Hello Everyone,
Im sorry I am so out of touch, but hopefully within the next couple months i will have my own email to keep in touch with everyone!
I had a terrific time at the convention and enjoying meeting you all!!
I have a question I would like to ask all of you. Does anyone know about how much it actually cost THEM to make a slipcover. Meaning, do you know how much time it actually takes to make a slipcover, including pinning, sewing, utilities, materials (excluding fabric), and travel?
For a 1 cushion chair, 2 cushion love seat, and a 3 cushion sofa?I am having difficulty re-evaluating my price list, and this would help me generate my new prices. Any help or guidance you could provide me will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot! Sheila Benner
7 comments:
Great to hear from you!
About the email, you can get free email accounts from Yahoo and Hotmail. They don't have all the bells and whistles, but they work.
As for your other question, there is not going to be an answer that will fit everybody or every piece of furniture.
There are so many variables! You could try to do something like this: http://www.carrscorner.com/labortime.php but keep in mind that it will vary. It would be nice to be able to say that it takes, say, 10 hours to do a chair with 2 cushions. But, it depends on the chair, how far the client lives, the fabric you use, and of course, each one of us have different speeds. I tried to do some time studies when I first started, and even for a pair of chairs with the same fabric, I had some discrepancies.
I think that your best bet would be to estimate in number of days and see how much you need to make per day. So, if a sofa slip takes a week, and you want to gross $500 per week, that's what you would charge.
There is also a good article on figuring out your overhead at http://www.carrscorner.com/overhead.php
I hope to hear from others on that!
Agnes Smith, President
Keys Home Furnishings, Inc.
Custom draperies and more!
http://www.keyshomefurnishings.com
Professional Upholstery & Soft Furnishings Group
Administrator: http://www.carrscorner.com
As for how long it take to sew a slipcover, I charge by the project and never work straight threw on a project but break it into bits and pieces. But if you broke it down you could do hours. Angie, in Florida has done some time studies as to how long it takes to do certain projects.
Example I just did a camel back sofa with one bench cushion and I charged $450 to do this job. No skirt mind you and I thought it would be a breeze. It was until I got to the hemming of the project. The fabric was hemp, loose weave and it was waterfall fabric to the floor, and when it came time to make the skirt it did all sorts of nasty things................. 3 hours wasted.... but finally figured out a way to finish off the bottom. I am so happy I charged what I did.
The slipcover pricing summary is a ball park.... and you should be up at the high end of that pricing for the east coast. You did get one of those right?
The only issue you will have is what you have been charging for all the years, you will have to gradually raise your prices to past customers.
Hope I have helped
always
Karen with Slipcover America Inc
www.slipcoveramerica.com
www.slipcovernetwork.com
www.sonoransewingexperience.com
www.recyclewithkbkathome.com
I like Sheila's questions about how much to charge for a slipcover. I charge $300 for a one cushions chair. I cut in the client home. Bring back to stitch. It takes me 1.5 - 2 hr.s to cut double fabric on half of the chair. I bring it back and open the pinned cover, put additional pins in the other side.
To make cord, cut the skirt, boxing for cushion and the cushion if I didn't done on location, is about 2 hours.
Then to stitch a pinned cover, maybe two hours, the skirt takes perhaps another hour. This is not counting on travel or interruptions, I can cut and sew a chair in a day. Hope this helps.
And on another idea. . . .Any suggestions on retirement from slipcovers?
If anyone wants to take my very busy slipcover business clientele here on the eastern shore in Bethany Beach, DE, let me know. I am located a few miles north of Ocean City MD and south of Rehoboth Beach DE. However, you are only buying the business not my house/workroom. Although you could make me an offer I can't refuse.
MaureenThomas
I try to get as much as I can, organize myself, spend as little as I can, sew fast and then hope for the best, but that's me. I find profit in delegating, in streamlining, in using USPS to send finished products. I try to be selective, and keep overhead minimal. That's the other end of the question, but in the end, it's how fast you sew that counts. I sewed two washed sofas yesterday, with cushions and with special zippers. I discounted the price as there are four indentical. The price was 1440. Took 4 hours to cut, 4 hours to overlock, will take 13 hours to sew all. Took maybe two more to wash it all.
will add on four hours delivery, and still that's only 25 hours. AS it happened I wrote a series of articles on it, add five hours more. Call it 30 hours. It was still $45 an hour.
You forgot to add on the hours you thought about the project... Do you bet paid for that?
I planned the next action as I wrote the picture trail and forum article. Plus, it was a stock plan, the same one I always use.
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