Hello I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how much to charge for requests of knitting children clothes.
One is for a newborn for a sweater, hat, and booties. What is a fair price?
And another request is for a sweater for a 3 year old.
Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks
I say one million dollars. 
Give or take a buck or two!! :roflhard:
Sorry, I couldnāt resist that one!!
Have you knit a sweater before? Figure out how much the yarn will cost and then figure how much time it will take. Probably more than most people want to spend. :shrug:
In our area a baby set (jacket, hat and bootees) made of fairly fine yarn will sell for $35-45. A friend of mine makes them and they take her several days each. I can knit a hat in 3-4 hours and get $20-35, depending on the yarn. You will NEVER catch me making baby clothes.
I would ask them to go with you to choose the yarn. That way, they will see how much the yarn costs, and should be willing to pay for it right there. Then, the only thing left to charge them for is your time. You can talk to them about how long it should take to make, then work out something that will be feasible.
Or, you could find out something they could do for you in return. Maybe they have a skill that could be bartered.
Once, I bartered piano lessons for getting someone to paint my house. (I taught their 2 children for a specified time in exchange.)
Not enough. Iāll never knit to sell, because people donāt want to pay a fair price for my [I]time[/I].
However, a good jumping off point for handmade items is 3 or 4 times the cost of supplies.
What is your time worth? If it takes you 10 hours to make a baby sweater start to finish ā¦
$100 that would be $10 an hour
$50 that would be $5 an hour
$30 that would be $3 an hour
And thatās not counting supplies. Most people are not willing to pay you a fair wage.
I had one woman who wanted me to knit her a sweater to wear under her mink cape and I quoted her a price that I thought very reasonable and would net me maybe $.50 an hour and she was outraged. Needless to say I didnāt do the project.
Ding ding ding ding! We have a winner! I also donāt knit to sell because then it is no longer a leisure fun activity. It now has become work. I have one job. And Iām a mother. So thatās two. Oh and donāt forget a wife. Thereās three. And I own 3 demanding cats. I have enough work. I want something to relax with!
Hmm, this is all very interesting! Iād only ever knitted scarves for people. And I hate to charge alot because I just love to do it, and the woman I made the one scarf for paid me far more than I was asking (though it wasnt perfect so I hated to take it from her).
So Iād have no idea about actual clothes!!
The only thing Iāll knit to sell is a scarf or a pair of wristwarmers. Wristwarmers are so quick and a friend has already offered to pay for a pair and isnāt even rushing me to do them, so Iām all for it. I donāt think Iād knit anything complicated to sell, though. . .too much time involved.
My sentiments EXACTLY! Whenever I make anything for my family, they immediately go on and on, saying, āYou should make these and sell them!ā
I always answer, āI knit for fun, not for work.ā I donāt want to turn my leisure activity into a chore.
I try to charge a fair price and still make enough for the time I put into the workā¦I also donāt do any big projects for anyone as I know the cost would be far more than most would be willing to pay.
I used to work at a quilt store years ago and the owner did consignments with people who wanted to sell their work. We always got people coming in admiring the quilts, however, no one wanted to pay the price, especially when they could go to Wal-Mart and buy a quilt for $20ā¦lolā¦
I only do scarves, hats, wristwarmers, cell phone cases, and the likesā¦I do the smaller things that I can finish quickly and charge less for. I sell my hats for roughly $30, however, if someone buys more than one hat at a time, Iāll knock off a few bucks for them. I only charge about $20 for the scarves, even though they take more time than the hats, because even I wouldnāt be willing to pay more than $20 for a scarfā¦well, unless it was one bad a** scarf! LOL The cell cases and wrist warmers, anywhere between $10 and $15.
Iām probably cutting myself a bit short with my work, however, the hats I do have been taking off like wildfire! I figure Iāll get more charging a fair price and getting a lot of ābusinessā than I would charging more and having less people to buy them.
So far, between the hats and cell cases Iāve done, Iāve made over $200.
It really depends on you though, what you feel is a fair price for your work, the materials, and, whether youāre doing it because you need the money, or, doing it more as a favor. Weāve gotten to the point where selling my work has become a necessity which is also another reason I stick to smaller projects. I donāt want to get too burned outā¦lol
Thank you so much for all your replies. It helps a lot and at least gives me an idea where before this, I had no clue.
Happy Knitting!!!
2 to 3 times the cost of the material, depending on the complexity of the pattern. I do not pass along the sale price of yarn because I pay for my own gas and time to shop. So, if I knit a simple baby sweater and paid $15 for the yarn, I would charge $25-$30. If I were knitting an Irish cable sweater, I would probably charge about $40 to $60. It is best to have the customer purchase the yarn so they know prices (plus button and/or zipper costs). Then you can set a fair price for making a sweater. I donāt work for 25c an hour. I make items out of love for my family and friends. And, I get joy out of seeing my items worn. You canāt set a price for that!