Sewing Expenses and Data from 2024

For years now, I’ve ogled the posts of other organized sewists who carefully track and then share their sewing expenses from the year. I’m not particularly number savvy but I am very organized so these are among my favorite posts of the year. And since seeing one of those posts, I’ve been determined to track my own expenses so that I can post something similar, but for years I’ve totally failed when it comes to tracking my sewing expenses! Turns out that’s a hard thing for me to do! This year, though, I finally made a system I could work with-a list! I didn’t worry about organizing into categories until later. Instead, I just wrote down every time I spent money on sewing, and every time I made something.

I’m fairly certain that I forgot to write down some expenses and some projects BUT I think I got allllmost everything. So, without further ado, and for the first time ever, here is a window into the analytical side of my sewing within a year!

First up are my sewing purchases from this year. My total spent was $958, but $135 of that was gift cards, so my total out of pocket was $853. The problem with this being my first and only year of data collecting is that I have no idea what this means. I don’t know if this is more than normal or less than normal. If I had to guess, though, I would say that it’s fairly standard. If it was an increase from years previous, I’d say it was most likely due to prices increasing rather than me buying more than usual. Such is the economy these days!

I was surprised by a few things. I was surprised by how much I had spent/sewn for my kids and how little I had spent/sewn for my husband (sorry, Ben!). I didn’t expect my notions cost to be so high, but I guess the $5 here and there on elastic and interfacing add up! I was glad to note that over a quarter of the fabric I bought for myself was purchased with gift cards. Another win was that I made 2 quilts this year, but one was made entirely from stash fabric. I’m also always grateful that my mom quilts my quilts because that is another expense I have the pleasure of avoiding.

The above pie shows what I spent money on this year BUT many of the things I made this year were made using fabric bought pre-2024. I wanted to see what I spent on the things I actually MADE in 2024. So I itemized cost per project made and added that up instead. Of course, a lot of these overlap but not all.

My total cost of things made this year was $896, which falls pretty darn close to what I spent, so it seems like it all evens out in the end. You can see that the expenses for Ben, home and quilts was all the same, as they were things I bought in 2024 and made in 2024 as well. But I made a few projects this year that were more expensive (my Fulton Sweater Blazer and my Liberty London dress), but for which the fabric was bought previously.

I also made a graph to see what was being made the most by me.

I think this graph helps tie all the information together. Each number represents one article of clothing. I’m not even going to put a total number of items made here because I think the number is inaccurate. It doesn’t count the 5 or so projects that I cut out and even sewed on but never finished. It doesn’t count all the mending I’ve done, or the hand sewing (I’m still working on my current EPP). All that aside, I do think it’s interesting to note some of the numbers to be able to compare it to the total expenses.

For example, I made 14 articles of clothing for my kids (I have 3 kids and for Christmas alone I made them each a top and a bottom which accounts for 6 of the 14 garments). Especially for my kids, I shop my stash as much as possible. When I divide the total amount of money spent on sewing my kids clothes with how many items I made for them, we’re looking at less than $10 per item and I feel okay about that.

For myself, I made 24 articles of clothing and spent $550 doing so. Dividing for cost per garment (which obviously I can give an exact cost per garment but this is just an average), we’re looking at about $22 per garment. And, if we remove those pricier items I mention above (the Fulton was $80 and the Liberty Dress cost $60) and divide our new numbers 22 into 410, we’re under $20 per item. I know I couldn’t have bought 22 items that fit me well and that are mostly good quality for less than $20 each, and so that helps to have a better grasp on what the total expenses mean.

Years ago I saw one of these analytics-type posts where the blogger even included the number of times she wore her handmade garments in a year. That’s true dedication! I didn’t track that but I can say that I have most of my handmade tees, dresses and sweatshirts in regular rotation. I can also attest to the fact that my kiddos wear (and wear out) the things I make for them. Unfortunately, my pants-making was a bit of a bust this year, but some of them get worn…sometimes.

I know I missed out on a lot of possible data points. There are just so many things to track! Now that I’ve got a bit better hang of it, I might be able to add a few additional graphs in the years to come, if I can remember to write down the information! Wish me luck!