Yes, baking is work.

[morgana]

Yeah, even with an embroidery machine, fancy garb takes time . . .

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

$150+costs of a display! That's it?! Hell, Mrs. TGK would have jump at that quote when she was planning our wedding Did Bridezilla expect you to do this for free or what?

Probably.

I did truffles for wedding favors, and those were 50 cents apiece for their standard flavors (preordered 2 months in advance), and I packaged them in favor boxes myself

I make elizabethan gowns for historical recreation by hand. *I* find it relaxing, and get a kick out of wearing something I make. A moderately simple court gown can start with $US 2500 in material alone [last one was velvet, satin and 2 ounces real no shit seed pearls as well as other decorative stuff. This doesn't count a stomacher, collars and cuffs with any blackwork, or accessories. Gown and sleeves.] If you add in the labor of some 300 to 400 hours of hand sewing, you are looking at around 5K for a finished gown. Then there is the chemise, corset, underskirts, bumroll.....it is a lot of work for one outfit. I rarely ever do a commission for anything other than medieval, renaissance is hardcore fancy for nobility. I can whip off servant to middle class elizabethan in about 100 hours and it is dead plain ...
https://imgur.com/bM17cXi

I haven’t even tried making an Elizabethan gown just because of material costs. 8 yards of jacquard doesn’t come cheap.

I bake on the side as well as a full time job. I came to an arrangement with my coworkers. They cough up some money ($5-$10) and I will bake cupcakes of any flavor of their choosing with the understanding that I will be using box cake mix and not from scratch (I find that most people can't tell the difference between from scratch and from a box). Everyone takes turns requesting stuff. It's working out pretty well for the past few years.

Thankfully my friends know that I only do one major cake (wedding or birthday) a year (compromise with my husband) and they have all respected it (thank God).

To me cupcakes are so much easier than cakes.

Cupcakes are miles easier! No leveling, you can pipe the icing right on top.

I use box cake too, though with butter instead of oil. And I make icing (Ermine icing seems to be more popular with adults than straight buttercream).

That’s a pretty neat way to help fund baking every week!

[dalesys]

Yep, baking is work. Unless you're hip-checking a witch into the oven... That's Defense!

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

I'll say this much: I'm getting my AP checks back a lot faster since I started handing out cake pops to the people with signing privileges. I have another check run coming up. Maybe I'll do sugar cookies this week.

[workerbee222]

I had a woman show up with an antique gown. It has some really beautiful pleating/lace, something fancy down the center front.

Woman had possession of this gown, and wanted me to remove the beautiful portion from this fragile dress, *and design and construct an entirely new dress* using the portion removed from the old one, for her niece. Her pregnant niece. Then she mentioned she was on a budget.

I told her the best option for niece was for auntie to take her to Giant Wedding Retailer and buy a dress off the sale rack for $100. She thought $100 was an exorbitant price to pay for a wedding dress.

I don't know what the disconnect was in her mind, whether she had no idea that seamstresses made more than a buck or two an hour, or she thought that creating a dress as simple as throwing magic herbs on a fire to make a finished dress appear. She was surprised that even relatively inexpensive fabric would be $10 a yard.

[ladyjaneinmd]

I sew. I make jewelry. I quilt. I've had so many people try to con/whine/guilt me into doing stuff for them for free/way too cheap. And do NOT get me started on the things people have tried to barter . . .

Grrrrrrrr.

One of my friends says that she always tells people, 'Sure, I'll sew for you, and while I'm sewing, you can come over to my house and cook and clean the whole time I'm sewing.'
Oddly enough, she doesn't hear much after that.

[ladyjaneinmd]

A friend once asked me if I could make a christening gown out of her daughter's wedding gown, for her daughter's first baby. Well, as luck would have it, I did just this for my sister, so I know how to do it! I quoted her a price of $400. She said that she already took apart her daughter's wedding down, so I caved and said okay, so how about $250.
She never got back to me. I can only *imagine* how cheap she wanted this to be. It's a lot of work! HARD work.
I just don't understand people.

[taxguykarl]

make a christening gown out of her daughter's wedding gown, for her daughter's first baby

That sounds labor intensive on the face of it

I can only *imagine* how cheap she wanted this to be.

Probably free like the bridezilla in the OP.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

On the flip side, the security guard in the lobby keeps getting me pastries the day after I take treats down to him. Very nice, but unnecessary, and also I feel bad if I don't eat them. :/

[Kanalah]

Oy!

People have no clue about the time/energy that goes into things.

One of my co-workers asked me to make pillowcases for her classroom. Nothing fancy, no big deal. Luckily I had a bag of already sewn items in my car, so she could look at different fabrics. She asked for "cheap" fabric. She meant less then $5/yard. The fabric she loved was $9/yard. I found that if I ordered the fabric online and picked it up myself, it was on sale for $4.79/yard. She was thrilled. She needed her pillowcases before the school year started, I had them finished and ready in 2 days. Since it was a simple project, I charged her $5/hour. She only paid the discounted price for the fabric and refused to pay a penny more.

She has no clue why I'm not super friendly with her.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

Oy!

People have no clue about the time/energy that goes into things.

One of my co-workers asked me to make pillowcases for her classroom. Nothing fancy, no big deal. Luckily I had a bag of already sewn items in my car, so she could look at different fabrics. She asked for "cheap" fabric. She meant less then $5/yard. The fabric she loved was $9/yard. I found that if I ordered the fabric online and picked it up myself, it was on sale for $4.79/yard. She was thrilled. She needed her pillowcases before the school year started, I had them finished and ready in 2 days. Since it was a simple project, I charged her $5/hour. She only paid the discounted price for the fabric and refused to pay a penny more.

She has no clue why I'm not super friendly with her.

That’s why you always get payment up front.

[Kanalah]

Yeah, usually I do. I thought I could trust a co-worker. Never again.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

I looked up some local bakeries and cake pop boutiques. They tend to sell pops 6 for $12 and custom pops starting at $3.75 each, a dozen minimum. So, yeah, my quote was WAY low.

[taxguykarl]

So, yeah, my quote was WAY low.

Like I said, your quote was a steal.

[Maggie]

This sounds very close to those scenarios where somebody with, say, musical talent is asked to come to a party and play an instrument or sing "and we can't pay you, but it will give you exposure!"

People die of exposure...