Counting the Cost

Carolyn, of Diary of a Sewing Fanatic, and from whom I blatently stole the idea for this post and it’s title,  posted a question
concerning whether we count the cost of our garments or not. I was about to comment when I noticed that I
was beginning to ramble and rant, just a little, going off on my own tangents,
and thought it best to consider the matter further and post here, in my own space, without cluttering up hers.

At times during my sewing career I have kept meticulous
track of the cost of individual projects and my sewing expenses, but this has
settled into kind of a loose awareness now. I keep track of what I am spending on a garment compared to what it
would cost me to buy it; most of the time that is, because there is always the
occasional case where I just get an idea in my head and run with it, willy-nilly
without regard to any practicalities. 

I certainly maintain that you can certainly get nicer
clothes for less money if you sew, and can have more clothes as well, despite
occasional arguments from others that one spends a fortune on something that
could be bought at Wal-Mart. I think
these comments are more obviously a comment by someone who is not discerning of
the differences in the quality of fabrics or construction and probably does not
care. In that sense, the fact that I
love to sew and make clothes makes me something of an anachronism in an age
when, for many, clothing is just something one buys and discards at the end of
a season or when it wears out, often not much more than a season.

Certainly I think we need to consider all the bits and
pieces that go into garment construction, including thread, buttons,
interfacing, etc., as a part of the garment. Still, to use Carolyn’s example, if you are lucky enough to find fabric
and a pattern for $15.95 to knock off a $155.95 jacket, you are ahead. Even adding the cost of all the other things
needed, you are not going to spend the remaining $140 on that jacket. I of course don’t count time here, and I am
not convinced that most modern sewists should, because most of us sew for the
pure love of it, not to earn a living or as the only way we can clothe our
families.

Still, the comment about comparing apples to oranges
holds. Even though it is not difficult
to make a similar appearing garment to the $155.95 jacket, or the $400.00
jacket, or even probably the $2795.00 jacket I was looking at by the Swiss
company Akris the other day; it is more than likely that our garments bear
little true comparison to the ones we are copying.

In the case of the $155.95 jacket, it is likely that the
materials used by the company that manufactured that jacket cost about the same
as what Carolyn spent on her fabric and pattern, and that included a pattern,
amortized over hundreds or thousands of garments, and all the other sewing
notions and necessities Carolyn will need. If you use the rule I learned growing up, that the wholesale cost of the
garment was half the retail, and the
manufacturer’s cost was half that, you end up with a manufacturing cost of roughly $38.99. A good portion of that has to be construction
cost. I think modern companies,
certainly upscale clothiers, and even a broader spectrum of stores use a
different formula with higher markups, partly because the market will bear it
and partly because as a greater percentage of clothing sells at mark-down, the
clothing must be originally marked up enough that even the sale price yields a
profit.

When you think about it, even with the price break the
company might gain by ordering thousands of yards of a fabric, the quality of
materials in that $155.95 jacket are probably not all that fine in terms of
quality. I’ve read enough of Carolyn’s
posts to know how savvy a shopper she is, and to believe that she has a very
good eye for quality and price. I also
think I know enough to know that she is much more interested in sewing a
quality garment and would lay odds that her jacket will be far better made than
the original she is “copying”. So there
we get it again: comparing apples to
oranges. Are we saving money by knocking
off RTW? Yes, whether we keep track of costs
or not. Unless you are spending $30.00
knocking off a $45.00 top you are ahead, and even then you may be if the color
suits you better, the style fits you better, and even more importantly the
fabric is of a better quality and the top is better made.

I think sewists often underestimate the value of their
skills in a market that understands quality construction and
discriminates. Granted that is a small
market, but a lot of people appreciate the difference quality brings when they
see it, even if they don’t understand it and would not pay the price to
purchase it. Those oohs and ahhs give us
tremendous thrills.

And what about that Akris jacket? I will tell you more another day but I can
tell you this. It was silk something
like a very high quality Matka or raw silk, unlined except in front, with
serged edges, very little interfacing (1/4 yard), with poorly executed machine
hems (I could stick my thumbs between the stitches. I will make a much better jacket, to my mind
at least, which I will enjoy much more. When I wear it I will certainly feel smug knowing that I made a superior
garment for far less money. But I won’t
worry about the details of what I spend because for me it is the wearing that
is a joy and the making, well that is a little bit of heaven that I get to
touch every day.

I stopped worrying too much about price when I finally
figured out that I love my fabrics, and my yarns and my buttons in their own
right. I would love the fabric if I just
looked at it and wrapped myself up in occasionally without sewing another
stitch. Yes, I love clothes. Yes I love to copy actual looks. But most of my sewing is fabric driven. I save pictures, but it is the fabric that
drives me to make something. A piece
jumps out at me and tells me it must become something. I comply. I love antique and unusual buttons and although I have a large
collection of them I still often end up searching for quieter buttons for
actual garments. Buttons that make too
much of a statement are not always what I want on a garment. Sometimes I get
the perfect match, sometimes the button and the fabric look perfect but they
argue too much. Still I love my buttons
passionately. Each one is like a
treasured piece of jewelry, each with its own history.

Do I spend more because I sew than I would on clothes if I
didn’t sew? I honestly can’t say because
I love clothes and can be pretty picky about quality. I don’t spend more than I can afford. If I didn’t sew or knit I can’t promise that
any other hobby I took up would be that much cheaper. I could spend a fortune on tennis club
memberships and court-time and private lessons, attending clinics and going to
lessons. There are many other things I
could do, probably not much cheaper. Perhaps we shouldn’t worry too much about whether the product produced
is worth what we spend but rather, whether the enjoyment we get from creation
and the joy of wearing our own handiwork is justified by the time, effort, and
money we put in to it.