Job timer/clock

[missfleecy]

My phone is just a phone. It flips open and has buttons so I can call people.

No need for a smartphone--you can still use your phone as a timer! Simply call someone whenever you are working on a job, then hang up when you are done. Check your bill at the end of the month to get the final tally. If you have itemized billing, you can even call different people for different jobs and they will be neatly separated!

~ Miss Fleecy

[Pudge99]

Miss Fleecy, has anyone ever told you that you are a bit nuts? I think I'll stick with the job timer I found in Outlook. The few friends that I have might not be too happy with your idea.

[MartySews2]

Gina, when I sewed for the public, I charged by the pattern piece plus a consulatation fee & a shopping fee. That way, I could give an instant quote because you could tell how many pattern pieces there were in a garment. The customer only had to provide the pattern & fabric & I provided the notions. I started out charging $10 a pattern piece & went up to $20 for bridal wear. I'm too absent-minded (or addled brain from strokes) to keep up with hours. I found that it worked very well. Each person had an invoice with the pattern #, amount of fabric, & pattern pieces plus consultation fees listed. I required 1/3 down at the beginning, another 3rd down at the first fitting, & the final payment upon completion of the garment. Only had one person not pay the final payment so her garment was donated to a charitable organization. I allotted 6 wks per garment & 10 wks for bridal wear.
Marty

[lendube]

Using your guidelines, Marty, I'd have to charge this poor girl I made the three 5 piece sundresses for over $200.00 just for my labor. Add to that her cost for the fabric and it's just plain ridiculous! It's like quilters who spend hundreds of hours making a quilt that should they charge for their actual hours, would make the quilt utterly unaffordable to anyone.

I'm impressed that you could charge that in your community and have customers. I know your skills are superior to mine but I could never get away with charging that much. I wouldn't want to even if I could. I know almost everyone that I sew for.

[MartySews2]

Lennie, for regular clothes, I would only charge $10 per pattern piece which for your 3 dresses would have been $150.00 which is not unreasonable for 3 well-made dresses. The consultation fee could be as little as $15 or as much as $25 depending on how much I had to drive to meet with them, take their measurements, & find the proper pattern for them. Gas costs money as does my time. Only in bridal wear did I charge $20 a pattern piece because I was working with more difficult fabrics. I had more business than I could handle so I don't do that anymore but it makes sense if you're going to be in business as a seamstress. Memphis is a large city with about 700,000 people within the city limits & over a million people if you count suburbs in the area. I found that people will pay for a quality product. I consider all of the time that I have invested in learning & perfecting my skills, the research that I do to complete a particular garment so that it has a professional look to it plus the electricity, wear & tear on my machines, as well as time away from my family to be valuable. If you're going to be in business, you have to consider these things. I'm sure Leighanna can tell you more about this than I can. Seamstresses who charge a small amount for clothing make it more difficult for those who are in this to make a living. They don't consider all of the additional expenses & do a disservice to those who are making a living by sewing. Do you think twice about paying a plumber or an electrician or a mechanic when one is needed. The average charge for them is at least $60 an hr in my area. Am I no less valuable with my skills? Think about it.
Marty

[missfleecy]

You also need to find the right customer, who appreciates bespoke items and is willing to pay for them. Some people don't and won't. I personally am willing to pay extra for handmade, quality items. My Persian rug took someone almost two years to make, working on it full time. To me that was worth paying for. It's a work of art, and makes me happy to look at, and isn't even comparable to, say, a $200 rug from Wal-Mart--they are totally different things. Other people think buying an expensive handmade item is ridiculous, and think the cost should be close to something mass produced. Those aren't the people you want to sell to; they should just be buying mass-produced things off-the-rack.

~ Miss Fleecy

[lendube]

I have thought about it, Marty. I see it like this; you give your services free of charge and call it a "sewing ministry". I don't charge an arm and a leg for my services and call it my way of making something I can do affordable for the folks of my community. IMO.........same difference.

We're way off topic now so that's all from me.

[sewingmom]

You ladies have a great day.

[MartySews2]

Not only do I give my services in exchange for a donation to my church, I also teach people how to do sew themselves so they don't have to pay someone to do it. Again, Gina, I hope you're able to get what you want as far as a job timer/clock. I was just offering another option to make money sewing as a business.
Marty

[lendube]