Thread: finally found a local seamstress, does 25/hr sound right?

She charges $25/hr for custom work. She is an artist of many mediums and I've seen both her paintings and the sewing she does..she has an industrial? sewing machine, cloth mannequins, the whole nine yards. I think we might start watching project runway together

anyways does that sound like a fair rate for quality custom work? I was a bit surprised it wasn't more.

I just dyed some charmeuse silk half circles and she's going to make a circle skirt for me and possibly a halter top out of a stretchy charmeuse silk. If all goes well I'll let you know..we have discussed the possibility of working together on custom made items. Really nice custom made items. Now that I have access to a quality seamstress (she used to work in fashion industry) I'm gonna go buy a bunch of silk and dye it and give it to her to make something bitchen.

So maybe just maybe we'll be offering custom made silk clothing and bellydance items in the near future..like seriously custom made. Any size. I'm so excited I just spilled my water!

it sounds low to me too. but cheer up, maybe she will raise her prices as time goes on! ..l;,

lol i thought it sounded low too but i was like HEY well how long does it take to sew a circle skirt? maybe i should have her sew half circle veils too? might be cheaper and easier than getting them from china

Sounds like a win-win for everyone - including everyone on Bhuz. Keep in mind this is her starting price. It is possible she is starting with a low-ball figure. Of course she will probably be doing mass-production techniques - lots of waistbands or casings at the same time, side seams for many skirts at the same time, etc. Faster and easier than one item at a time.

Do not be surprised if her price increases by the first of the year. Once both of you are comfortable with the arrangement you might want to consider a one-year contract. You would have confidence you could deliver product for at least a year and she would have reliable income. You could offer an hourly rate or a per-piece rate.

I am anxious to see the creations.

I found a great seamstress recently and she charges $20/hour. I had to have some alterations done b/c my new apartment's too small to set up my machine. I'm not sure what the "going rate" is for this work, but she did a fabulous job and was very professional.

I am in NY and I just paid $40 to have my Eman hemmed

I think $25 per hour is really a good deal. I as well, would have expected it to be more.

Maybe she quoted that price to you because she is expecting you book her for a lot of hours.

I mentioned that things may start out slow but that I get so many requests for custom work and have to turn it away so that she might consider getting a helmet and seat belt and get ready for a helluva ride. she has little signs all over her house that say 'money please come this way' (she's so cute) so it's def. a win/win

If i could create items on demand it would save me from having to fork over 4k at a time to china suppliers to buy lots of items all at once. the overhead would drop dramatically.

the year contract sounds good..i would expect to pay her more for special projects.

I'd like to get things to the point where if someone wanted something really special like a gown or wedding dress that's not white, then we'd contract together to have the silk dyed and then sewn with exact measurements. The sewing would be her ball of wax..I just color it :) So we'd have open communication between buyer/dyer/seamstress

i stumbled upon another IDEA last night (my little merkaba crystals have been spinning out of orbit all week) and it's not related to dance at all but would be another fun project and item to offer thru the site. how fun! havent slept well in days but having fun

Not fair jess .
to dangle something "new" idea and not tell us all about it.....

lol very soon:)

I didn't know they charged by the hour-thought it was based on what you want.

A year or so ago I had a seamstess hem a silk circle skirt - $20 per hour which sounded fair - but she said it took her 3 hours and it was very uneven. Anyway, I think $25 is fair per hour if she isn't incredibly slow like the one I did business with. If I were hiring for bulk sewing, I would ask her to come up with a per piece price.