Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For dressmakers

Dressmaker Hourly Rate Calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a self-employed dressmaker should charge for their time, starting from the income you need, then builds the per-garment prices clients actually pay out of the hours a garment really holds. Clients rarely buy “an hour of sewing”; they buy the dress that fits only them — the pattern drafted or adapted, the toile fitted and corrected, the seams finished inside as carefully as out. The fabric is the client’s, or billed as its own line; the rate prices your cutting, sewing and fitting hours. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $68 an hour, $544 for a full day — and the garments built from it: a made-to-measure dress at about sixteen hours, $1,089 of making — with a bridal gown at about thirty hours, $2,042 — and a single fitting session at one hour, $68.

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The pricing reality for dressmakers

A garment is bought flat and earned across more hours than the finished dress suggests. Inside the price sit the consultation, the pattern work, the toile, the cutting, the sewing, two honest fittings and the hand-finishing nobody photographs. A price copied from the dressmaker across town carries all of that whether it covers it or not. Price the hour first, and every garment becomes an assembly: so many hours of making, at a rate that adds up.

Fabric is a separate honesty. The cloth is usually the client’s own — chosen by them, carried in by them — or bought for the garment and billed as its own line, never buried inside a making price. A dressmaker who buries fabric inside a per-garment price makes silk look like theft and cotton look like charity. Your rate prices the making: the drafting, the cutting, the sewing and the fitting; the cloth sits on its own line where both of you can see it.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $40,000 target income, $9,000 a year of expenses — a workroom share leads, with machine upkeep and replacement, notions and consumables like thread, interfacing and zip stock, patterns, tools and pressing equipment, insurance, marketing and admin, and phone and software — a 25% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 55% billable time. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $68 an hour.

Your numbers — dressmaker presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs dressmakers forget to put in the rate

  • The toile. The mock-up in cheap cloth — cut, sewn and fitted before the real fabric is touched — is a full round of making that produces no garment. It is skilled insurance for both of you and it belongs in the garment’s hours, every time.
  • The fittings that overrun. A fitting booked for forty minutes that runs to ninety, a client who brings a committee — fitting time is making time. The number of fittings in the price is stated; the extra ones are billed, kindly, at the rate.
  • The notions drawer. Thread, interfacing, boning, zips, buttons and lining are consumed by every garment and rarely appear on an invoice. Estimated honestly from last year’s receipts, they belong in expenses — not discovered in December.
  • The machine’s moods. Sewing machines and overlockers need servicing, needles, feet and eventual replacement, and they choose the worst week to sulk. Their upkeep is paid by the rate or borrowed from the breakdown.
  • The pattern library. Drafting from scratch, adapting a block, grading a pattern — pattern work is the invisible half of dressmaking. Whether it is priced per garment or folded into the hours, it must be counted; an uncounted pattern is a donation.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the dressmaker presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 55% billable — that is 1,056 billable hours a year: the consulting, pattern work, cutting, sewing and fittings clients can pay for, once admin, marketing and the hunt for the next client have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $49,000 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 25% estimate, divide by 0.75 to get $65,333 — then add your profit margin to reach $71,867 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $68, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the prices clients actually buy. A full day at the machine and the cutting table is the day rate, $544. A made-to-measure dress — consultation and pattern, cutting, sewing, two fittings and finishing — at about sixteen hours is $1,089 of making. A bridal gown, with its structure, layers and extra fittings, at about thirty hours is $2,042. A single extra fitting is one hour, $68, named in the price so it is never an argument. The fabric sits on its own line — the client’s own, or bought for the garment at cost or a stated mark-up — agreed before the scissors come out.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Dressmaker rate questions

The crafts overlap but the work differs: dressmaking builds a garment from the start — pattern, toile, cutting, construction, fittings — while tailoring centres on structured garments and altering clothes that already exist. The maths is identical; the hour shape is not. A dressmaker’s hours hide in pattern work and fittings, a tailor’s in alteration benches and pressing. Price your own shape honestly — and if you also take alterations, count those hours at the same rate rather than as pocket-money work.
No — keep it as its own line, or sew the client’s own fabric. Cloth varies from lining cotton to silk by the metre beyond any honest average; buried inside a making price it makes one client subsidise another’s taste. Buy it for the garment at cost, or with a stated mark-up agreed in advance that covers your sourcing time and knowledge. The price you quote is for the making: drafting, cutting, sewing and fitting — the hours only you can supply.
Two is the honest standard in the worked example here — one at the toile or first-construction stage, one before finishing — and the number belongs in the quote itself. Fittings are where the garment becomes the client’s, and they are also where hours quietly double. Extra fittings, or a change of design after cutting, are billed at the same rate and named as such from the start — kindly, in writing, before anyone is standing in pins.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates, radon mitigation specialist rates, home inspector rates, mold remediation specialist rates, window tint installer rates, paintless dent repair technician rates, home energy auditor rates, knife sharpener rates and mobile tyre fitter rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.