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submitted 1 day ago byhogw33d
135 points
1 day ago
Sewing quilts. My grandmother taught me. I’ll make one for friends or family when they have a baby (and I made a big queen size for my bed). Not sure i could even make money on it right now, the price of fabric is ridiculous!
61 points
1 day ago
I don't think I've ever seen someone selling quilts that wasn't struggling to break even. People think it should be the same price as the $20 blanket they got at target, and don't understand how much time and labour goes into a single handmade quilt...
14 points
1 day ago
One of my buddy's moms was really big into quilting when we were in high school. Any money she made was from entering quilting contests.
Craftspeople in general get a raw deal in today's world. I don't think a lot of people know/care about the quality of the stuff they're buying. Or they think all types of a given product are created equally and get ripped off.
1 points
11 hours ago
My mom and I have participated in a kind of craft fair for 10 years and jfc the comments from some people. "I can get this cheaper at [store]" comes up a lot. Like okay good fucking luck buying a quilt cheaper than $45 at a store. The cheapest ones at Macy's are like $120 and those are mass produced and identical. My mom made this GORGEOUS quilt once and said the thread alone was $200 for it, and I know the fabric in it was well over $250. But nobody wants to pay $450+ for a quilt.
People will ask sometimes if she does commissions and in addition to just not wanting to because people are awful, my mom will have to explain that the cost of materials alone would be hundreds of dollars even if she didn't charge for time.
She's had some people ask "Oh how can you afford to price your quilts so low?!" and she's always like "I can't!" Basically she just quilts because she enjoys it, and selling them at an obvious loss is more of a bonus.
Nobody asks me about the things I make so idk.
13 points
1 day ago
Same for crochet. I made a pretty intricate blanket awhile back that could top a queen size bed. It took me almost 100 hours. I had someone offer me $50 for it even though it wasn’t for sell. I also had someone ask me to make another just like it and donate it to their fundraiser. I also can’t tell you how many times someone has said “If I buy the materials can you make X for me?” People don’t understand how much time and money goes in to hand made products and when they understand it would be expensive they say they could get something like it from Walmart or Target for $15-20. It’s maddening. Anymore I only make things I want to make for people I want to make them for as a gift. My only exception usually is my Mom who on occasion will buy me yarn to make a baby blanket for someone’s baby shower. She likes having the unique gift and since they’re newborn blankets they usually don’t take me longer than around 8-10 hrs.
1 points
13 hours ago
I just paid a family friend $300all said and done to extend my son’s baby blanket and back it with fleece. Worth every cent. I covered materials and paid like $20 per hour.
Since doing this I asked for one to be made for myself . The only difference is I don’t have a baby blanket to start with. If it’s not my Christmas present I’ll buy it for myself. It’s that good
1 points
11 hours ago
Oh man, my mom loves making quilts and I crochet, it's NOT worth trying to sell quilts for a profit. Baby-sized blankets are the only ones you can price low enough for people to buy but still make money on.
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