An embroidery pricing calculator has to deal with something most crafts don't: the machine sews on its own, but you still spend real time hooping, trimming and standing by for color changes. This one counts the blank, the stitches and that time around the machine, then sets a price that still leaves your margin after Etsy takes its fees.
How to price embroidery
Start with the blank, whether that's a cap, shirt or towel, at what you actually paid for it, not the retail price of a similar one. If a customer supplies their own garment, your blank cost might be zero. Decide before you quote what happens if you ruin it, though, because replacing someone else's jacket can cost more than your whole profit on the job.
Then the stitches. Enter the stitch count and your thread cost per 1,000 stitches, which covers top thread and bobbin. Add stabilizer and backing for each item, including what you trim away afterward. A dense fill uses more thread than a light outline, and stretchy blanks need heavier backing, so change these when the design or garment changes.
For the machine, enter sew time per item, what the machine cost, the hours you expect it to run over its life, and upkeep per hour for needles and service. Then average power draw and your electricity rate. Embroidery machines don't use much power, but depreciation and upkeep are separate from electricity and still count.
Your hands-on time covers hooping, placement, thread changes, trimming jump stitches, cleanup, checking the piece and packing it. On a single-needle machine, color changes keep you at the machine for much of the run. Add your labor rate, packaging, and a failure allowance for crooked placement, thread breaks and blanks that get damaged. Finish with the sales channel, your target margin and any shipping you charge.
Worked example
Enter a $6.50 blank, 8,000 stitches, $0.04 thread cost, and $0.30 of stabilizer and backing. Set sew time to 13 minutes, machine price to $1,500, expected life to 5,000 hours, upkeep to $0.20 per hour, and average draw to 90 watts. Add 8 minutes of hands-on time, $0.60 for packaging and other costs, a $25 hourly labor rate, electricity at $0.18 per kilowatt-hour, and a 3% failure allowance. Choose Etsy, a 40% target margin, and $0 shipping charged to the buyer.
The calculator shows $7.12 for materials, $0.11 for machine use, $0.00 for electricity after rounding, $3.33 for labor, $0.60 for packaging and $0.33 for failures. Total cost is $11.50. At $23.99, Etsy fees are $2.73 and profit is $9.76, a 41% margin, and profit per machine-hour is $45.05. That $0.00 electricity line just means less than a cent, not zero.
The blank is more than half the cost here. That's why swapping a basic tee for a premium one, or a flat logo for a big back design, can change the price a lot. Rerun the numbers whenever the customer changes the garment or the design size.
What tends to get missed
- Stabilizer, topping and backing, which add up over a big batch
- Hooping and placement, which can take longer than the sewing on small designs
- The risk on customer-supplied garments, which are harder to replace than your own blanks
- Thread breaks and rejected pieces that need more labor or a new blank
- Etsy's fees on the shipping you charge
Profit per machine-hour
The example's $9.76 profit over 13 minutes of sewing is $45.05 per machine-hour after rounding. It's a good way to compare a small left-chest logo with a dense design that ties up the machine for 40 minutes. Keep in mind it doesn't cover your hooping and finishing time. That's already in the cost as labor.
FAQ
How do I price embroidery by stitch count?
Use the stitch count to estimate thread, then add the blank, backing, machine time, labor, packaging, failures and fees. Stitch count on its own misses the hooping and cleanup. Two 8,000 stitch designs can take very different amounts of hands-on time.
How much should I charge for an embroidered shirt?
Use the real shirt cost and the stitch count and sew time for that design. The example above comes out to $23.99 with a $6.50 blank and 8,000 stitches. A different shirt or design means different inputs.
Should embroidery setup be included in labor?
Yes. Placement, hooping, thread changes, trimming and packing all go in your hands-on minutes. If the same design runs over and over, spread the shared setup across the batch. Digitizing a new design is a one-time job, so it's better billed as its own fee.
Why does embroidery profit change so much with blank cost?
The blank is usually one of the biggest direct costs. When it goes up, the price needed to keep your margin goes up with it. Check the numbers before you swap a standard shirt for a premium one at the same price.
The full Tidy Margin embroidery workbook turns stitch count into sew time for you, using your machine's speed and efficiency, and saves your designs and blanks for future orders.