What goes into the cost of a dress?

Product Development
Written By Hannah Vincent

Each item is lovingly made by my hands with each element considered, fabric choice, design and make. Here is a little summary of what goes into pricing a product. As I build the business I plan to give a more detailed visual breakdown (anyone love a pie chart?!) for my creations.

 

Let’s start at the beginning!

Often we don’t consider all the things that led us to be able to create something. I certainly had to remind myself to include this as it is all part of the value. But before I could even create a dress to sell I had to learn how to do it!

  • The cost of education to do so and many hours of learning and practice to become skilled.

Then there is the design unique idea created from my own life expereince. When that light bulb has been turned on I then had to spend time developing it.

  • So to add to that the hours spent developing and testing the product. Making patterns, sewing it up and then changes and tweaks to perfect it.

Lastly in this part there is the money I need to live on. To live at a decent standard, raise my two girls and have some pennies left over for some fun!

This all goes into the price I want/need/deserve to earn per hour from making.

  • So part 1 - the cost of the work.

 

Part 2 - the cost of the fabric

All the elements I have detailed above also go into the fabric. Plus the additional costs of the raw material and the manufacture.

I have made a choice to use organic cotton. You can read more about why organic here. So this increases the cost for me to make the design. But a cost that is worth it, a cost that makes a difference to many more lives in a positive way.

 

Part 3 - bringing to market

There is zero point in me making anything if I don’t spend time and money telling the world about what I’m doing and why! This blog post, social media and website building all takes time and some money.

But marketing is more than just telling you what I made. As a small passionate business born out of love it is me building a community of like minded souls. It is me sharing a part of myself with you, hoping to make the world a little nicer :).

 

Part 4 - Manufacture

There are lots of elements here, I’ll just list them, I’m sure you have already considered this bit in the cost of something especially is you enjoy making things yourself.

  • Light and heat

  • Furniture and space

  • Thread

  • Machinery

  • Tools

 

Part 5 - Packaging

I will not compromise on this and will only use packaging that has a low impact on the environment. Let’s be real everything has some impact, but I hope to find options that are low and I’m sure this will be a learning journey for me.

Hannah Vincent
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