Is it too expensive?

[miniandmestudios]

Not sure if it is entirely the right thread but I’ve started making hats by hand to try make some money - I’m a stay at home mum of 2, can’t afford childcare to go to work but can’t afford to not work. So I’m a bit stuck (DP works) and there is no one else I have to watch the kids.

My friend told me she would never pay £15 for a hat but it costs me £5 in materials and 3 hours roughly to make so it’s £3.33 ish an hour. I really don’t want less than that as working for £2 an hour is stupidly low.

I’ve attatched images of the hats so if I could get everyone’s opinions I’ll lower the price or keep as they are!

YANBU - the prices are okay
YABU - the prices are too expensive

Post edited by MNHQ

Guccia and the likes charge a lot more for their stuff so someone out there will value your time. Try a few Facebook groups for advice like Etsy Underachievers or Tizzit circle.

I'd say craft fairs are your friend here, OP. If you go to a craft fair you're not expecting Primark prices. I know someone who's selling hand knitted fair Isle hats for £35 each. They're lovely but I couldn't justify that for a hat, although people do obviously pay it.

I would pay £15 for the sheep hat linked to above but not yours as they are too generic.

To the people saying it's not comparable to a hat from Primark...

When it's on the baby's head it very much is comparable. No-one's going to notice or care whether it was knitted by a machine or knitted by hand.

OP, if you can't afford childcare, can you get an evening/weekend job and share it with your DP?

I wouldn't think twice paying £15 for a handmade hat - especially if I knew the person making it can it was a way of supporting a friend as well as buying something handmade.

To sell hand knitted goods they need to be more unique. What yarn are you using? Something in a rare breed British wool would sell better. Have you designed the pattern yourself?
I knit socks, but it is not cost effective to sell them according to an hourly rate. I knit them in the evening and in my spare time so charge about £15 a pair or swap them for other things. I make about £5 for a pair that I can knit in a week in the evenings.

It’s an alpaca merino wool blend so 100% wool!
I’ve done them more minimalistic as that’s my style and will expand to do more decorative ones as time goes on, they’re the easiest to knit with my kids around me as they take little to no concentration!

He works from 7am till 6pm roughly and my kids are 4 months and 21 months so neither sleep through the night, I would work evenings but I need to do the night shift with the kids and currently I get about 4-5 hours sleep in total and that’s going to sleep when my eldest goes to bed

I do appreciate how much work goes into it but I personally wouldn't spend £15.00 that's not to say people won't pay it or that it's not worth it just purely because I can buy it to much cheaper at a shop. It may sell at that rate if you personalise them?

It’s not that your being unreasonable but I would not pay £15 for that hat.

There are plenty of people out there who would much prefer to pay a premium price for something handmade and to actively avoid going to the likes of primark. If you shop in primark, obviously £15 sounds astronomical for a hat.
Don't sell yourself short, those hats are lovely, it's just a matter of finding the right customers.

Etsy etc is full of those customers, I think that's part of the OP's problem.

What she's selling looks no different to the rest.

See I’m an Etsy seller and a supporter of shopping small - this is the kind of thing I’d happily pay £15 for but in person when I could see the quality, it’s not something I would seek out online to buy.

Alpaca merino wool blend! That changes everything. I was going to say use cashmere, and bump the price up high. Like the previous posters suggesting higher prices and specialist wool - I think there's no point in chasing the primark market which can do it so much cheaper using slave labour and cheapest fabrics.

What about babies' cardigans? If you look at the traditional ones on Brora, they're £159. Provided you market them clearly as 100 per cent pure cashmere, I think they would sell. Last time I looked for a baby gift there wasn't a single knitter on eBay selling handmade cardigans in lovely wools, only lemon and turquoise acrylics

I think they're really really lovely!! ❤️❤️

Get some real fur pompoms for the top (and you might even get similar to the £65 I paid for one!)

I make things and have a shop on Etsy. My advice is raise your target market. Use 100% wool and get some little leather tags with "hand made" or your own brand and stitch these on. If people are going to pay a bit more for a hand made hat they don't want acrylic yarn they want real wool or alpaca. They want it to look upmarket and professional. There's nothing wrong with your knitting, you just need to make it what people who have money to spend want to buy. Neutral "aran" type colours or tweed, greys, creams, natural tones. People will pay the money but you need to up your game. I really wish you the very best of luck. xx

I wouldn’t pay £15 for a bobble hat personally. I agree they aren’t unique enough.

Real fur? 🤦🏼‍♀️erm yuck.

Wow, was that really necessary?

They're nice hats but I wouldn't spend £15.

I’d be unlikely to buy one from Etsy. But if they were for sale in my lovely local gift shop, then I probably would! I like shopping local and supporting small businesses.

For £15 I'd want something that looked a bit different to a hat I could get much cheaper.

I think the hats look really cute OP. They are handmade in the UK. Not made in some sweatshop or using child Labour. So I don’t think £15 is unreasonable at all.

I personally think that’s too low. I crochet so I get it. The way I look at it that person isn’t your target audience. So her opinion really doesn’t matter.

Why not Etsy? Etsy is made up of small businesses.

I think that's the thing though. Someone else could make something a bit more for the same price .