So I posted a silly video on my tiktok yesterday about why I don’t do commissions and I used Bespin Leia as an example of an incredibly in-depth costume project that I’d NEVER EVER do on commission – I mean, I’m not gonna do anything on commission but in particular THAT ONE – mostly because 95% of people who ask about something like that don’t understand how much it would cost for me to make it for someone else. They’re expecting cheap cosplay site prices. Maybe a little higher to be fair.
But I thought it would be fun to break it down and figure out what the actual cost would be.
So let’s start with materials.
Obviously I’m not including the chiffon I bought in 2006 that I didn’t use here – even though I did use some of it in the yoke. Only going to count the main fabrics.
1. Silk charmeuse for the tunic/belt/pants and yoke lining – $137.94
I do still have the receipt for this order, so I know exactly how much I spent, yay!
2. Silk chiffon for the robe – estimated – $132
I don’t have the receipt for this anymore, so going with what the price still is on mood and using 6 yards. I bought more than that (I think I got 10) but I had WAAAY too much so I wouldn’t do that again.
3. Silk chiffon for robe lining – $50.56
I have the receipt for this too, yay!
3. Everything else – estimated – $150
This includes things like the lining fabric for the tunic, elastic for the pants waistband, zipper, leather for the interior of the belt, snap closures for the belt, batting for the yoke, dye, embroidery floss, and all of the gold trim on the tunic and robe. All the little things!
Ok so just in materials we are at $470.50.
Now let’s work up time.
I’m going to value my time at $20 an hour, which I think is fair. Now I know my exact start date of the embroidery (Jan 1) and exact end date (3/17), so that helps determine how many hours I put in. I embroidered an average of 5 hours a day, even though there were many days I did more (weekends mostly) — but I’m going to possibly lowball it, because there were a few days when I did less, like when I was at Visioncon one weekend. So that should get us to an average time spent.
So that’s 76 days – 5 hours a day = 380. 380 x $20 = $7,600 in embroidery hours.
After that I’m not sure how to factor my time up – assembling the robe, dyeing the lining, making the yoke, make the tunic, making the belt, making the pants, hand-sewing on the trim. Again just to be fair I’m going to lowball this and say I worked an average of 2 hours a day until it was done.
So that would be 2 hours a day, 3/17 to 4/4 = 36 hours. 36 x $20 = $720.
Materials – $470.50
Embroidery – $7,600.00
Construction – $720.00
Grand total: $8,790.50.
And again, that’s lowballing on the hours, especially in the construction part.
Most people are never going to pay almost $10k for a single costume, especially when there are versions out there on amazon for $140 that are perfectly acceptable for a fun convention costume. Or, a step up, you can make a really damn good costume using the spoonflower pre-printed chiffon instead of doing the hand embroidery, removing that cost. You’d still have the construction costs + a lower materials costs, but that’s still more than most people are wiling to pay.
Would I love to make almost 10K by making a costume for someone? Sure. Helluva disney trip. But is it worth the sacrifice of my free time for months (I sure as hell would never try to get it done in 3 months ever again), and the sacrifice of my mental health? I would be an anxious ball of stress making something like this for someone else. A minor mistake on my personal costume? NBD. A minor mistake on someone else’s costume? Cue crying fit.
Anyway, I just thought it would be interesting to break down the numbers on this one since I do have a good idea of how long I worked on it and a few material receipts. I figure this is the closest I can get to accurately getting a good picture of cost. One of these days I should keep a log on time spent on a future costume and figure it all out for another costume.