hello everyone I am Lisa with Lisa Cape
in Clips I'm so glad you've joined me
today we're in the office talking about
one of the most frequent questions that
I get asked on a weekly basis how do you
charge for a quilt you've been asked to
make a quilt and you're not quite sure
where to start so today we're going to
be talking about the economics of making
a quilt we're in the office and we have
a lot to talk about so let's get started
I have heard from so many of you and
it's kind of amazing that even though we
are all different our stories always
sound familiar or similar so the
messages often sound like this I've been
quilting for X amount of time and love
to make quilts I've never made one and
sold one the co-worker has asked me how
much when I charged them to make a quilt
and can you help me so I thought in
today's video I would share with you how
I have developed a system for pricing my
work and just let you know that what my
prices look like are going to be totally
different than your pricing and we're
going to go over to some of the reasons
why that is in today's video you know
the reality of it is is that unless you
sew or you deal with fabrics or you've
been a quilter and made a quilt more
than likely you do not know how much
material cost goes into making a quilts
and you don't know how much time is
involved in making that quilt and so
keep that in mind when you are coming up
with a pricing system for you is that
most of the time
your prices are gonna be a lot different
than what your co-worker has in mind
when they asked you that question more
than likely you know most people when
they think of quilts they think of the
quilt they saw hanging in a cracker
barrel or the quilt in a bag at Walmart
that comes with shams and matching bed
skirts and those are the prices that
they have preconceived and it is not
their fault
so when there's a surprise element
involved when you present your prices
keep that in mind I really think that as
the artist or the creator of the quilt
and this really goes for any genre of
skills trades and crafting across the
board it is really your responsibility
to educate your client into why your
price is this way because most people
they just don't know and certainly it
can be a little bit of a sticker price
shop so a brief little history about me
as a quilter in case this is the first
time you're joining in any of my videos
I started quilting in 1999 and I am a
self-taught quilter teaching myself from
books that were given to me by my great
aunt who was a lifetime quilter I spent
years and years and years and years and
really only started quilting for hire or
my quilting business until let's say
three years ago so what I'm going to
share with you in today's video and the
information I'm sharing really comes
from what I've developed and it could be
different from you you could modify this
information but these are all things
that you really should consider when
pricing a quilt so with all of that
preconceived things out there let's get
started with how to price your quilt
one of the very first things I think we
need to consider when setting up a price
system for your quilts is really the
area in which you live we all live in
different economical regions and our
prices are going to look different
because of that you know I could make a
queen size of beautiful quilts and sell
it for X amount of dollars where I live
I could take that same quilt several
states away and sell it easily for two
or three times higher I could also take
this quilt and bring it to another state
away and never be able to sell that
quote because it is just too expensive
so the area on which we live really sets
a baseline of what we can make a living
at or make a quilt for so consider that
one great way to find out a ballpark
price range to start at would be visit
some craft fairs some local markets some
craft shows and get a baseline of price
or a ballpark in which maybe you could
start at and it might be that you have
to adjust your pricing maybe your
pricing is too high and you need to
figure out ways to lower the cost or
maybe your pricing could be raised a
little it's all going to be based in the
area in which we live and then we get
more into the facts and numbers behind
pricing our quilt
now we are going to start talking about
some numbers and doing a little bit of
math so just to let you know and I'm
going to put a close-up of what this
looks like right here which might be
easier to see than this I made up this
PDF that just really helped me formulate
a price that works for me
and so all of the numbers that we're
going to talk about today are adjustable
to you and what you have access to and
in your area you can download this PDF
it's going to be in the description box
of this video it just brings you over to
my Dropbox and it's just a one-page PDF
and so that's what we're going to use
today to formulate a price and a for
today's video we're going to imagine
that we've been asked to make a twin
size quilt so let's take the
measurements of a quilt that measures 72
inches wide by 90 inches long and those
are the dimensions that we're going to
work together to formulate a price so go
ahead download and print off one of
these copies and you can follow along
with us today
you might even save this and be able to
use it as a tool to help you in the
future pricing your quilts okay we have
our little sheet and we're going to work
off of this side here to formulate a
cost for your quilt and we're going to
start talking by the fabric cost or the
cost of materials that it's going to
require to make this twin size quilt
I'll start by saying that we're going to
use a ballpark or an average pricing
range for two days quilt these prices
are going to vary depending on what's
available to you and in in your area I
am very lucky that I have a jo-ann's
fabric about five minutes away from my
house I have a local bookshop about 15
minutes away and I have a Walmart less
than two minutes away that still carries
fabrics so I have some local very quick
accessible places to buy materials and
we all have online where we can shop
different brands and stores easily
online as well so I have all of these
options and certainly I have found very
nice quality fabrics and materials at
all three places with some experience
you can certainly find quality fabrics
and goods for your quilts at all
different types of places and you can do
that on a budget so saying that we're
going to just put an average cost of
fabric at $12 a yard I have found
quality fabric for way less than that
and I have paid way more than that for a
yard of fabric but for today's video
we're gonna say $12 and I don't think
that that is unreasonable a price to put
on a yard of fabric so let's figure out
the cost of this quilt top for a quilt
that measures 72 inches by 90 inches I
think it is fair to say that you will
need at least six yards of fabric and
that's taking into consideration wasting
fabric as we cut out our pieces or it
could be more than six yards if we're
buying multiple colors or patterns and
doing a different patch work or applique
you know there's so many variations but
we're gonna say six yards for the top at
$12 a yard that's going to give us a
ballpark price of 72 dollars for the
quilt top okay so 72 dollars next we'll
talk about the batting it could be
different but an average ballpark price
for a batting for a twin size quilt
would be $24.99 okay so let's say $24.99
on top of our $72
the next thing we're going to consider
is the quilt backing and we're going to
need at least six yards to do the back
six yards at twelve dollars a yard is
another seventy two dollars and then we
consider the binding fabric and we'll
need about five eighths of a yard to do
our quilt and that gives us about nine
dollars so if you add all of that up we
come up to a total of material cost of a
hundred and seventy seven dollars and
ninety nine cents now that is not
including the cost of our thread maybe
we are replacing the needle
maybe we're using fusible x' or
interfacing all other variables that go
into constructing your top or on top of
the material cost the body of our quilt
so those are all things that make up the
material cost and so this little PDF is
going to break that down for you I'm
sorry I'm looking down at my sheet you
got a line for the quilt top yardage a
line for your batting backing binding
and threat okay those are your basic
things you might have to pencil in any
extra things that you use to construct
your quilt top so right now for this
twin size quilt we are at a hundred and
seventy seven dollars and ninety nine
cents so what else do we need to
consider in pricing this quilt
so now we are at 177 dollars and 99
cents for our twin size quilts the next
thing we need to consider is the
quilting charge or how much is it going
to cost to finish this quilt and it
might be that you're going to quilt the
quote yourself how much thread and
needle and time is involved in that it
might be that you're going to tie the
quilt again how much material and time
is involved and it might be that you're
going to send your quilt off to a long
armor and how much will you pay that
person to quilt your quilt for you let's
say we're going to send our twin size
quilt off to a long armor and they
charge 15 cents a square inch to quilt
our quilt for us this is where all of
our prices start to vary because that
could look different depending on where
you are at average price fifteen cents
for our quilt brings us to ninety seven
dollars and 20 cents so we're going to
take that ninety seven twenty and add it
to our material cost and we come up to
two hundred and seventy five dollars in
nineteen cents so that's where we are
currently
okay now we are at two hundred and
seventy five dollars and 19 cents for
our quilt this whole next section on the
PDF we are going to skip for today's
video because we could always add
upgrades and there's options of ways to
increase the value of what you're going
to charge for your quilt you could
customize your quilt you could do
embroidery by machine or by hand you
could add embellishments you can add
quilt tags and labels and there's all
different kinds of ways to increase the
price of the quilt we're going to keep
it simple today and we're going to skip
all of those options the next thing
we're going to talk about is the labor
cost and again this is another subject
of where it's going to start adding some
differences and what I charge and what
you charge when I started quilting in 99
I was very entry level and I have
learned a lot to where I am now
certainly I could not charge what I
charge now
back then at different experience levels
and it's taken some confidence and some
sweat equity into myself and my business
to feel comfortable to charge what I
charge now certainly I do not want to
stay here I think we should always be
growing and improving and feeling
confident in our abilities as a creator
to charge more so the amount we're going
to charge for a labor is going to look
different you know I find it interesting
I did a Google search on the internet
the other day and I typed in what is the
average entry-level wage per hour for a
skilled trade and so I'm going to be
looking down here for a second but for
an electronics technician the
entry-level wage per hour average is 15
dollars and 88 cents for a project
schedule
and I'm not quite sure what that is but
I sound like a project scheduler their
average entry-level wage per hour is $40
an hour mind you that's where they
started and they're going up from there
I would love to make $40 an hour
wouldn't that be awesome me you know
that's my life goal is to you know find
where I can to charge that if that ever
happens but for today's video we're
going to come in and say $15 an hour is
what I'm going to charge to make this
twin size quilt let's just say it's
going to take me 20 hours to make this
quilt again all of this is going to vary
to you but 20 hours for our twin size
quilt at $15 an hour is $300 for the
labor cost so if we add a $300 to the
275 dollars and 19 cents of materials
and quilting we come to a grand total
are you ready
of five hundred and seventy five dollars
and 19 cents that is a lot of money
that's a lot of money for a twin size
quilt and that's going to sound a lot of
money like a lot of money to your
coworker who asked you if you could make
a quilt for them because remember most
on average people think of quilt pricing
of the beautiful quilt they saw in
Cracker Barrell that was $79 for a
king-size quilt and now we're going to
talk about five hundred and seventy five
dollars for a twin size quilt so you can
see the sticker shock and rightfully so
that is a lot of money so how do you
take all of these different prices and
guidelines and adjust that to what works
for you
so that's what we're going to talk about
next
you
so now we have formulated a simple quilt
price for this twin size quilt coming up
to five hundred and seventy five dollars
and nineteen cents and you can see how I
just wrote in the totals right there now
we're going to talk about the second
half of this PDF and what really worked
for me because of all of the variables
and we're not just talking about
material cost we're talking about
different sizes of quilts right we're
talking about patchwork or scrappy
quilts versus memory coats made out of
clothing so there's all these different
variables and I make a ton of t-shirt
clothes matter of fact most of the
quilts that I get commissioned for our
t-shirt quilts now keep all of this in
mind when formulating your price you
might not be spending a hundred and
seventy seven dollars on making the
quilt top because you've been given all
of these t-shirts right or clothes to
cut up to put into a quilt so your
material cost might be different but
what are you investing in you're
investing and stabilizer deboning the
clothes cutting the clothes apart
figuring out which parts of the clothes
you're going to use and not use you're
taking the time to add to stabilizer to
the clothing and to cut usable pieces of
fabric from these clothing so all of
that needs to be considered in the
pricing of your quilt so all of those
variables and all the different sizes of
quilts there are I needed a way for
myself to be able to answer quickly when
someone contacts me how much do you
charge for a quilt so I went across the
board and I said you know what I'm gonna
make three different price guides I'm
gonna start off with an easy quilt
you'll see that right up here easy and
all of these slots then I'm going to
figure out a mid-level you know maybe
they want a t-shirt quilt but they want
stashing and corner stones or a border
what are my fees for that and then I
formulated a difficult category and this
is like where my collage style quilts
would come in
you know the quilts that are going to
take a lot more time involved a lot more
thought process a lot more planning a
lot more materials I went through each
one of these sections to formulate a
price across the board for easy
well easy medium and hard quilts and so
for me now when someone contacts me
through facebook Messenger and says can
you make a full-size a t-shirt quilt for
me what is your price I like to be able
to respond to that customer quickly and
give them a ballpark of course there's
things that you could do to upgrade that
price but let's give them a ballpark
figure and respond to the client in a
timely manner so what you'll find on
this section of the PDF is a graph where
you can map out your entry-level quilt
prices for each size that you want to
offer and it may be break your quilts up
to easy mid level and difficult and
maybe that will help you out in
determining a prices for your quilts now
if you have any questions at any time
I'm always here to try to help you and
again our prices are going to be
different and I certainly wish that
there was someone out there that could
have helped me three years ago when I
was trying to formulate my prices but
it's really trial and error and one
thing that you're going to notice is
that you're going to be asked a lot if
you decide to go into making clothes for
on Commission what your prices are I
give out price
so you know I get a lot of inquiries
about making quilts and once they hear
my price I don't hear back from about
95% of them I feel bad but I also feel
like that's okay
there are several quilters in my area
and I feel like there's enough quilting
work to go around to all of us and my
prices might might be higher or might be
lower than the other quilters in my area
but I'm doing what works for me and what
can sustain my small little business
certainly if you do the math and the
method that I showed you today adding up
your cost and your labor and and
different things like that
and keeping in mind your economics of
the area that you live in it won't take
you long to figure out that to make a
very cookie living and making quilts
you're gonna have to make quite a few
quilts in a month and how many quilts
can you make in a month and how much
time is involved how much time do you
have to invest in that and so those are
all things to consider when you go to
think about making quilts on Commission
now I hope that I have not been too
confusing the five hundred and
seventy-five dollars for a twin sized
quilt sounds ginormous to me but how
much is your skills really worth and to
some people that's a lot of money and
you might not ever get that quote
commissioned and to some other people
after telling them about all the
materials and time involved and skills
that it takes to make that quilt they're
going to appreciate all of that and have
no problem paying five hundred and
seventy five dollars for an investment
in you and a-one of
kind crafted handcrafted piece from you
so again if you have any questions I'd
love to help you can join me on Facebook
I'll put a link to my facebook below
it's Lisa Capon quilts and through there
I have a really fun group of people and
we share everything from quilting to
journaling all kinds of different genres
of crafting and creating and so I would
love it if you join me there as well and
I'll put a link up to my Etsy shop if
you are interested in any patterns
journal kids journals I have a lot of
fun different things over there that you
can check out and that link will be in
the description box as well I hope that
I did not make this too confusing and
again all of this is going to be
different based on where you live and
your skills and equipment that you have
so many variables and so that is why if
you have asked me in the past if I could
help you with their price my answer has
been long-winded and at the end I did
not give you a price to quote because
your price is going to be different than
mine okay I am off to head out to the
shop to start sewing and I hope you have
a fantastic day if you have not already
subscribed I would love to have you join
along in my quilting journey and I feel
like we have come together to form an
awesome community not only here on
YouTube but over on Facebook as well and
I would love to hear from you so say
hello bye everybody