Sewing Wizards,
Roughly (1) how long does it take to sew a pair of men's boxer shorts, and (2) what's a reasonable price to pay for sewing 10 pairs?
--The woman who may do it for me seems quite experienced.
--I'm supplying the pattern (Jalie), but told her she does not have to follow it exactly, and it won't have a button.
--I'm supplying the material (preshrunk habotai silk, 12mm weight)
--She has a small shop (500 sq ft) off an alley, so is paying some rent, but in our little Iowa town the rent is not much. She also does have the overhead of one employee.
--She says she "needs to make $12/hour" (but I'm willing to pay more per hour than that)
After making one pair to gauge the work required, she quoted me $12/ pair (i.e. $120 for 10), which strikes me as a bit high since:
--Walmart sells boxers for under $3
--a tailor acquaintance once told me he could sew a pair in under 15 minutes
--Commercial organic cotton boxers cost about $15, but the cost of organic cotton yardage is roughly $8 for enough to sew one pair, so in effect they are charging about $7 to make a pair.
Thanks for your insights!