Pages

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A Pretty Penny

Ever wonder why it seems like these little boutiques’ clothing is a little more on the expensive side?? I mean, they’re *just* homemade clothes, right?? I thought I would share a little break down to help our prices make a little more sense. ;) Most of us boutiques are using very high quality, durable designer fabrics. Most of us have to buy the fabric for the garments we make at full retail price which is usually around $8.75 per yard. We don’t sell in the kind of quantities to be able to afford to buy in bulk at wholesale. So, let’s take for example a size 3T Peek A Boo Ruffle Dress…. It requires about 3 yards of fabric. That is ordered when you place your order and costs $31.75 (with shipping). I charge $75 for this dress. So that leaves $43.25 of pure profit, right? Nope. I also have to buy thread and elastic….not to mention the wear and tear on my machine and the additional electricity to run it…..AND the laundry soap, dryer sheets, water and electricity used to pre-wash the fabric. So I’ll take another $8.00 off for that which puts it at $35.25 “profit”. But wait, I haven’t paid myself for my time and labor yet! The Peek A Boo Ruffle Dress takes me from first fabric cut to last stitch sewn about 7 hours to make. So that’s…..$5.04 per hour for my time and labor. Not even minimum wage. And I still never even figured in all the time I spend on the computer communicating with my customers about their orders and ordering their fabric…..the time it takes to package the order and print the shipping label, the cost of the packaging supplies, the ink and paper in my printer to print shipping labels and invoices and and and….. ;) Us boutique owners are by no means “getting rich” off what we do. We do it because we love sewing and creating and the pride we feel when you tell us what we created is beautiful. My hubby calls it “pseudo profit”. LOL! Yes, the clothing is more expensive than store bought. BUT, when you shop from us little mommy boutiques, the quality far surpasses most store bought labels. These clothes will last longer, stand up to more wear, tear and washing and will stand out in a crowd since they are made in such small quantities. Your child will never run into another little girl on the playground in the same outfit! ;) And best of all……your child’s clothes were made WITH LOVE. ♥ ♥ ♥

1 comment: