How Much to Charge for Alterations: A Sewing Price List From Minutes

October 21, 2026 · Pricing a service business

To work out how much to charge for alterations, price your time first and the garment second. Add the income you want to keep (grossed up for tax) to your business costs, divide by the sewing hours clients actually pay for, and you have an hourly floor. Each alteration is then its minutes at that floor plus the thread, tape or zipper it uses. In the illustrative example below the floor is $40.71 a paid hour, a hem lists at $25, a zipper replacement at $40, and a full gown package at $450.

None of these are market prices. The income, costs, minutes and notion prices belong to one made-up tailor. Replace each one with your own before you print a price list.

The alterations pricing formula

revenue needed = income to keep / (1 - tax set-aside) + business costs
paid hours     = sewing hours clients pay for a week x weeks worked
hourly floor   = revenue needed / paid hours
job price      = hourly floor x minutes / 60 + materials for the job

The same floor method works for any self-employed trade; the freelance hourly rate calculator lays it out step by step.

Step 1: the hourly floor

The example tailor wants to keep $35,000 a year, sets aside 20% of profit for tax, and spends $5,100 a year on the business: machine servicing, tools, insurance, a share of home costs, advertising. The tailor works 48 weeks and sews 25 paid hours a week. On top of that come 4 hours a week of intake and pinning that are not charged and 3 of messages, supply runs and bookkeeping.

Every paid hour has to bring in $40.71. Only 78% of the hours worked are paid, so spread over every hour actually worked the tailor keeps $22.79 an hour. The unpaid fitting time is already inside the floor, which is why the price list below does not charge for it again.

Step 2: the sewing alterations price list

Materials per job come from what a spool or needle pack costs and the jobs you get out of it, by your own count. In the example every job carries $0.90 of thread, needles and a garment bag; with hem tape a hem job comes to $1.65, and with the $3.50 zipper a zipper job comes to $4.40.

Now time each job from pinning to pressing, on your own clock, and price it:

The last column rounds each floor up to the next $5. Prices on your list can sit above the floor. They should not sit below it without a reason you have chosen.

Checking the price you charge now

The example tailor charges $18 for a hem. Take off the $1.65 of materials and divide by the 30 minutes, and that price pays $32.70 an hour, $8.01 short of the $40.71 floor. Run the same check on every line of your list: (price - materials) / (minutes / 60), compared with your floor.

How much to charge for a rush alteration

A rush job takes the same minutes as a regular one. What it costs you is when it gets done and the jobs it bumps. The example prices that as a 50% premium on the job’s own hours plus the 15 minutes spent rescheduling other clients, both at the floor.

On the 50-minute zipper that is $16.96 of premium and $10.18 of rescheduling: a $27.14 rush fee, 68% of the $40 regular price, for a rush price of $70 rounded up. That looks steep next to the regular price, but it is built from the same floor. If you charge a flat rush fee, check that it covers both parts.

How much to charge for dress alterations: the gown package

A bridal or formal gown is several jobs plus fittings, and the fittings are where a package price goes wrong. Here is one illustrative gown:

The 3 fittings are 21% of the package time, worth $91.60 at the floor. Quote the hem, bustle and bodice alone and that time is given away. Collecting 50% at the first fitting ($225) means the work before the final fitting is not all on credit. If the gown is one line in a larger plan, the wedding budget breakdown shows how the pieces add up on the client’s side.

How much to charge for sewing projects from scratch

A custom garment adds fabric you buy. The example is a lined garment from a pattern, with fabric and lining bought at 10% over the pattern’s yardage for matching and mistakes, and a 15% handling charge on materials for the shopping time and the money fronted.

Materials and handling come to $108.22; the 11 hours of labor are 81% of the quote floor. That is the part to check hardest. If a client brings the fabric, the fabric and lining lines go to zero, but the labor does not: the hours alone are $447.81 at the floor.

The insight: the job that runs over sets your real rate

A price list is only as good as its minutes. Say the example’s $25 hem runs to 38 minutes, then needs 10 more to re-pin and fix: 48 minutes in all, 18 more than the list assumed. After the $1.65 of tape and thread and $0.85 of card fees, the job leaves $22.50. Over 48 minutes that is $28.13 an hour, below the $40.71 floor, even though the price was set correctly for the minutes on the list.

At those minutes the hem needed $35.38. One overrun is noise. The same line running over again and again means the minutes on that line are wrong, and the price follows the minutes. Time a job whenever it runs long, and fix the line, not the job.

How these were calculated

Revenue needed is income / (1 - tax set-aside) + business costs. Paid hours are paid sewing hours a week times weeks worked; the floor is revenue / paid hours, rounded to the cent before use. Materials per job are spool price / jobs per spool plus needle pack price / jobs per pack plus the bag, with tape or a zipper added on the jobs that use them. Each job’s floor is floor x minutes / 60 + materials, rounded up to the step shown. The rush fee is floor x job hours x premium plus floor x rescheduling minutes / 60. The gown package is the sum of its minutes, fittings included, at the floor plus materials. The custom quote is pattern, fabric and lining with the extra yardage, notions, a handling share and hours at the floor. The overrun job subtracts materials and a card fee share plus a per-payment fee, then divides by the minutes spent. Every figure was computed twice, once by the code behind the product below and once by an independent program, and the two agree to the cent. All inputs are illustrative, not market rates or measured times. The tax set-aside is a share you choose, not a computed tax. None of this is financial, legal or tax advice.

To run this on your own year, notions and clock, the pack below has the same calculators linked together, plus a weekly capacity check against your income target.