So, the question is, Can you make money from creating handmade items? No. At least, not if you do what I do. If you sell online you have to pay a fee. Now, I believe Etsy has the lowest fee along with Ebay, but the problem is that people generally do not buy handmade items.
If you sell at Craft Shows you need to pay a $30-$50 fee. A lot of the time you don't even break even. (payed $30, didn't even sell $30 worth of items)
When I went to the craft show I paid $30 for 1 table. I sold Hotpads and Cat toys. I didn't sell anything else. ($4 for hotpads and $1 for cat toys)
Needless to say, this is why I believe that you cannot make money at this. Not unless you have patented your own brand of item. Which I refuse to do. It is ridiculous to restricted others from creating that same item. Your item is popular, that is great, so why can't others make the same item? It is likely that they won't make it the same way as you and if you already have loyal customers then you shouldn't be afraid of some competition.
The other way you could make money at this is if you are not the one doing the work and are paying some poor soul 50 cents an item that they make.
But handmade in the USA by one person isn't worth the money? Allow me to tell you the time it takes for each item.
Hotpads: I take 1 day to cut the fabric and middle. Then I take an entire second day to iron and pin. Sometimes it takes a third day to sew all the hotpads. Once I made 150 hotpads in a week, but my fingers were bruised.
Pillowcases: I can make four a day. But that is with my mother's help. She cuts the fabric to the correct size that I need and then I iron and pin. I can have 15 pinned but it can take up to two weeks to get them all done.
Cat toys: These didn't take much time, my mom had 10 crocheted in 15-20 minutes.
Knitted items: These can take between 1 week and 6 months, depending on what it is. The Doctor Who scarves took up to 2 months. The blankets took 1 week through 3 weeks. The regular scarves took between 10 days and 1 month.
Fleece Blanket (I will soon have a made to order thing in my Etsy shop for these)- This took a lot longer then it should have. But it was 3-8 months. My fingers have been bruised and cut from this and I will be finished with this blanket sometime this week. (Lord willing) The poor man has been waiting forever since he first ordered it. I only asked for $75 from him, but he is a family friend. In the etsy shop it will be at least $100. (Custom made blanket)
I hope you can see my point of view.
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