Take 2--or Double Take

I really enjoyed the polka dot flower brooch I made this week. On the strength of it I asked myself a couple of questions:

• how would it look in a hand-dyed cotton homespun fabric?
• how long does it actually take to make one of these brooches?

Here's how it looks. And it took fifteen minutes to make after I'd assembled all the materials and worked out the technique on a previous incarnation.

 So what? Well, one of the topics for this weeks Make Craft Your Business class was pricing. We've been pointed to this formula as a good guide. It suggests a fair retail price is four times the cost of materials plus time. Yep, four times! That's to cover all sorts of things like finding and purchasing supplies, developing designs, labelling, promoting, etc, etc, etc. Not to speak of overheads. Now I'm no-where near making my living from my crafts, but it's a worthwhile question, particularly if I'm going to be more intentional about what I make to sell.

 I don't have an estimate for the time and materials I used to dye this fabric. It was a few years ago, but I know that good quilting cottons, whether hand-dyed or commercially printed retail for $24 per meter. This flower takes just under 10 cm of fabric, The brooch back costs 40 cents. The big question then becomes, "What price should I put on my time?"

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this difficult topic. I can tell you that when I pulled out the brooch in class and presented my figures, we were all struggling to know how to reconcile the issue. I deliberately did this with something I don't feel too precious about. In fact, by the end of the day I wasn't even sure that I liked the brooch. I'm a bit happier with it this morning. And the possibility of selling kits helps. 

Bunch of Flowers

Some years ago my friend L had minor surgery. By the way, I've heard "minor surgery" defined as "surgery that happens to some-one else"; whereas "major surgery" is "surgery that happens to me" Leaving such definitions aside, I wanted to do something for my friend at the time, but the traditional bunch of flowers didn't take my fancy. Instead I bought a dress length of cotton-linen fabric and dyed it up in one of her favourite colours. You can get an idea of how many years ago by the fact that this colour was nowhere to be found in the shops. Over the years, the fabric has been destined for a summer dress. First L had to trace off the pattern from her favourite sundress. I think it took the following summer for her to get to cutting it out, and another year later it was mostly done.

This week L's back at work and now that the rain has stopped, she's wearing her new dress--and matching ladybird earings: It looks great on her, and she's receiving compliments left, right and centre. The sight of her wearing it makes me smile, and the "bunch of flowers" tag has stuck, which just adds to the brightness.