Things I make from socks (pic hefty)

[craftylittlemonkey]

Oh, I am so glad the elephant it getting so much love! She's going to be my first Toy Society drop off when we go away this weekend. It's too small of a place where I live to do that so I've been holding on to her and falling in love with her for a while. I have another pair of thrifted hand knit socks in tan and brown that will become a bunny. I'll post pics when I'm done!

[applesandpumpkins]

These are all so adorable.
I love the black one the best. They're all the cutest sock monkeys I've ever seen though.
I wish i knew how to make them.
I may just have to learn..

[craftylittlemonkey]

Oh my goodness, it couldn't be easier to make sock monkeys and creatures! Just google the instructions and give it a try, you'll see. I couldn't believe how simple and FAST it is when I finally got up the guts to give it a go. A basic monkey takes me 3 hours from start to finish and that's the quickest kind of stuffy I've ever made by hand! Do it, you'll be pleasantly surprised. One piece of advice I have is to use thick, solid socks that don't stretch all over the place or show stuffing through them, use guy's socks for your first time. I find the girly fashion socks, thought cute, not the best for stitching into monkeys. That's just me though, lots of people use them. I would try it the first time with regular, thick men's socks though.

[gotgrey]

I'm a monkey junkie!  Love to make and collect monkeys!  Yours are so cute! E.

[Saint_Angel]

Oh!  These are super adorable!  I don't know what's taken me so long to see them!!!  I love the first pair, and I love the last one, and the elephant and all the others!!!  You did a great job!  I don't know what you decided for price but if I may offer my suggestion, I sell my plushies for $8 in person and $10 on the internet.  It only takes me an hour to make each one (relatively) and the fleece I wait to buy when it's on sale and I have a coupon.  My suggestion would be $15 - $25 depending on details.  Seamstresses at the lowest level make $6 an hour so if you buy the socks in bulk and are just whipping up a plain one, I don't personally think $15 is too much.  Plus sock monkeys are larger stuffed animals.  And when you take a longer time and put in more details, that's when you can charge more, for your time and attention to detail.  But mind you, this is only MY opinion.   

Anyway, great job!  I sooo want one now! 

[craftylittlemonkey]

I am in Canada where minimum wage is over $10 (our cost of living is higher than in the States though) so at $50 (which is the amount I'm getting for them) I am making just under minimum wage. I do try to purchase supplies on sale and use what's in my stash whenever possible so as to keep my own cost down and I'm a pretty fast crafter but so much detail and all that handstitching takes time!

Psst, I think $10 is super cheap for what you do. I'd ask for more...  your stuff is GREAT!

[Saint_Angel]

Oh wow!  I guess then yes, you should charge more, I didn't realize.  And you handstitch ALL of the monkey?  Oh my, you have great patience!    And I can see how you'd get $50 for them! 

And I would ask for more for mine, thanks for thinking they're great, but nothing seems to really sell so I sure wouldn't want to make it worse and try to sell them for more. 

[craftylittlemonkey]

Oh, I machine stitch the arms, legs and tail but the rest is all by hand. If I could figure out another way to do it believe me, I would! It's tedious...

Sometimes people under value things because they are priced too low, you know? Like they thing, oh, so little... well it can't be worth much then...
As an artist/crafter/whatever I already have a problem undervaluing my own work, I think it comes with the territory though.

[Saint_Angel]

You know, I never looked at it that way.  The undervaluing part.  That's interesting.  You know, with the custom ones I do, I think I should charge more because more detail and time and love goes into them, but then I think that the people receiving them will go "OMG!  Look at all this awesome work she did!  And it only cost blah blah blah!"  And then their friends will go "Really?  I should get me one!"  And so on and so forth.  But alas, that doesn't happen so I guess we are just screwed!    Hey, at least we craft for the one that's most important.  US!   

But in all seriousness, a lot of people don't really appreciate what homemade means and what it takes to make things and they see what we do and sell and think "Ugh, I can just buy that at (insert soul-sucking crappy chain store ruining America) for way cheaper!" without realizing that ours are not only more special, but will outlast any crap they buy.

[craftylittlemonkey]

Word sister.
I thought of something last night... I think if you've got some really gorgeous ornate, heavily detailed or larger items for sale with a high price point and people just love them so much, they are more likely to buy a smaller, less expensive item and feel like they still got a piece of your wonderful work. If I ever get around to getting an Etsy store up this is what I'll do for myself. Bonus if I actually sell a bigger piece but if it draws people in and leads to a bunch of smaller sales it's worth the effort of making it in the first place, even if it never does sell.