Is Handmade Kids Clothing worth the price?

If you've been following our social media or come to visit us in-store recently then you'll have noticed our children's range has grown.

Sourcing a handmade kids range is definitely fun, but also a bit overwhelming. We all want to gift items that are well made and unique but personal finances don't always allow it and now more then ever we have our own limits on what we can justify spending. 

Most customers keep this to themselves but some do voice their opinion on items being worth the money. We happily invite customers to ask questions about our stock and all the hard work the artists put into their pieces.

If you were wondering but didn't like to ask then read on to find what you are paying for...

1. Materials and Skill

The first hurdle is the material. Children's clothing needs to be gentle enough for their sensitive skin, to be able to move easily with them and, ideally to promote care for the environment. This usually means organic.

Organic cotton is more expensive for many reasons, the first being the seeds which cost more. It's also more labour intensive as you can't use the pesticides and herbicides, making it a low-impact crop (the bees thank you!). It does however produce a smaller yield and takes up more room meaning less farms are able to grow organic, therefore pushing the price up a little more. 

This environmentally-minded fabric is cheaper to buy if you are a big company with a big ol' warehouse which can bulk buy and store huge rolls of material in, as opposed to the small-scale machinist working from home.

The skill it takes to make these clothes to such a standard that they can be sold takes years to perfect, otherwise we would all just be making our own clothes!

2. Time and Energy

First up is the mental energy. Especially working out how to do those fiddly bits! When first learning to sew even the smallest of tasks can seem daunting and patterns can sound as if they are written in a long-forgotten language.

Quite a few people who sell their clothes also design their own fabric and have it printed as well as creating their own patterns, which both understandably take up a lot of time. Then you need to pattern match and cut out the pieces, in this case small enough for tiny people. 

If you have ever used a sewing machine then you'll know that when you are learning crazy things happen and you have to try and work out what on earth has caused it. Well, the people who sell their finished pieces would by now be an expert in working this out because they would most likely have had it happen a hundred times over! 

Once this is all done they then need to find customers. Being online makes their products more accessible but also means the added extra of computer fun. That's taking pictures, building and managing a website or social media and then taking the time to interact with possible customers.

3. The hidden extras

Ahh the hidden extras. They've gotten this far so why not have some extra obstacles to navigate around? These are in the form of no sick pay, no holiday pay and in the current financial climate, quite often, juggling this passion with a 'regular' job.  

Then there's the extra finances needed for the electricity, the machines and the parts for when they break. 

 So is buying handmade worth it?

Buying handmade is supporting someone's passion, it's buying something unique that has been made with a whole lot of love. If we all had a magic purse that was never empty then I'm sure you would think it's worth it, but that's not the case.

Ultimately, if you can't afford it then that's ok, what kids need more than anything is kindness and support, and that is always free.