Debates about Pricing

Everything is comparative.  Students at uni complain bitterly about he cost of digital printing at UH.
Fabric for the digital printer is priced at 1.8 x cost price from the wholesalers, and every print job has to have a half metre wind-on cost.  My fabrics vary between £7.70 for poplin to £30 for hemp ramie, or £36 for silk satin, per metre.  Add to this the cost of the digital inks, for which I have had to pay between 48p - £2.56 per metre.  Students have to steam and wash the fabrics themselves, and iron them.

Then I looked at the University of East London Fabpad website.  This is a business run by students at UEL as a commercial print bureau.  Their prices are similar to UH for fabrics, but have a £30 per metre print cost (!), plus 20%VAT if you are not a UEL student!!!  Fabpad steam, washes and irons the fabric for the customer.   Fabpad lists mostly high end fabrics for customers to select from.   But then, if you were paying £30 per metre to print it, you would probably feel spending £7.70 for poplin to be unjustifiable, and be more likely to target high end fabrics.

Pricing polocies then state you add in your design costs, and double the whole amount to calculate the final costs.

When Lucy asked me how much I would sell my red poplin for, I said about £50 per metre, thinking this was a price at the high end of "reasonable".  However this is inadequate once you enter the commercial digital print world.  £50 per metre would be cost price without design costs or profit.  Hmm!  Need to rework the costings.

However, today I had a lovely day making my dress for our Private View.  I had bought a 1950s original dress pattern, in a size 16.   Oh dear, oh dear!  British women have changed shape since the 1950s!  I had to adapt the bodice - another 6" on the waist (yes, really), and another 3" in depth from shoulder to waist.  I added 1.5" at the armhole, and another 1.5" at midrib level.  So far I have made the bodice, attacheded the skirt and faced the neckline.  I tried on the dress, and I was delighted that my considerable alterations had worked, and the pattern fitted!  Tomorrow I need to insert the zip, sleeves and hem.