[Sca-cooks] Things to BUY at Pennsic

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 02:57 PM 6/10/2004, you wrote:
>So do you think people would actually pay reasonable prices for early period
>garb?

Nope.
>I would make stuff for sale if I thought people would buy it. The problem
>from my perspective is that it takes a certain amount of time to make garb I
>would be willing to sell, and I would have to charge for time and materials,
>resulting in prices that would be at least $75 for a plain wool tunic or
>gown. A really *good* plain tunic, an authentic plain tunic with no visible
>machine stitching, but a plain tunic nonetheless.

I merchanted (children's garb) for 5 or 6 years, and people won't pay for 
decent clothes.
They would balk at paying $15 for a nice tunic for a 10-year-old, plain, 
solid wool, modest trim, would take me $8ish in materials (I got a lot of 
stuff on sale or at thrift shops) 3-4 hours to make, flat-felled seams, 
bias-bound hems, neck, and sleeves. You do the math. Was it worth it? PPBBBFT!

I currently charge $12/hr for commission work. I've been told it's too low, 
but I think it's honest for my time. I still have people gasp at the 
thought of paying that much. I'm fast- I can do an adult's tunic (basic 
Norman/12th c style- my famous Not 'Just' A T-Tunic) in 5-6 hours if the 
trim is simple. Extensive handwork will cost a little more. I did a tunic 
recently for a friend that had simple embroidery around the cuffs, yoke, 
and hems- drove my time up to 10 hours. But it looked wicked. ;-)

So just for my labor (do I want to low-ball myself?Nope!) is $60-72. 
Quality materials are likely to cost as much (though I do get lucky- my red 
wool houpp cost less than $5 because I pulled the wool out of a bin at 
Goodwill) if not more.

Retailing (on merchant's row) was soooooo not worth it- think of the 
overhead involved just in the fabric and trims! I could barely afford to 
keep my little business going, and that was scrimping along with little 
tunics made if 1 or 1 1/2 yrds! I could not imagine sinking money into an 
array of fabric, dealing with sizing, trying to anticipate the trends and 
market, then having people complain about the prices ("I could make that 
cheaper at home! Why don't you then? Why are you standing there in a 'poet' 
shirt, baggy pants, a piano shawl around your hips, criticizing that 
well-made wool tunic?), or on the other end, complain that I machine sewed 
the seams and how this fabric should have a z-twist weft and the color 
isn't quite right for a natural dye- and *then* complain about the price.

Can't win.

Cranky 'Lainie
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"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." -Karl Marx