#this is why i shop etsy

[strawberrum]

thinking about how I had a few folks at my last market suggest to me (kindly and with good intentions) that I make and sell some versions of the hand knit cardigan I was wearing because people would "totally pay $300 for that!"

I appreciated the sentiment, but people don't understand what goes into handmade clothes! I don't use a knitting machine. Every stitch in that garment is created by hand on needles, and the sleeves were brioche. Even using inexpensive acrylic yarn for the whole project, and accounting for the HUGE sleeve stitches (saving me time making the sleeves)—the material cost was $55 and the labor was well beyond that.

Let's conservatively estimate the cardigan took me 30 hours to create. Currently, when pressed to put a dollar amount to my time, I use the living wage as a baseline and then go up from there $1/hour for every year I have been actively practicing that particular skill. In the case of knitting that would be 11 years, and the current living wage in my area is approximately $23/hour. Setting aside the fact that this is calculated based on a 40 hour work week and I don't believe that is ethical or sustainable, we'll just leave it at $34/hour. That would make labor alone $1,020.

This brings the "production cost" to $1,075.

Items are not sold at production cost because that would leave your profit margin at 0%. This is not sustainable because it costs money to run a business (think things like paying for computer repairs, buying tools, the tablecloth you use at markets, paying for a website, etc.). Realistically to cover business costs and still come out with a 7% "net" profit margin, which is just a number pulled from averages in the clothing retail business...

... I'd have to sell that cardigan for $1,350.

So yeah! Something to think about when you see the price of clothes that are handmade. :o)

[jeeklaart]

Your local fisherman is now selling Salted Sardines! 🐟

(find me here)

[finniestoncrane]

feel like i should have said "hey my commissions are open if you want to buy something nice for someone for christmas" prior to this moment now where i am saying "hello my commissions are open but if you get a long one you won't get it till after christmas so they're not very good christmas gifts tbh" but alas i am not a business woman i am just slutty for fictional characters and enjoy eating

[stitchingcritters]

do you like bisexuals? do you like space? bisexual astronaut 🫵

Link to Pattern here // my Etsy

[whimsicalitywheee]

Help an independent artist make her passion her livelihood! If you like any of these you can purchase them and more at my etsy shop! Everything in my shop was designed and created by me and I hope to get the chance to do it more often!

Links to items:

Wordle mug

Ranch mug

No Thoughts head empty

Coffee Right MEOW

Cannot Brain

[doodlboy]

Every year

[iamfabiloz]

THIS WORLD IS SO CRUEL... NO SYMPATHY FOR THIS POOR SOUL!!!!

edit: I ended up getting it… peace and love on planet earth

[imflyinoveryou]

kinda feeling like giving up on thrifting...i have a very clear vision for the silhouettes i am looking to create, i've breached that trial period of experimentation and am finally certain of what pieces i am looking for...however! i cant ever find things in my size. EVER. i will find the perfect fucking piece but it just doesnt quite fit. shoes are the worst. its infuriating and makes me want to give up on pursuing self expression through fashion entirely. but i dont want to go to the mall or other retailers, i want the quality of vintage clothing . kinda at a loss bc i love fashion and am more comfortable in my own skin than ever before but the ironic thing is i cant fucking find anything to manifest my visions with...i dont want to spend money at forever 21 or fucking wherever else man but how else will i find basics that actually fit me. but at the cost of quality and the clothes degrade like, fucking instantaneously lol.

[captmuldoon]

Haunted by the fact that AB’s necklace is so readily available EVERYWHERE but KOA’s intricate “K” choker is just nowhere to be seen. Like I know both necklaces probably never actually existed and were just part of their portraits’ symbolism, but if the B necklace can be everywhere WHY can’t I get this absolute piece of art:

(Also shout-out to Isabel TVE for at least attempting to replicate it:)

[marialagidyne]

i keep forgetting to make this post, but! starting january 1, 2024, my etsy will be moving to ko-fi for domestic US orders!

etsy has been good to me for 2-3 years, but these last couple of months i've had my money withheld from me for no reason, and the fees are just getting too high. plus the ceo just laid off 11% of the site's workforce stating "flat sales" so

i'll keep it open for international sales (bc the only good thing about etsy is the way they handle international tax), and some domestic stragglers, but i'll be putting notes in those orders that state the move

the good thing about ko-fi is that supporters can access the shop, my commissions as they open, and donate! the demon slave decals will stay there for free, and i won't get rid of the google drive link, only because that's been posted everywhere now

so please support me by visiting my ko-fi when i open all the listings! <3

[atomicbell]

He is so ✨️Shiny✨️ 🥺🖤

I definitely have to experiment with the cutting settings (they look kinda fuzzy atm), but I am fine with how they turned out. 😭❤️

Might change his expression bc I hate it, it looks so stiff 😩

[wicked-source]

[littlef4ng]

this custom is based on forests, vampires, and ofc hozier

[r-osehips]

unfortunate realization today,,

(I only have to do ~25K to finish, not the full 50K, BUT STILL. FUCK.)

in my defense, the spreadsheet... she's beautiful:

beautiful enough to soothe my guilt and agonies over falling so behind my writing goal for October?? maybe. we'll see. but certainly she (my daughter, the spreadsheet) will make November more pleasant what with the charts and the colors and the "I birthed you from my own fingertips" sense of pride.

maybe she will make your November more pleasant too! go check her out and see what you think. and if you enter TUMBLRNANO at checkout you get 30% off (30 in honor of the 30 days of NaNo, natch).

sale goes until 10/28, at which time the 30% discount becomes available without a code, so go get it before the normies descend, that's my totally unbiased advice.

enjoy!! or at least, like me, suffer less!!!