Cost of Needlework Patterns
 

Every once and awhile I abandon needlework for a long period of time
then come back to it. After a hiatus of about a year (when I
concentrated on quilting), I returned to my first love. To "celebrate"
I purchased a needlework inventory program and entered in all my
leaflets and books along with what I paid for them. One thing that I
noticed was I got a lot more value for my money with my older leaflets
and books. It used to be that when you bought a book or leaflet, you
got several designs (not to mention several pages). Now you pay
$8,$10,$12 dollars or more for one pattern (and on top of that, are all
the specialty threads, overdyed fabrics, and embellishments that go
with it).

I understand (and support) that designers deserve compenstion for their
work and I have purchased many, many designs (not to mention my
increasing stash of overdyed floss and silk), but I have to say I feel
designers are starting to price themselves out of my market (and I'm
not cheap about what needlework materials I buy). I used to buy some
patterns just to support a designer's work, but I don't do that so much
any more. There are some noted exceptions - for instance Prairie
Schooler, Cross-Winged Collection, and The Cricket Collection are
always good buys, but after I saw a $40.00 Just Nan "limited edition"
leaflet I couldn't believe my eyes. And those little Bent Creek
Snappers - $4.00*12 months=$48.00 for little square designs (and yes, I
*have* these, so what was I thinking?!).

Does anyone else feel the same way? I really miss the some of the older
style books that used to be printed, like the Vanessa Ann Collection,
that had not only lots of stuff, but interesting ways to finish them.

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:
Every once and awhile I abandon needlework for a long period of time
then come back to it. After a hiatus of about a year (when I
concentrated on quilting), I returned to my first love. To "celebrate"
I purchased a needlework inventory program and entered in all my
leaflets and books along with what I paid for them. One thing that I
noticed was I got a lot more value for my money with my older leaflets
and books. It used to be that when you bought a book or leaflet, you
got several designs (not to mention several pages). Now you pay
$8,$10,$12 dollars or more for one pattern (and on top of that, are all
the specialty threads, overdyed fabrics, and embellishments that go
with it).

I understand (and support) that designers deserve compenstion for their
work and I have purchased many, many designs (not to mention my
increasing stash of overdyed floss and silk), but I have to say I feel
designers are starting to price themselves out of my market (and I'm
not cheap about what needlework materials I buy). I used to buy some
patterns just to support a designer's work, but I don't do that so much
any more. There are some noted exceptions - for instance Prairie
Schooler, Cross-Winged Collection, and The Cricket Collection are
always good buys, but after I saw a $40.00 Just Nan "limited edition"
leaflet I couldn't believe my eyes. And those little Bent Creek
Snappers - $4.00*12 months=$48.00 for little square designs (and yes, I
*have* these, so what was I thinking?!).

Does anyone else feel the same way? I really miss the some of the older
style books that used to be printed, like the Vanessa Ann Collection,
that had not only lots of stuff, but interesting ways to finish them.


--
"The Journal of Needlework" - The E-zine for All Needleworkers
http://journal.heritageshoppe.com

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 think I'll go take
a nap.

Julie wrote:
Every once and awhile I abandon needlework for a long period of time
then come back to it. After a hiatus of about a year (when I
concentrated on quilting), I returned to my first love. To "celebrate"
I purchased a needlework inventory program and entered in all my
leaflets and books along with what I paid for them. One thing that I
noticed was I got a lot more value for my money with my older leaflets
and books. It used to be that when you bought a book or leaflet, you
got several designs (not to mention several pages). Now you pay
$8,$10,$12 dollars or more for one pattern (and on top of that, are all
the specialty threads, overdyed fabrics, and embellishments that go
with it).

I understand (and support) that designers deserve compenstion for their
work and I have purchased many, many designs (not to mention my
increasing stash of overdyed floss and silk), but I have to say I feel
designers are starting to price themselves out of my market (and I'm
not cheap about what needlework materials I buy). I used to buy some
patterns just to support a designer's work, but I don't do that so much
any more. There are some noted exceptions - for instance Prairie
Schooler, Cross-Winged Collection, and The Cricket Collection are
always good buys, but after I saw a $40.00 Just Nan "limited edition"
leaflet I couldn't believe my eyes. And those little Bent Creek
Snappers - $4.00*12 months=$48.00 for little square designs (and yes, I
*have* these, so what was I thinking?!).

Does anyone else feel the same way? I really miss the some of the older
style books that used to be printed, like the Vanessa Ann Collection,
that had not only lots of stuff, but interesting ways to finish them.

--
Brenda

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.

Julie wrote:

after I saw a $40.00 Just Nan "limited edition"
leaflet I couldn't believe my eyes.

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

Phylis Maurer wrote:

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.

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.

--
lizard-gumbo

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


"lizard-gumbo" wrote in message
...
Phylis Maurer wrote:

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.

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.

--
lizard-gumbo

Dorsey Clement wrote:

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.

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