I made the decision on Friday that I would start selling at the local flea market. For those in the Upstate of South Carolina and familiar, it is the Anderson Jockey Lot. I’m at booth 366.
I always try to have some type of eye catching visual. This time it was Rose’s Minnie Mouse dress (the one she picked the fabric out for out of my stash). I did the same thing with some of the princess print fabric I had. I’m not sure where that dress disappeared to, but she loves all of her dresses equally.
With that said, I have to admit that I didn’t have any adult shirts or older children’s clothes. Those are long lost, possibly from when our storage building was broken into. This week I am starting to make more clothes for the flea market, and I’ll also post them online.
In what feels like disappointment, I had a conversation with a potential customer that didn’t seem to go the way I expected. Here is the thing, guys. I can do things several ways when it comes to shirts: I can make my own (I usually do for sublimation) or I can purchase them. When it comes to embroidery, purchased shirts (especially the Gildan Heavy Duty) work better. They stand up better. My sublimation shirts are buttery soft and feel brand new even after several washes, but they are made for sublimation inks. For those, I use a double brushed poly.
Even with all of that, I have to charge a certain amount. All businesses have an overhead which is outside of the cost of materials or even labor costs. My overhead is made up of all of the costs or running my business (electricity, phones, rent, etc.) and divided by the number of items sold. Considering I haven’t sold that many items, that cost is a little higher being passed on. I usually divide it by 100 at the lowest. So the cost being passed on to the customer is usually around $2. You can break it down as follows:
- Shirt $3
- Overhead $2
- Labor $10-20/hr
- Markup +15-35% (35% to 65% is the expected markup for clothing, but I adjust to keep my cost down)
In a sense, this makes an embroidered shirt about $20. Depending on the complication of the design, I usually sell them from $15-25. Some designs require more hands on.
With that being said, I don’t understand why someone would be upset because I couldn’t bring the cost of something down? I have a business. I’m not charging you sales tax, though I should. I’m paying that off my end to keep prices from being complicated.
Just trust the process…. okay?
Now I have to go back to sewing. See you next weekend!
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