charge for thread

[seakitten]

I know this has been discussed before, but I forget when.

Those of you who have a separate charge for thread, how much do you charge & how do you decide? Do you have different prices for the different types of thread?

I have always built this charge into the cost of the quilting, but thread is suddenly getting so expensive, I would rather charge for the thread than to have to raise all my prices. Hitomi & I have discussed this & our thinking is the same on it. What's your input? Thanks in advance.

[ffq-lar]

To recoup my thread expenses I charge $2 per pre-wound BottomLine bobbins used. This covers the retail cost for both the top and bobbin thread. Just as you may buy batting wholesale and charge retail, thread can be purchased wholesale and charged a reasonable retail price. You have spent the money to have a great offering of many colors and types of thread and a thread charge allows you to replenish what you use and add more to your stash.

You are on the right track to charge for thread since costs are going up and as you say, it's better for your customers rather than raising your per-inch charges.

I want to edit to add that maybe other businesses don't have a thread charge and some will provide the batting as well. Just realize that your business structure should allow you to make a profit. Whatever you don't charge for ( if the cost isn't hidden in your per-inch pricing) comes right out of the profits.

[BethDurand]

When I get a question about why I charge for thread, I tell customers that it is to recoup my thread cost. I may do 2 quilts that are exactly the same size, but one is quilted quite loosely, and the other is very dense. One took a lot more thread than the other, so of course I need to cover that cost as well.

[Butterfly]

I charge $5 for thread and $7 for variegated. If the quilt is huge I will add a few bucks to the quilting charge. I never give exact prices so its never a problem.

[Zora]

In Missouri, the only part of the quilting that is subject to sales tax is the batting and the thread. Its a good way to keep track of taxable sales to list them separately on the receipt. If I don't charge the customer sales tax, I must pay it. Its not a huge problem either way, but it simplifies bookeeping to note a thread charge.

[CindyT]

I'm probably too cheap on thread charges, but it's 50 cents per bobbin unless it's a specialty thread and then it's $1/per bobbin. Yes, I do keep track of how many bobbins I wind. If I were to purchase prewounds, my per bobbin charge would definitely go up.

[Sandra Darlington]

I needed to raise my prices a bit this fall and was planning on adding a per bobbin charge of $2.00 each, regardless of which thread I was using. Most of the local longarmers charge per bobbin and $2.00 is pretty standard.

I surveyed some of you folks on the forum and most of you who responded also charged per bobbin. There were different prices, probably effected by the area where you live. I then talked to several friends who are quilters (piecers) and to some of my repeat customers. It was unanimous that they did not want a per bobbin charge and would prefer the E2E designs be raised instead. I was quite surprised by this answer from all of them. Their reason was because they wanted a price quote before I started and I could not tell them how many bobbins I would use ahead of time. I said I could give them an educated guess, but that was not sufficient.

So, in the end I raised all of my E2E designs by 1/4 of a penny. That seems to come out pretty close to what I would have charged per bobbin.

I have a legal size binder that I keep my E2E designs in that is part of my "traveling office," as I meet customers in several LQS. I used mailing labels in my printer and wrote the name of the design and the cost per square inch on the label, printed them out, and stuck the labels on the bottom of the page on each design. This way they all know the cost of the design and can choose according to what they like and what they want to pay for.

[mamu]

I do mainly E2E or panto designs. I charge $2 per bobbin and I use Magna Glide bobbins. The reason why I started charging this way is because some people were wanting more open designs thus the less use of thread. Others wanted more complex designs that used more thread. In charging this way it becomes more balanced for those that want an easier more open design (less time quilting it and less thread used on top and bottom) and those that want a more difficult, dense design using more thread top and bottom. If I raised my quilting prices to off set the cost of the thread, then those that wanted less dense designs would be paying more money and that just didn't seem quite fair. This way they get charged for what they want design and thread wise. It also helps with the cost of my time as the easier less dense designs take less time than those that are more difficult and dense that take more time. I can can actually do two less dense designs in the same time as a dense design.

I hope this makes sense.

[Sandra Darlington]

I see what you're saying,Laura, about the density of the design effecting the amount of thread used. I totally agree with that.

What I am doing is charging per pantograph or design board. The dense desings are more money than the more open designs. I have designs from $.015 to $.0275. these prices are labeled on the design sheet in my binder that the customers choose from. On the same size quilt, as an example, the loose design might take 3 bobbins, but the dense design could take 8. I used that thought to plan how to charge for my pantos. Even though I charge per sq in, I have always kept track of the number of bobbins used and the amount of time it took me to load, quilt and remove the quilt. When I raised my prices by 1/4 cent, it worked out almost exactly to equal the number of bobbins I would have charged them for that particular design.

Perhaps the next time I need to raise my prices I will add the per bobbin charge. Or, perhaps not. If the money comes out about the same either way, I may just stick with the view my customers have expressed.

[carolinequilts]

I charge $1.00 per 100 yards of thread used - regardles of type or brand. I have a chart of how much thread goes on a bobbin which I got from the Superior site (i.e 40 yds if standard cotton, 110 yds if Bottom Line, etc., and prewounds tell you how much is on them). I can then calculate how much thread I've used by counting the bobbins and doubling it for top thread. When I provide an estimate, I also estimate how much thread it will take and I'm usually pretty close (up or down 100 yards). Or, I can look up my records from a previous quilt with the same design and get an estimate based on that.

I like doing it this way because I record all my thread inventory and then know how much I've used of each thread. Then I also know if there is enough of a thread left for a particular quilt - no running out at the end of a quilt!

Nobody has complained about thread charges, and I think it is important to get reimbursed for it. When I started my business I spent $2,000++ buildiing up a really nice collection of threads and I consider this a service to my customers because they can choose from a big selection. Now I just replenish threads from the money I make back on them.