For Knit/Crochet, Homemade = Expensive!

I was approached by a client who was interested in a Transformers hat for their grandson for Christmas.  They had a picture of a hat from Etsy that I based my design on.  Unfortunately, the hat on Etsy was $75 CAD!  That's simply not affordable!

That's the issue with homemade stuff.  If I charge an hourly rate for the work I do and cover my material cost, there's no way people would be able to afford buying this stuff!  Luckily, I happen to love making things and have hit a point where I'd rather make things for others than make stuff for myself and my family.  That's why I started selling my stuff to people... but I wanted to do it at an affordable cost.  So I don't really charge much for my time.  I more think of what I would be willing to pay for such an item and ballpark the price around there.  I'm selling blankets for $40 where the material costs $25 and it takes 12 hours to make!  So if I charged hourly, the blanket would be $145, no one would pay that!  So instead I'm making just over a dollar an hour.  But I love doing it... idle hands are the devil's plaything, right?

Anyways... the hat.  It was pretty fun to do as I had really no plan on how to make it going in.  I simply looked at the picture the client sent me and went for it!  I started with a basic hat and made it longer on the sides.  Then I structured a pointed ear piece + another top half to sew it into place.  I made the circular ear pieces and then stemmed the antenna from them, making 2 pieces the same and sewing them together with a bit of batting in the bottom.  I shaped the front visor and made a piece to go along the headress part.  Then shaped the mask and hand sewed some velcro in to make it removable and adjustable.  Voila!  It sounds basic but it was a lot of stitching and playing around with it.  Overall it's pretty great!

One last collage, for Pinterest's sake!

Frozen Fever is still in effect...

I know Frozen came out literally 2 years ago, but it seems that everyone still has Frozen Fever!  I know my daughter has watched the 'Frozen Fever' short film on Netflix a bunch of times since it became available.

A client asked for an Elsa Hat.  She send me a picture, it seemed straightforward and guess what?  It's amazing!  I went to Michael's (Canada) and found some notions to use - snowflakes, snowflake buttons and some jingly bells.  I make a test hat for my daughter and she just won't take it off.

This hat is... everything!

Custom orders available through my Facebook page, or email me!  This kind of stuff is so fun, I may have to make a whole series of hats for all the different princesses.  It looks GREAT with the Elsa dress!

Just for fun, here she is wearing the test hat.  The only difference is the number of notions in the braid and the hair material is actually wool!!

First Custom Orders!

I'm celebrating this week as I've officially completed my first 2 custom orders!  These are also my first official sales, which is exciting.  I'm getting into the groove.  I have 7 other pieces I'm currently working on for clients, so I'm keeping busy!

I had a lot of fun making my first minion hat.  I improvised the pattern based on a picture that the client found online.  She'll be giving it to a little girl at her birthday party this weekend!  The key to making the minion hat was finding the right yellow.  I ended up using Butter Yellow from Bernat Premium, it's soft and not too light but not too bright.  Just the right amount of minion-ness!

And with the yoda hat... well... everyone loves yoda!  Or rather... love yoda, everyone does.  It's a simple hat that has awesome ears!  Pattern credit: Crochet Yoda Hat by Teri Heathcote.