Strawberry Season
If you've seen my adorable strawberry sweater design floating around knitblr and you've wanted to try it out, now is the time to grab a copy of the pattern!
Until the end of July, my fruit sweaters pattern is $8 instead of $10 (it's three patterns in one!)
