On Thu, 07 Aug 2014 11:49:35 -0400, Bobbie Sews More wrote:

I read your post a couple hours ago and I've been thinking about your
question. I sew for others, but right now it is mostly mending. In
the past I've sewn custom clothes and other things-----for home, or cell
phone covers. When I figure my cost I figure cost of a trip to the
store for each item---even if I bought ALL the items on my way home from
getting groceries last week. And I figure that cost even if I am using
a scrap from my stash-----The scrap is left over from a $7 a yard cloth
I bought for a home item, so I probably spent $3 for the amount in the
scrap, plus the cost of the 1 left over button ( maybe 50c or $1 but not
25c or 75c). It doesn't matter if I've had the scrap for a year and
have not used it before now.
The 2 to 3 dollars is my estimate of how much it costs, but if I started
doing this as a business I would have receipts, etc., that I could use to
put a better esimate on the actual cost.

I suppose I would have other costs as well, such a possibly having some
sort of advertising, a web presence, and other expenses that I would not
have if I were just making a few gifts or whatever, but I would have
receipts for those expenses.

I also would have other expenses, such as gas or wear and tear on my car
that are a little harder to pin down the exact amount, but are
nonetheless real expenses. I at least hope that my price of 10 to 20
dollars would put enough "padding" on to the price to account for these
expenses.

I also got to wondering how long it would take me to make one of these.

On the ones I made for myself, I cut out all the pieces of fabric, then
went over to my computer, and watched some videos on YouTube, the went
back to my seving machine and quilted the pieces that needed it.

Then I decided to finish assembling it the next night, but am not
absolutely certain that I got too it that soon.

The actual elapsed time to make these was 2 (perhaps more) days, with the
actual time spent cutting/sewing/actually working being unknown as I did
not do any real timing on it.

Was the actual time spent making the case an hour? more? less? I really
don't know.

In the video, she takes almost 20 minutes to put the thing together, but
most of the video is not her sewing or cutting the pieces, but showing
the various stages of construction and explaining what she will/has done.

If it were just a film of her putting the precut pieces together without
any exposition, it would probably take a much shorter time.

If it were a video of her doing everything, such as cutting the pieces,
quilting the pieces that need it, etc., I kind of expect it to take
longer than the 20 minutes, even for someone that is some what practiced
at it.

I also got to wondering, if I started such a business, and it grew to a
point where I had to find a 2nd person to help me with the sewing, which
would be a better way to pay that person.

Would it be better to take about $5 or whatever they actually end up
costing for each case, then letting her keep the "profits" from each
piece that she makes or would it be better to take a smaller amount ($1
or $2) for common expenses such as maintaining a website, etc., but let
her worry about buying the materials for the cases that he or she makes.
In the first case, I would be the one responsible for buying all the
supplies for the cases.

Brian Christiansen