Making Quilts: The costs Involved

I don’t do production work. These are words I find myself saying more and more in regard to my machine embroidery. I take the compliment intended when someone says they should buy something that I make. Unfortunately, whatever it is I’ve made isn’t usually for sale! The politest thing I can say is that I really don’t do production work.

While I love making quilts or small embroidered items to give as gifts, it’s just not worth the time and effort to make these things to sell. Contrary to popular belief, making things on our own is not less expensive than buying it from a store! The only true benefit we get is by creating a one-of-a-kind item that is exactly what we want. If that option was readily available at stores, we would be expected to pay top dollar for it.

However, when someone wants us to make something for them to buy, they don’t seem to understand the true costs involved in making quilts or stitching intricate lace by machine embroidery. Instead, they see prices at stores and think our prices should be the same.

I can pick up a decent quilt for around $100 at a local chain department store. However, just the fabric costs to make one on my own far exceeds that price. This doesn’t include the costs of prepping the fabric for use, the time it takes to make, or any of the additional quilting supplies needed. The few times I have sold quilts, my minimum price for a crib size quilt is around $100. While my wanna-be customers have no problem paying that price for a designer name, they think my homemade crafts should be cheaper. The responses I get to my price quotes are sometimes quite rude, but I don’t mind. I just smile with the knowledge that I’ve, once again, gotten out of having to do production work!

When it comes to machine embroidery projects, I’m even less willing to stitch for others. The cost of thread and stabilizer alone would put me in the poor-house if I only charged what these folks wanted to pay. Of course, they don’t understand that there is a cost in maintaining our expensive, and very well loved embroidery machines, as well as an intricate inventory system for making sure we have the right needles, threads, and other embroidery supplies for our basic projects. If the person just insists that I make them something, I direct them to very expensive linen stores online. I ask them to compare the prices and let me know what they feel a fair price is. In all but very rare cases, this also has me smiling that I got away with not doing production work.

You may be wondering what my aversion is to stitching for money. Well, I consider what I do to be an art form. If I create for cash, it’s not artistic for me. It’s just work. Instead, I would rather spend my precious time stitching beautiful embroidery patterns for those I love. I love to spend rainy afternoons making quilts for all the babies that crop up in my little corner of the world (meaning … hubby’s co-workers). Sometimes, I like to just create an embroidery project or quilt just to do it. No reason. Nowhere to put it. Just pure, simple creativity.

Now, if someone wants to buy one of those things I’ve made just for the creativity, I will gladly sell them.

And, if you’re like me and feel guilty when saying “no” to people, just learn this simple phrase … I don’t do production work.