My brother asked me if I would be interested in doing a sewing job for his department. Basically his department has been renamed, and all of their official 'shirts' need to have the old arm patches removed and new ones put on.
I don't yet know how many shirts this involves, but I don't think it is more than 12.
Any ideas or suggestions or comments on what would be a fair amount to charge for this kind of work, say, per shirt, would be very welcome as I have never doing this kind of thing.
Do you have any idea how long it would take to remove the old patch, position the new patch and sew them on? Depends on how large they are of course, but I would estimate 20-30 minutes per shirt and charge $10.00 per shirt. If it's a Very Large Wealthy Corporation, my fee would increase. ;-) Be sure you charge for thread.
I think it would depend on where the business is located, the economy there, and who will pay for the shirts. If it is the company, I would probably round the price off to, say, $100.00 for the dozen; but if the individuals are paying, it would most likely be less per shirt. This is just my own opinion and I am definitely not knowledgeable about such things. Emily
No, but he's going to show me this weekend what the shirts and the new patches look like, along with the total number involved. (He is a security director at a small local community college.(
I forgot about charging for thread! Thanks for the reminder and for your feedback.
The company (a small local community college) is paying for the work; the economy here is pretty stable. I appreciate your opinion Emily, that is exactly the kind of feedback i am looking for. Thanks!
You need to consider a number of factors when pricing the job:-
How long it is going to take you to do each shirt & number of shirts Cost of materials used (thread, spray glue / double sided fusible interfacing) Wear and tear on tools (think depreciation and offset) Cost of light, electricity & heating at your place of work (overheads)
Then you need to decide what wage you want to earn per hour, and calculate it all out, and decide whether you are going to charge by the hour or by the shirt.
Here in the UK, we have a set national minimum wage, and I would want to ensure that I earnt that plus enough to cover my materials and overheads as a minimum.
Doing my day (professional job) I am worth a fair sum of money per hour, however, I could not charge that if I was to work making curtains or clothes as my skills are not as good.
Watch out in case other people catch on and start asking you to do work
- don't under price the first job because all the rest that may follow will expect the same rate.
Make it quite, quite clear that after you've done your brother's shirt for practice, they will gather up the rest of the shirts and deliver them to you, and all at once, rather than expecting you to chase each man down individually, rip the shirt off his back, change the patch, and bring it back before chasing after the next one.
Oh, and find out whether the old patches were all sewn on the same way before submitting your bid for taking them off.
Hmmm....I like the idea of ripping the shirt off each man's back - that could be kind of fun LOL
Seriously, you make a good point that I hadn't thougt of; I would definately want them all at once and not have any surprises about the ones I need to remove. Good questions I will ask my brother this morning.
And insist that they come to you laundered. Nothing worse than working on sweaty clothes. Surcharge laundry costs if they come to you needing to go in the washer.
Chiming in very late here. ;) (I was out of town till Friday night. My brain is almost back to normal today...I think. lol)
I base all my paid work on an hourly rate. My rate is $20-$30 per hour depending on the type of work being done. This stuff would fall in the $20 per hour range. When I have multiples to do, I time the first one (if it's something I've never done before) then base the charge for all of them on that first one. Yes, you get faster as you go along. But the time allotment doesn't change. (remember you could have one be a total booger and take twice as long; that will offset the ones towards the bottom of the pile that take half as long as the first one.)
And I never charge less than 30 minutes of my time. Even if it's a 10 minute job, it will still be $10 at minimum. I would guess these shirts would be $10 each if I was doing them. I also don't do discounts, or throw in the 5th one free or anything like that. Even when I have 10 of the same thing to do, and by the 4th my time is cutting itself in half, each one of those 10 Could be the First one and take the longest. So why short myself? Make sense?
I agree with they have to be clean. I refer to Penny S.'s definition of clean. She says that clean means just laundered, not "only worn a few times" since last laundered. Working on dirty clothes is just NASTY.
I also agree that they need to all be delivered to you at once. But they may need to do them in batches so the guys have a shirt to wear to work. Know what I mean? If that's the case, then ask for one from each guy in each batch. Or half of the shirts each guy has in each batch.
Write a contract too. The university will likely want something in writing. Just lay out what you are doing and what you are charging. Break it down per shirt, and then total it all up at the end. Make sure you have your total on there in PLAIN SIGHT. ;) Also, it's perfectly fine for you to ask for a 50% deposit up front. It's also perfectly fine for you to set a reasonable turn around time. Give yourself a week to deliver them at least. You won't need that much time, I'm sure, but add it in anyway. If you get done ahead of schedule you can call to deliver the shirts early. If you run into a snag at home (ask me how many times one or both of the kids got sick while I was working on a major project???) you have a cushion.
Yes indeed. I'm working on pics. ;) We had an INCREDIBLE time the whole trip!! The wedding was amazing. Just truly beautiful. If any of y'all ever get invited to an Indian wedding --- GO!! Truly a beautiful ceremony and what an amazing party!!! Three days basically of party. ;) The ceremony was so beautiful, I will admit I cried a little.
The week in downtown Toronto was awesome too. Although, I will admit to all y'all that Himself did NOT stop the rental car when we passed a fabric store with a 99 cent sale sign out front. Rotten stinkhead. Then had the nerve to tell me that I wouldn't be able to fit it all in my suitcase anyway so why bother?? UPS and Fed Ex both work in Canada too. Mean old man. LOL
Each of us got to pick one thing to do. DS picked taking the ferry out to Center Island and going to the amusement park. That was great fun. Although that amusement park is really a little too young for my kids now. But we all did have a marvelous time. DD picked the Toronto Zoo. No surprise there. ;) We had a great time there as well. Petted stingrays. That was way cool. The little ones feel almost slimy. The bigger ones feel gritty like they have sand on themselves. And the coolest is to feel one curl up its "wing" as it goes past. Really wild. I picked the Royal Ontario Museum. Amazing place!!!!!! (and yes, I have pictures I took especially to share with y'all in the Costumes and Textiles exhibit. heh heh)
DH picked Cirque du Soleil!!!!!!!!!! Just so happened when we were making our travel plans in April, that he found out one of the traveling shows would be at the Air Canada Center while we were there. We've had the tickets ever since, and Did Not Tell the children till we were in our seats before the show started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL Wicked fun!!! They both looked like a Bugs Bunny cartoon -- Lots of WHOOPING and eyes bugged half out of their heads. ;) The show was AMAZING!!!!! If you ever get to see any of the shows, go. It's not much more expensive than a concert. Just go. I will tell you, I used to think I was pretty bendy till I saw those folks. Whoo my!!
And today is the first day of school. ;) Bet all their buddies are getting an ear full. I'm really hoping that one of the teachers still does that "what I did on my summer vacation" writing assignment. ;)
I will work on getting the pictures up online this week and putting captions in, etc. Then I will post more when the official pictures come. My DF that got married said she will send me a CD of all the wedding pictures...and to expect there to be around 1000 pictures on there. ;) The photographer was wonderful. They actually had two guys there taking the pictures. Both are Italian and obviously LOVE weddings. ;) One of the two gentlemen took something of a shine to me. He brought his camera over to me a couple times to show me different pictures he'd taken. They were all just fabulous. He was so adorable. I wanted to hug him before the day was done just because he was so sweet.
The groom's family is probably the most loving bunch of people I've ever met. They all threw open their arms and hugged me, Mike, and the kids. They all told us that we were family now too because they understood that's how my friend thinks of us all. Just wonderful people. It was the most sincere welcome I've ever received from people I'd just met. Can't wait till the next time I get to visit with any of them. (and we have been invited to come visit several of the family members (all over the world) any time we'd like to.)
Sounds like you had a truly memorable experience, and that your children will have a lifetime memory as well. Put something nasty in DH's tea, that'll teach him not to pull over at fabric stores. ;->
Beverly, finished with day one of DGD's sewing lesson and she did really well!
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.