Revising Prices

Well, first off, for those who are nosy, the camp went wonderfully. Significantly better than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise! The girls in the class were wonderful, and came up with some utterly amazing ideas - I hope they keep with sewing, they all had such great ideas and designs! I'll post some pictures when I get a free moment, both here and on my DeviantART page, but right now, there is too much going on to spend time doing something like that, unfortunately...

This weekend, I'm setting a goal of having most of my price list revised. The new version of the site that I've been working like crazy on will indeed show an estimated price to have a costume custom made, since I'm always surprised when I look at other commissioners, or Chinese manufacturers of crap cosplay, that my prices are very competitive. I always tend to think that I would be wayyyy more expensive, but that's turning out to not be the case! So, hooray for that!



But, because of posting the estimated commission price on the site, I'm having to revise a pricing estimate for everything, that I haven't done much with for the last... four years? Maybe five?

So you can see the sticking point. My prices are way out of date, and that's not good for anyone. I really do like the idea of making at least minimum wage on the things I create, and I'm finding that some outfits, I'm not even coming close to that, under my old estimate guides.

Instead of just arbitrarily raising my prices, though, I'm going through each costume, and writing out the type of instructions that I'll need to reproduce that outfit (things like "Kimono draft. Length of top is BWL+8" or enough to hide side slits"). I'm also accurately checking material prices and yardage, so when I get an order for a Melfina outfit, I can print this out, take it to the store, and have a shopping list, without having to think or guess how much I'll need, which makes it faster and easier :3

Here is the surprising thing, though. As I've gone through my BFA program, and even since, I've gotten significantly faster at certain outfits (Bleach Shinigami outfits, for example... I've made over 40 of them now), which means that I have actually found myself lowering prices on quite a few costumes! So, hooray for that!

I've also discovered some new technologies (heat set vinyl is my new friend) that has also allowed me to cut down on the time something will take, and I can offer quite a few different "options" for how to create some outfits (full applique vs. iron on's or heat set vinyl vs. embroidery) that I can check against when I get an order, to offer to fit a cheaper budget - or, if someone wants to have an insanely detailed and beautiful outfit, I can offer it the other way, too!

But, it's taking a while to get through everything. I think, though, it will be worth it - it will help people get an idea of how much something will be (it may go up or down, depending on availability of materials, special fabric orders, or deadline), and people will probably be surprised to see that I'm actually really affordable for significantly better quality.

It makes me happy, and I thought I'd share~