i was at an art show in the city over the weekend and saw a booth with handmade quilts made out of pieces of sweaters. they looked amazing, and i found one i LOVED, until i saw the $115 tag on it. anyone know how to make these, or any pictures? thanks peace<3
When my great-grandmother was still alive, she used to know all kinds off old ladies who could do stuff like that. They also used to make these bad ass rugs with old stockings. But since she died, I wouldn't know how to get in touch with any of them anymore. $115 is way too much to pay for recycled material! Maybe $50, or even $75 it it was super crazy awesome, but I don't see how some people think they can get off charging that much for stuff. It's like whenever I look for skirts or dresses online, people usually want WAY to much for it. I know you gotta make some profit off the stuff you work hard on, but some of the things I've seen I could make myself for less than 30 bucks, when they usually want 80+ for it. Anyway, sorry to rant, and sorry I couldn't be of much help. Old ladies can do some really neat stuff though, maybe you ought to start going to church and mingle with em, and talk them into making you something.
Moonshyne; don't take this the wrong way because I am not giving you a hard time,just providing you with some information.The pricing on quilts,even if they are made out of recycled materials,is usually lower than the price should be.There is alot of work and time involved in making a quilt.My wife quilts,hand quilts,not machine quilting and I know how long it takes her to complete one.There is alot more to it than meets the eye,you have to look at what was involved to complete the final product and weigh that against the price that the person has on the item. That is one thing about doing crafts for cash,you have to enjoy what you are doing because you cannot charge for your time.Otherwise craft products would be priced out of reach of 95% of the people that are interested in your crafts.I hope that that gives you a better insight to the prices that you are seeing on different craft items.
fylthevoyd, it's cool, I know what you're saying. If someone works hard on a piece, of course it's going to be worth more money. All I'm saying is that for the most part, the people who are out selling their good sometimes get a little greedy about it, and as the quality of their work goes down, the prices go up. I'm glad your wife isn't one of those people. My only suggestion to this girl is that instead of going to someone who intends to make a large profit off of something, she should find someone who still does it because they enjoy it. If you're willing to buy the material, it would probably be even better. That way you KNOW you're going to like it, and they don't have any reason to charge you an arm and a leg for it, only for the work they put into it.
i'm digging through my old emails cuz i had a page saved in there somewhere that teaches you how to make these things. so while these pages load for me, just wanted to kyndly share my view of the pricing issue. i sell the handmade clothes that i make. i've been sewing most of my life and yes, you can make it yerself for 30 bucks.... but the reason why it costs more when someone else makes it is cuz..... THEY made it. you've gotta factor in a fair hourly wage. lets use yer basic apron top as an example.... sure, the fabric costs about 10 bucks if you buy it new and on sale. but if yer making a quality top, its gonna take you at least 3 hours to cut, sew, and press it(not counting the prewashing and the electricity used in the process). so paying yerself a fair 10/hour if yer quailty is worth it... then you have yerself a 40 dollar top bare minimum. unfortunately many sisters and brothers choose to drasticaly under sell their goods on ebay thus driving down the overall worth in the consumer's eye. we all do what we gotta do to keep that roof over our heads LOL so to each their own but don't discount the value of the aritsans time and work they put into it. its much more than just what the materials cost. http://www.naturalhomemag.com/current-issues/archive/2004/JanFeb04/Trythis.htm okay, here's the instructions i found. i've never tried it cuz as you'll see, it takes a bunch of sweaters(which i found costly to buy that many at the thrift store) and it takes quite a lot of time and space..... but looks like TONS of fun!!!!!!! one day i'll try it. i gotta say, 150 bucks was a steal.... but making yer own will be much more rewarding!!!! good luck and i want to see pics if you make it!!! francie pants
alright, well i was talking to my grandma, and shes got a shit load of old sweaters from years of thrift shopping that she said i could have, and plus a lot of them are nice vintage ones. now i just need to find out how to do it. thanx for your help guys
right now, I am making a huge quilt (about 2.5 by 2.5 meters) I am making it out of little pieces of left over fabric (100% cotton, is easier to handle) that are either left over from my clothmaking, or from friends and relatives. So this is what I did I cut all the fabrics in pieves of about 11 by 11 cm pieces, counted how many I had of each kind, and took some graph paper and made a little layout. then I started to sew the rows. so that's what I am doing. The layout is not that important, I just wanted it to have a pattern. as soon as I am finished with the rows, I will be putting the rows together so that I have a big square. The backside will be plain black, and inbetween I'll put something soft... to make it really thick and comfy...this will be my bed cover for the day.....
