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

Just hope you will be declaring your earnings OP. Good luck.

I am a handmade card maker. I will never be able to charge for my time, it would price my cards too high. I charge for materials plus half again.

I work with a company that organise regular producers markets, people know that everything is handmade or produced with locally sourced ingredients. I always sell well at those markets, mainly because people know who the vendors are likely to be.

Like others have said, increase your range, find some producers markets or craft fairs to sell at. Good luck!

I recently bought a grey cashmere hat for 40 pounds so I think some people will pay for them. In fact, I bought the last one so I know people will!

I'm not mad about the striped hats you posted and personally wouldn't buy them.

Are those done on a loom? Because if so, I don't think you're going to get what you need for them.

You have to really market the alpaca-wool blend. Get some tags.
Get good photos.

Even better, photos of the alpacas the wool has come from. People (me included) love that kind of provenace type stuff. Especially when it's a UK source.

They're lovely but as a fellow crafter, I think there are generally 2 kinds of people....

The first being someone like me who can really appreciate the yarn quality and workmanship and understand why the cost is £15. And, non crafty people who only see a nice hat but with a crazy price tag.

Unfortunately most crafty people would probably just make their own and non crafty people would head to Primark for the acrylic price tag equivalent.

Either way, sadly I suspect it would be difficult to make enough money to even cover your costs but I do wish you every success.

Maybe if they were personalised what about matching cardigans for babies/young children? I loved mine in hand knitted cardigans. My mum knitted load's and did a blanket for them as well.

Plus you are making them for babies I lost count of the amount of hats my kids lost. They just refused to keep them on until they were about 6 (both autism and ADHD) With the cost of living most families wouldn't pay it for a small item of clothing when you can pay for a full outfit for less.

Just hope you will be declaring your earnings OP. Good luck.

If you are self-employed and make less than £1000 profit in a year, you don’t have to declare.

Get something like these to make them look more professional.

Have you spoken to your local zero waste shop? Ours stocks things like locally made bits and bobs and their clientele are the sort who buy those things.

I'm also in the market for a reasonably priced hat/scarf combo with the scarf monogrammed but have found all the natural material ones are so expensive it's untrue. Might be an opportunity!

Coming back to this. I think you need to do adult sizes too, kids lose things so not everyone is happy to spend a lot on someone who will outgrow or lose it quickly. Having said that I always did but decent quality and natural fibres for my children. Have you though about wrist warmers, scarves, necklets, snoods etc?

I wouldn't pay so much for a hat, I appreciate it takes time but too expensive for me when they're so cheap in shops.

I would never buy wool either.

Uniqlo beanie hats (cashmere) are £24.90 at the moment- on sale from £34.90. And that’s a high street shop. So £15 is a bargain. That’s half the original shop price. Cashmere is a bit more expensive than merino/alpaca, though. You need to market them better. Plain colours I think are better than patterned. Definitely do not add pom-poms.

This. What people think the hats are worth isn't an issue because it's very very unlikely that you'll reliably make money any time soon.

You need to work in the evenings or weekends when DP is home to look after DC. Restaurant, bar, care, supermarket for a few hours all likely to pay more than earned by knitting unfortunately.

Does he make decent money for the long hours he works? Have you reviewed your spending to see if if its a lack of income or a spending and budgeting issue as to why you need more money?

For hand knitted they are nor expensive but you need to find your market. That’s not the sort of people who are happy with a £5 machine knitted Primark one.

Etsy is a nightmare. It’s full of “hand made” items mass produced in China and the OP is very unlikely to have anyone find her products let alone buy them

Etsy is also a giant mega Corp that makes a lot of money by taking a cut of the labours of a lot of individuals.

See also Uber, Deliveroo, Amazon etc

Will they stretch and recover? I think you might need to use a cheaper yarn. They also look like they might stretch out and then be rendered slightly useless.

Sadly, people don’t care about homemade items when they can get lots of very cheap things from the high street.

It's not just a matter of caring about home made, it's what's economically sensible.

Very few people have the available budget to pay £15 for items that do the same job and look very similar to those that cost a quarter of that from a supermarket.

They might be able to do it as a one off, but they're not going to be able to do it for enough items to make a difference to someone like the OP, especially as it's been demonstrated that £15 is still too little to allow her to earn even NMW from her endeavours.

If the OP keeps knitting hats, it's a hobby that might cover its costs if she's lucky, not something that's going to earn a wage unfortunately.

I think those that appreciate hand made products will go for them but many won't consider the time and skill that goes into producing a quality product vs a £2 Primark hat, sadly. I think it depends where and to who you market them.
I doubt there's a lot of money in it for you, OP.
What about doing some evening/weekend shifts in your local pub/restaurant once your dh comes in from work? As your children are only young, he's only got to feed, bath them and put them to bed then he's got the rest of the evening to chill.

I can't get on with hats but I spend a fair bit on nice wrist warmer fingerless gloves. Raynauds 😑

Some are just like a tube with a thumb hole so (to me with no experience) seem fairly straight forward?

Hi OP- Haven’t read all the replies, so apologies if this has been suggested previously; have you looked at ‘Make it at Market’ on iPlayer? If not, it is worth a look to see how experts help take home crafters to the next level. Good luck :)

I just don't think you can make any money on this kind of thing. I make crochet toys but give them away. An old school friend insisted on paying me £30 for a small one I made her as a favour, she said she knows they take a lot of work and are undervalued. Most people don't feel that way.
I crocheted a giant tarantula. It cost me about £20 in materials and took around 40 hours to make, a full working week in time. I'd need to sell if for around £400 to make it worthwhile! I donated it to the school as a raffle prize.

I'm a crafter myself and I appreciate the work that goes into handmade for the cost. But being honest, these are boring and whilst it may be your style and easy to do, people won't pay for it and that's the bottom line. If you want to sell handmade items they need to stand out, these are too generic.

You mention you need to do the night wake ups, are you breastfeeding? If not then why do you need to do them? And would you not be better off working a day at the weekend?