I approached a local retailer about selling my Grocery Bag pattern, and while they weren't interested in the pattern, they were interested in the finished bags.
So for the first time I had to figure out what the price for the bags really needed to be. I'm guilty of just "guestimating", which isn't a smart strategy if you actually need to make a living from your business. Oh, the lessons I'm learning!
Once I figured out exactly what the prices should be, the wholesale prices were too high, and it didn't make sense to pursue selling the finished bags through another retailer.
To get a good idea of the price, the first step was to find out how many square inches of fabric were used to make the exterior, lining, and handles of each size. It took a little time, and I had to bust out some long unused math skills, but I figured it out!
Figuring out the price for the finished bags is something many of you might need to do too. Since the work was already done, I thought I'd share my calculations, along with some general pricing info.
Because I have a knack for complicating things, I ended up with two documents. Both documents are at the bottom of this post.
The first one is a PDF document that includes info about 3 main points to consider for setting your retail price. Don't be daunted by how long this worksheet looks (all those words...!). It includes calculations for all 3 sizes in both standard and metric. The calculations need to be done manually since I don't know how to make them calculate automatically in a text document.
After putting together the text document, I got even more ambitious, and
decided to make a spreadsheet that WILL automatically calculate the cost
for the fabric when you plug in your cost by the yard or meter. Guess I
was enjoying the math! It is a nice change from words.
The spreadsheet is an OpenOffice spreadsheet. It should still open in MS Excel or other spreadsheet programs. If you aren't familiar with OpenOffice (OO), it is wonderful. It is free, does everything MS products do, and has no commercial use restrictions.
For the spreadsheet, there are tabs for either calculating the cost by the yard or meter. The tabs are at the bottom:
PDF document with pricing info:
Download Cost to Make a Grocery Bag Worksheet
Spreadsheet to automatically calculate fabric cost:
