Sewing Pricing Calculator
What to charge for something you made.
Price a handmade garment from materials, hours and an hourly rate, with overhead and a margin applied on the selling price.
Price
$213.57
$149.50 to make · 30% margin
Margin is a share of the selling price, so it divides rather than multiplies: adding 30% to cost gives $194.35 and a smaller margin than you asked for. Costing your own time at nothing produces a price that cannot survive you ever paying someone else to sew, which is the ceiling every growing maker hits.
How the Sewing Pricing Calculator works
Pricing sewing is where makers most consistently undercharge, and the mechanism is always the same: the hours go in at nothing. A price that only works because the maker's time is free is a price that cannot survive them ever paying someone else to sew, which is the ceiling every growing maker hits.
Also known as: handmade clothing pricing calculator · dressmaking pricing calculator
Margin divides, it does not multiply
A profit margin is a share of the selling price, not a percentage added to cost. To achieve a 30% margin, the price is cost divided by 0.7, not cost multiplied by 1.3.
The difference is not small. On a £149.50 cost, dividing gives £213.57 and an actual 30% margin; multiplying gives £194.35 and a margin of 23%. The multiplier feels right and quietly delivers a quarter less profit than intended.
It is the same reverse-percentage shape as reverse VAT, payment fees and pre-shrink fabric length — anywhere a percentage is applied and then has to be undone, the correction divides.
A worked example
Materials of £30, five hours at £20, and 15% overhead. Labour is £100, overhead is £19.50 on the £130 of materials and labour, so the cost is £149.50. At a 30% margin the price is £213.57.
The effective hourly rate at that price, after materials and overhead, is £32.81 — comfortably above the £20 that went into the calculation, which is what a margin is for. Pricing at cost plus nothing pays £20 an hour and leaves nothing for the business.
Where the answer misleads
The hourly rate does most of the work and it is the number makers set lowest. A price that only works because your time is free cannot survive you ever paying someone else to sew, and that is the ceiling every maker who tries to grow runs into.
The hours themselves are usually underestimated too. Cutting, pressing, unpicking, fitting and finishing are real time, and a garment that takes five hours of machine work rarely takes five hours in total.
Finally, comparing a handmade price to a shop price is not meaningful. Factory production is faster per unit by an enormous margin; handmade competes on fit, fabric and the fact that it is not mass-produced, and pricing against a chain store is a decision to work for nothing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I price a handmade garment?
Add materials, your hours at a real hourly rate, and an overhead allowance for machines, thread, needles and space. Then apply a margin on the selling price — divide by one minus the margin rather than multiplying by one plus it.
Why divide rather than multiply for margin?
Because margin is a share of the selling price, not of cost. Adding 30% to a £149.50 cost gives £194.35 and a 23% margin; dividing by 0.7 gives £213.57, which is an actual 30% margin.
What hourly rate should I use?
Whatever you would accept for skilled work from an employer, as a floor. Sewing is skilled, and a rate below minimum wage is a decision to subsidise the customer rather than a pricing strategy.
Why is my price higher than shop prices?
Because factory production is faster per unit by an enormous margin, and the comparison is not meaningful. Handmade competes on fit, fabric, alteration and the fact that it is not mass-produced — not on price against a chain store.
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