Comments on: How much can you spend the first year?

By: colleen

colleen — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:54:04 +0000

Kathleen recently did a report on Patternworks, a patternmaking/grader/marker company based in CA. Their website, patternworksinc.com, includes a price list which clearly details work performed and cost. This will give you a starting place for product development costs.

By: Sarahs

Sarahs — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:15:24 +0000

IMHO Consider:
PATTERN MAKING costs charged either by the hour or piece.
SAMPLE Fabric, Trim, Notions costs (you could be surprised if you don’t work with your chosen fabric-style combo)
FIRST SAMPLE made by you or your sample maker then sent to your manufacturer. Most production houses can take the sample you sent + fabric to recreate the garment for costing. Typically 3x’s eventual cost per unit. 30$/hr is very fair, esp. if that includes cutting-ask. A simple skirt may only take one hour. You could count on your production being a third to a quarter since they charge a full hour even if it is just a portion.
ORDER FABRIC, TRIM, NOTIONS make sure you get the cut width (RTC roll to cut(?)) on the fabric for markers.
GRADING & MARKERS much info in blog
MISC. labels, hangtags, promotion, shipping, thread, trim, notions.
Do as much as you can yourself. It saves you $$$ and makes you smarter. So you can’t do the cutting, but you can source. People charge a lot for it. I would, cos it takes valuable time away from other very important duties.
The more units you make the more costs get spread out.
Biggest costs are patterns and samples for a small DE. Try to be very exact with your measurements and numbers.

Cheers

By: DacusB

DacusB — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:53:40 +0000

How do you take orders at tradeshows?

I intend to exibit at the MAGIC in 2007. What is the process of taking orders and what is the necessary paprwork to have?

By: J C Sprowls

J C Sprowls — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 01:59:53 +0000

Thank you for the feedback, Hill.

To be honest, I wouldn’t outsource MTM – I’d keep that in house. Why? Because that’s how I want to administer that side of my business.

If I were to take on MTM, that would require sufficient staff to bring a portion of RTW production in-house, too. But, that’s another discussion. I haven’t committed to producing RTW, yet.

For the purposes of this discussion, I had hoped to generate some real numbers for R&D of one shirt style, then illustrate the economy of scale by distributing the cost across 5 styles because of using a block system.

Though, a more thorough discussion on R&D needs to be done in terms of range of cost. Unfortunately, that would require a side-by-side comparison of several proto garments from various designers (e.g. dress shirt compared to sheath dress compared to structured garment, etc).

By: Hil Davis

Hil Davis — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:54:10 +0000

Sorry, for asking another question in this posting, I did it by accident.

To answer your question though, I think you need to do a complete analysis of all your overhead costs from bills to travel to patterns to shipping, etc. Then make a honest revenue forecast based on number of items sold multiplied by the revenue per piece. Then assume a COGS margin and then apply the inverse of that, the profit margin to the cost of your business as detailed in the above advice.

By: Hil Davis

Hil Davis — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:22:20 +0000

JC Sprowls:
How much would labor and production cost total for a made to measure shirt (so every shirt is different)in Canada?

Thanks

By: J C Sprowls

J C Sprowls — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 04:59:11 +0000

Jinjer,

Good idea. I’ve started an email to Kathleen, offline, to ask if I can participate re: this topic.

I’m in process of finishing a men’s dress shirt block system which makes up in to 5 styles. And, I’ve attached some rudimentary costs to the tasks I’ve performed so far (e.g. 6 hrs drafting, 6 hrs proving, + inputs, + changes, + re-proving, etc).

My website will not be functional by the time I finish this project (this weekend). But, I would be in a position to post pics to the bulletin board if Kathleen approves my proposal.

My disadvantage is that I sketch poorly, which is why I delve so deeply into the technical verbosity of patterning and other sew tech geeky stuff (highly technical terms, all). But, I will be attending a class with one of our noted members (ahem…), soon, so I can break through that mental block.

By: Jinjer Markley

Jinjer Markley — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 20:11:21 +0000

I thought the idea was something much more concrete and feasible: sort of like Zoe’s answer to the complimentary question.

i.e. rather than answering “how much CAN you spend,” andswer “how much I spent…” with links to a website showing the clothes from the relevant season. Anybody willing to do that?

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 23:56:56 +0000

I’d really like to see this topic fleshed out some more. Does anybody care to volunteer some sketches that we can use for costing purposes? Like Mimi says, what’s a blouse or pant? On too many web sites, I’ve seen t-shirts described as “women’s blouses”.

By: Judith

Judith — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 05:56:14 +0000

Mimi, you are probably right and this is why Im having problems trying to figure this out.