Cost of Needlework Patterns

I paid $8.50 for a knitting pattern on a heavier stock leaflet, approximately 5 x 8 - folded.

EVERYTHING is going up in price. I'm tired of giving my stuff away.

My husband was perusing some shoes and remarked how expensive they were. I said: In 1958 I paid $50 for a pair of good shoes. That was one week's pay (less taxes). We seem to get stuck on yesterday's prices and fail to realize things have gone up in value, e.g., printing costs, hourly wages (well, they haven't gone up much the past two decades). We're getting so many goods imported from cheap labor areas of the world (and they don't last, either). We just seem to forget that when the government says inflation is in check, they are lying. :-) It's a pea under the walnut game.

Dianne

Julie wrote:

I think part of it is a printing/publishing industry issue. I could buy a paperback book for $3.99 back in the days when those Vanessa-Ann Collection books were popular. Those titles are at least $4 more now for the same book unless you buy used. Magazine prices have gone up way too far also. Even worse, many of the magazines I used to read now have fewer pages and far more ads in them. Because of this I'm down to just one subscription now (from a max of six subs. ten years ago) and don't know how much longer I can afford it.

The specialty fabrics, fibers, and embellishments issue is important, too. Back then almost everything that came out was charted for just plain old 10-cent-or-less floss (which certainly is not just ten cents anymore!). It is very hard to justify paying $3.50 for a skein of silk floss when it is used for a total of just five stitches in a design or buying a package 500 beads when you only need a couple.

As long as dedicated stitchers have reliable incomes they will probably continue to buy whatever catches their fancy. Others will finally confess they have reached SABLE and quit buying (I'm easing into that category). It is much harder to get people to try needlework at today's prices. How many people want to spend $200+ for a pattern and supplies, years of time, and $350 for professional finishing for their first project in a new hobby? Sure, there are cheaper projects sold for beginners, but many of them just aren't appealing or look childish.

The "limited edition" racket really makes me sick. I fell for it once and will never do it again. Face it, except for MLI's promise (which might be only for her lifetime) and maybe a couple of others, virtually every needlework pattern goes out of print sooner or later. Doing a numbered print run and jacking up the price seems underhanded. It is just a gimmick to speed up the revenue stream and build hype for the designer by taking advantage of the impulse buyer. Paying extra if you receive something extra (accessories pack of those expensive fibers/embellishments, a class with the designer, etc.) is fine. Getting a bonus (freebie) for being one of the first to buy a design would be a fair way to speed up cash flow.

The whole series thing is getting annoying, also. At least with a series of books I can just get them from a library so my time is the only significant investment I have to make. When I allowed one of my subscriptions to lapse I noticed my final issue had part one of a series that I would like to stitch. Unfortunately that magazine chose to spread the series out over two whole years so I'd have to buy $29 of magazines at subscription price (significantly more otherwise) just to get the one design. Since it was the first thing in that magazine to catch my eye in a couple of years, I didn't bother. Magazines have quit publishing in the middle of series. Designers get bored and move on to something else or die before they have finished a series. Where does that leave the buyer?

Whew! All this has given me a dreadful headache. I th> Every once and awhile I abandon needlework for a long period of time

Brenda

I am down to none now, from six. To top it off, I gave all my issues to my Guild when I moved, so now anyone can sift through them and do the projects.

Yes, I am there too. Just about the only thing I buy now are gold or silver threads and only in tiny quantities, too expensive when they are selling by the ounce lol I have always kept the full range of DMC flosses, also the Eterna Silks, quite a selection of linens but now the time has come to use more than I replace lol

It is much harder to get people to try needlework at today's

Sleep well.

These new Kits which are only the chart amaze me. One of the kits I won at the EGA is like that. The price on it is $39. It is a zip loc with 12 printed pages. barbie

Designers aren't pricing themselves out of the market. Printers, Distributors, etc. are perhaps pricing Designers out of the market with their mark ups and percentages increasing. I'd bet most designers are making less per pattern than they were 10 years ago in alot of cases.

The way I look at it is this:

$12-14 to see a movie = max. 2 hours of enjoyment, leaving me with... memories at best. Cost per hour of enjoyment = $6-7 (hoping I enjoyed the movie)

$20 for a pattern + say $40 for materials = 75-100+ hours of enjoyment stitching, leaving me with a beautiful piece to hang on my wall and memories of creating it with my own two hands. Cost per hour of enjoyment = ~ $0.60-80 per hour (knowing I'd enjoy the stitching).

Just my 2 cents worth.

Shannon L.

I'll agree, but what was *in* with it? There were a couple charts I kept putting back till I got a gift certificate for Christmas. When I got them home, I discovered that they had "stuff" in with them (a package of beads, a collection of rhinestones). Still didn't make them "reasonable", but did make the price less ridiculous.

One day when DBF and I went in, he noticed that I was looking longingly at something, but put it back. He quietly picked it up and started heading for the cash register behind my back. Then I heard the gasp as he saw that the reason I put it back was that it was marked $35. Granted, it had some "stuff" in it (forget if it was beads or charms), but I still thought it was too much for a chart, not a complete kit.

Interesting discussion, which gives a relatively new designer a lot to think about. My work - ethnic needlework - is off the beaten track, so my comments may not represent a typical designers viewpoint.

What I have discovered in trying to place my work is that unless you price your designs in a competitive range, they are not considered "serious or legitimate" designs. Vendors aren't interested in handling lower priced items, because the cost of processing the paperwork eats up the small fees they would collect.

Another point to consider when comparing older projects to contemporary projects is the quality of the work itself. Currently, we benefit from full-color pictures, charts created with computer graphics, and line drawings of complicated stitches. The designer has experimented with all those expensive fibers and fabrics to figure out what looks good together (at least I hope they have.) Would we want to go back to sketchy verbal descriptions (of stitches), charts that sort of hint at which stitch goes where, and basic threads?

All this being said, I will admit to feeling totally "ripped off" after getting in the mail a 2 page design for $12.00. I do hope that new stitchers are not being priced out of this wonderful art.

Phyllis Maurer

Funny you should say that. I'm heading into the needlework version of Arabian/Moorish/Islamic/Middle Eastern art arena myself, and have found this to be a fascinating discussion.

I'm still in the experimentation stage and I don't even have a clue how to go about finding a printer or distributor. Now I'm just wondering if I should self-promote.

Ok let me throw this out ( it's been an idea that I've been tossing around in my head for distribution of patterns)-- What if after paying say $6.00 for a pattern/patterns you could down load the pattern so that it printed once directly to your printer. And we'll use a finished design size of say 6" x 9" for that price. While it would cost you the printer time, ink, and paper you would get the chart/charts, stitching instructions and diagrams.

The other thought I had was a pdf document that you could down load and read with the adobe reader.

No this is not just a what if..........I too have looked at the price of charts and was astounded at how much they have gone up. And I was very disappointed that many have very few stitches of the newest "toys" as far as fibers go included in the designs. While I mostly design Hardanger with beads actually woven into the design--If I used (for example) YLI silk floss most-- if not the entire design was stitched in that fiber.

I have a computer geeker friend working on the direct print solution right now. And we're looking at which computer design program to use that would do that on just about every windows and possibly Mac format out there back to say windows 98/ Mac 4. Printing cost are outrageous. And this would be a solution to keeping prices down.

What do you all think...............

Dorsey in VA

Some eBooks are distributed that way (I bought one, in fact), and I don't mind at all. And I've seen freebie patterns distributed that way.

Here's the thing...one of my designs (one I've completely stitched before), I want to do completely in Eterna Silk (with beads or specialized charms) and it's kinda hard to come by, so I was thinking of kitting it or selling the thread/bead packs as a separate line item.

Mind, I don't like kits nor do I buy them (I usually wait until the pattern only becomes available and if it never does, too bad). However, for hard-to-find threads, I would like to offer it this way--as I think it would be a convenience for the stitcher.

(On the other hand, it looked fabulous in plain old DMC and I've never used silk before. Ever. I'm scared.)

Elizabeth aka Lizard-Gumbo

Quin at Odd and Ins has been doing this for several years. The charts are sent to you in your choice of pdf (Adobe), PCStitch7 or "Great Big Chart" format, by e-mail or standard mail. E-mail costs less.

not affiliated etc.

emerald

Some weeks ago, I had an idea which I have not been able to think through properly. Probably, being male, I have difficulty relating to most patterns I seen in my LNS. I have taken to stitching computer-generated patterns, with all their multitudes of confetti stitches. I realize that such patterns are not for everyone, but maybe there are others like myself. I often find pictures when I am surfing the www, and take a quick look to see if they might make a good pattern. Usually, they dont; they are too big when there is enough detail in the end product, but occasionally they do. I use Pattern Maker, and there is a free download, which enables anyone to print out a pattern stored as the *.pat file of Pattern Maker. I can easily send this pattern to anyone, and they can print it up for free. There are also the patterns I have produced for myself, and which I will only stitch once. So far as I am concerned, anyone can have these for free. I dont "own" any part of the pattern, and as long as I am not making any money, I dont think there is any copyright violation. However, precisely how one would go about organizing anything like this, I have no idea.

-- Jim Cripwell. From Canada. Land of the Key Bird. This creature of doom flies over the frozen tundra in winter, shrieking its dreaded call; "Key, Key, Key, Key rist but it's cold!!"

My reluctance in doing what you suggest is the fact that technology changes sooooooooooooo fast. This approach has a very short "shelf life." Most of the material I'm researching (for ethnic stuff) comes from books printed 50 years ago. How can a designer cope with that? Or do designs die that quickly?

Phyllis Maurer

Do you mean it can only be printed and not saved on a hard drive or portable drive? I wouldn't like that since I have only a black laser printer. I'd want to save a copy and take it somewhere to get the "cover picture" of the finished model printed in color. I would expect to receive a color picture of a stitched model along with the chart and instructions and not just a computer-generated estimate of what a stitched model would look like.

There are several freebies available in pdf format. That format, when used for a view/print/save-only document, is quite backwards-compatible. I would guess the newer, more-interactive pdf files could allow (or will soon allow) users to stitch while sitting at the computer and completed stitches could be "highlighted" or "cross-off" on screen.

By selling patterns directly in this manner, you would have a database of who is interested in specific styles. This could be a marketing tool (you would have to allow an opt-out) whenever you finish the next pattern in a series or do something in a similar style. It would also be wonderful to be able to send out an email to customers who ordered a specific pattern if an error was found on the chart. RealArcade keeps track of what games each customer has purchased and the customer can download the same game again for free anytime for one year. Using that same technology (without the time limit) would allow you to replace the download file on your site with the corrected file, notify customers, and let the customers who bought the original pattern get the corrected one for free.

-- Brenda

I like it when designers offer an accessories pack for hard-to-find items used on a chart. The only major problem with this is it limits the stitcher to using certain counts of fabric in order to use the fibers/embellishments. A higher-count fabric could be used if there are only special fibers and there would just be some fibers left over. Embellishments pretty much stick the stitcher with using whatever the designer chooses. Then again, that is true whether or not the embellishments are made readily available with the pattern unless the embellishments come in different sizes and the stitcher is given some kind of conversion guide.

If the design also looks great > Here's the thing...one of my designs (one I've completely stitched

-- Brenda

I was planning to do that; so maybe I could offer 1) a ground/silk thread/bead/charm pack and 2) a thread/bead/charm pack and 3) a bead/charm pack and 4) just the chart--for stitchers who like to control their own destiny.

Great ideas, thanks.

I hadn't planned to offer the fabric, too (hadn't thought about it). I originally stitched it on 32-count generic oatmeal color uneven weave (comes off the bolt at Hobby Lobby) and decided it made the design too small. This time I found the exact color ground I felt it should be, and got it in 28-count.

This is what it (mostly) looks like (before making some really significant changes):

know this is probably not most people's cup of tea, and it's got some complicated stitching instructions, but I think I can find a market for these themes.

While your thoughts are intriguing, the cost of printing on the computer are tremendous. While the cost of printers has gone done considerably, the cost of the ink is quite high. I just spent $90 to replace the cartridges on my printer; my husband spent $115. And they don't last long. So, while you may pay slightly less, you'll pay about as much for printing it out yourself. Also, formatting for PDF is a cost factor (the time to do it).

There's also the quandry of color reproduction. Most people don't go through the motions to set their printers to reproduce exactly as represented in a given file. (Forget the name of this procedure . . . I have tried and gave up).

Dianne

Dorsey Clement wrote:

Some designers do offer a choice of fabric in their kits. Carol Leather of XCalibre comes to mind she offers charts or kits and fabric choices. I think there are others which do the same. Ruby