Mooloo’s Managing it in 2018

Feral_Moon

I had a single curtain shortened recently to fit the rear window on a campervan. The little hooks for the rails were also removed from the old pair and sewn onto the new one.

The lady charged £12 an hour and it took her 3 hours so cost me £36 :eek: The original pair of curtains had only cost me £14 from Aldi.

Imagnu_2

Feral_Moon wrote: »

The lady charged £12 an hour and it took her 3 hours so cost me £36 :eek: The original pair of curtains had only cost me £14 from Aldi.

Ahh! Therein lies the rub! Regardless of the original cost of the item, the alteration still takes the same amount of time, or more, to do.

ScarletRibbons

I do alterations for family (don't charge of course) and I used to do them for a friend as well, but I felt she started to take advantage.

I didn't mind stuff like trouser, and skirt/dress hems, or minor repairs, but she wanted me to make curtains for her, and was talking about me making pillowcases, and tablecloths. Yes, I could and did make those things for myself, but her demands were taking all of my time. I felt that i was her unpaid seamstress!! I didn't want to be mean, but I couldn't keep on like that.

I didn't have whatever it takes to just come out and tell her this, because she wouldn't have understood, why I didn't want to do it. So I took the easy way out and said , partly truthfully, that my machine was unreliable, and I didn't want the responsibilty of ruining someone's fabric, so couldn't do any more for her.

Because she didn't sew herself she didn't realise how long things could take. I don't see much of her now, so I don't know what she does about alterations.

Savvy_sewing

I aim to charge £25 an hour! But I seem to have gotten slower these days so the things are taking me a lot longer to do then last year, the prices are two years ago. The other day I quoted £20 to take a bridesmaids dress in on the sides, back and lift on the shoulders. I estimated 45 minutes to do. In the end it took me two hours. So I lost big time. Yesterday it took me two 1/4 hours to shorten two 90 !!!8220;wide curtains that were lined as well. I charged £65 so that was about right.
I used to be able to shorten trousers in 12 minutes but now it is taking me 20 minutes. So £10 was a good markup. Used to think of trousers as my money making jobs. But I am not sure if anything but small repairs are at the moment.
I am obviously underestimating how long it takes me to do jobs, and don!!!8217;t manage to factor in interruptions!
We do get some money up front, but not always.
Biggest took Dgd home with her yesterday afternoon and she is having her for me until I close the shop this afternoon, so last night Bf and I went out for an Indian meal in a little restaurant down town.
We actually talked more than usual which was quite refreshing.
I have been studying Portuguese as you know and I mentioned that, and we talked about retirement.
He did say that one of these days he will come over and find a note on the door saying that I have moved there. So I talked about the sewing holiday ideas. He now knows my dreams. And I showed him links to houses I had looked at. But I said ;it is only dreams

Feral_Moon

Imagnu wrote: »

Ahh! Therein lies the rub! Regardless of the original cost of the item, the alteration still takes the same amount of time, or more, to do.

Oh definitely and her hourly rate was extremely reasonable for a part time home maker but of course I vastly underestimated the length of time it would take, hence the shock lol

Like ScarketRibbons said, if you're not a sewer then it's difficult to know how long something might take. I thought it would maybe take an hour or so. Oooops!

Savvy_sewing

Sunday at home.
Seemed a very long day. Had family over for lunch. Was a squeeze but was lovely to see them. The children playing well together. DS, Biggest and her husband. It was a good day, and we watched a film when the kids were playing nicely. They went home around 3.30 I think, I wasn!!!8217;t watching the time.
It has been a nice change.
Actually felt slower, and relaxing.
Will have to do it more often.

ivyleaf

That does sounds as if it was a happy day

Savvy_sewing

My predictor text changes any abbreviation into exclamation marks and numerals!
Don!!!8217;t know why?

jackieblack

Mooloo wrote: »

My predictor text changes any abbreviation into exclamation marks and numerals!
Don!!!8217;t know why?

It's a forum glitch, lots of people having the problem over the last few days (something to do with Apple software I believe- could be wrong though)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5788856

Savvy_sewing

Thanks for that. I thought I was going mad.
I've changed the settings (I hope!)