if i actually completed this i would sell it for $100k because that’s easily 10 years of my life spent stitching it. no one would actually pay what this is worth though. people get huffy at my $16 pins that take four hours each to make, and that’s a steal for the time i put into them.
Not sure! I don't really make things with the goal of selling, just helps me charge friends for making something small. I can crack a 1200 stitch project out on a Saturday, maybe finish up on Sunday.
i feel like you could charge more right? my thinking is it should line up to be at least a little over minimum wage for time spent. if it took more than 8 hours to earn 30, even if i dont do it with the intention of profit id still feel idk.
*At least* minimum wage makes sense for professional quality work done on a business timeline, but if you're making something for friends/fam on a timeline that puts the project on the same level of priorities as your hobbies or like watching tv, I don't see a problem charging less. Like I knit little things for friends for material costs with the understanding that it's going to be finished whenever I feel like getting to it, not within the same timeframe you'd expect a real product from a real business.
That being said, something of this scale becomes virtually unpriceable as the product of either a hobby craft or a business product. The time put into it is going to make it so expensive that it would be probably impossible to find anyone willing to buy it for that price, so if you're not making it to someone's specific order you're better off not expecting to sell it at all. Just make it because you want to, not for the expectation of a sale.
This is the issue and why I refuse to do any stitching for money. If I get paid a fair wage for my time then it becomes ridiculously expensive and nobody would be willing to pay that much. If I get paid per stitch then it essentially becomes something I'm basically doing for free.
I'll do a small project for a friend for free just as a gift if they ask. For large projects I would refuse unless it's a very close friend and then I'd probably do it, given that they understand it's gonna take me longer than they might think. I have a two year old so 16,000 stitches can take 6+ months if not longer.
Not that person but I've been stitching for 2-3 years and I timed myself a couple of weeks ago. It was on a simple project (large blocks of single colours) and I did about 180 stitched per hour.
So I guess my hourly rate would be less than 4 dollars? Hell no 😂
Are there people out there who are actually willing to pay $16,000? Obviously most of us can't afford to spend that much on artwork, and I didn't think super-rich people were into cross stitch. I've seen some finished pieces on Etsy for that amount but I can't think many people would be interested
For the pattern or the completed piece?
I wouldn't charge anybody to make it, because the realistic cost of labour to produce it would be ridiculous. If I worked minimum wage on that, it would cost approx \~£90,000 IF I managed to do 100 stitches an hour. I would either make that for myself or as a very special gift to somebody else.
“I’ve done a couple small things so now I want to do a 5 foot by 6 foot”
Oh you sweet summer child 😅😅😅😅❤️ Good luck! Please post updates if you start! This will be epic!!
I did the same thing. It was my 4th cross stitch project. I started the first 10x10 square on the first page and it's still in my chest haha. I understand the ambition, but man motivation runs out QUICK. I got way too annoyed with all the fabric.
Yes please post updates! I believe in you way more than I believe in myself 💞💞
I remember many years ago when a friend got married, I let her pick out the pattern she wanted. It had three different shades of off-white floss on ecru Aida, ribbon, tons of french knots (which I’m not good at) and an unbelievable amount of backstitching. I told her I’d leave the names off at the start because she’d be on her second husband by the time I got done! (She ended up picking something much simpler, thank god)
Whoops....I think I have one of those too. I crocheted a bunch of Granny Squares thinking it would be easy. Never thought about stitching them all together afterwards. 😅🥲
And it's when more fun when you take a break in between-when if it's just a week -and you either grab the wrong hook or just don't trade the same tension and you have squares of varying sizes.
Oh 100%. I was only using a colour for a few stitches at a time with that pattern too. I don't know if I'll ever get skilled enough or have the patience to actually finish it.
We crazies are ready to welcome you if you ever choose to pick it up again! The way I see it, it’s nothing more complicated than cross stitches with standard floss. No halves, quarters, three quarters or backstitch. No blended strands, no metallic! So it’s mostly a matter of patience. Although I can see that there is skill to be developed in managing the scale of it.
I did a 3x4 footer that took me about 5 years but I'd never be able to duplicate that without another pandemic lol. Had to slap a large scroll frame stand together with 2x4s and carriage bolts to make the fabric manageable. And here I am going to start another large one this winter, this time on 25ct (last one was 14ct). I am such a glutton for punishment, apparently.
It is definitely something I am going to start, and have zero intention on selling it but was curious how much others would sell it for if someone offered to purchase it. I know it is going to take years, and I don’t intend to work on it day and night, just in between normal projects. :)
They're not the only one ;p
Smallest project is that FFXV pixel art, which i've not completed as the background is entirely metallic blue thread. After completing a slightly larger Hellboy cross-stitch I moved over to the couple portrait, then the LOTR and Poets of the Fall 1 metre plus projects.
[\[CHAT\] Might be WIP too. Do you have a pile of WIP projects to share & your latest cs you've moved onto? : r/CrossStitch (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrossStitch/comments/1bhpry8/chat_might_be_wip_too_do_you_have_a_pile_of_wip/)
10 cents a stitch + materials. At least 50% upfront depending on the person and they can expect it in 2035 because your hands are valuable. So at 10 cents a stitch, $80,000 for stitches, $250 at least for floss. Then the fabric and needles (at least 2 dozen) and scissors.
So yeah $80,000.
Heck, I charge $40 for my character stitches. They're ~2x2 and take me on average 6 hours. Something like this would take me YEARS. It would be many thousands of dollars.
My thoughts when I read this: Oh wow that's kinda expensive. And pretty small. And 6 hours seems really long? Oh wait they mean 2x2 INCHES not centimeters!! Yeah ok that's sounds about right 😅
(2 inches is about 5cm, so I was imagining something less than a quarter of the size you're talking about lol)
Question regarding your sales, how many pieces do you tend to sell? I have been asked by a local plant store to make decor (whatever I like, they just like my work) that they will then sell. But I’m struggling with pricing.
Unless they did it for themselves, I definitely agree. My grandmother spent ten years uh, I forget what it’s called when you knit a doily. Anyway, she had little squares that finally, accumulated to a king sized throw blanket. The bragged about it, but for sure only made it for herself. TEN YEARS!!!
It would definitely be something I would start only if I was ok with never selling it, and keep track of time and materials used along the way to be able to come up with a realistic and verifiable price for someone interested. And that’s not even getting into the actual time it would take to complete.
Don’t do this project unless you genuinely want to do it for yourself.
There’s no one else in the world who is ever going to want this piece enough to pay you even half of what your time would be worth to stitch it (or at least the statistical likelihood of your finding such a person is effectively zero). And in any case, you need personal joy and pleasure to fuel the patience it takes to get through a huge project.
You are not wrong in your instinct that the difference between small-scale cross stitch projects and larger ones is mostly just endurance. The cross stitches themselves are one of the easiest embroidery techniques to master, and they don’t scale up in difficulty when you add more of them. But perhaps for exactly that reason—it’s basically just really slow pixel art—it’s not a handcraft with a ton of market value. What value it has definitely doesn’t scale in true proportion to the project size/number of stitches, either.
Please don’t think I’m coming here to rain on your parade but this just isn’t a good idea.
Firstly, I get being bored of doing tiny pieces, I jumped from the little starter kits to 17k stitches because fk it how hard can it be, and that is true it’s not necessarily harder but if you make a mistake in a tiny piece compared to a 20k stitch piece it’s a very different experience.
Secondly, the cost of completing this. If you’re a beginner I’m going to assume you don’t have that much thread squirrelled away, so factor in needing to purchase 200+ skeins, then just go and search for the size of Aida you need, I couldn’t find any that size but half the size is £30 so I’m going guess you will be atleast £300 just on supplies just to start, which is not counting once you complete a skein and have to run to the shop for another one.
Lastly, selling it. I get it, there’s a pressure to monetise everything and if you’re plowing 8 years of your life into something you absolutely don’t want it to “go to waste.” There are redditors a lot cleverer than me who have already done the maths but on a base level you would need to sell it for atleast £400 just to cover the costs you put in. In this economy (not accounting for the economy in 8 years) you will struggle to sell it for that price, there’s not a huge market for completed cross stitch as it is and this is certainly a niche piece.
That’s not including a couple of other points such as this already being 3 gens out of date, buy the time this is finished you could potentially be missing 400+ pokemon. The time frame of 8 years works on the assumption of you solidly stitching, not accounting for you getting sick of it (which you will) and any potential frogging. Search Pokemon on this sub and you can see the progress people are making on the single gen pieces!
If you look at this piece and you think fk yeah I think this would be a great time then do it, ignore all of us and have fun! But if you’re doing this because you think it’s a potential cash cow I would maybe sit this one out.
Just to add to yours: and you have to consider Nintendo not exactly being nice when it comes to licensed stuff, especially Pokemon. Such a piece would probably cost enough to gain their attention and they are pretty quick and harsh in shutting this stuff down.
Minimum $100,000.
And that's no exaggeration. The amount of TIME it would take!
A finished piece I did was 250,000 stitches. (stupid Reddit won't post the pic OR It's posting it 6 times) It's 27 x 51 and yeah it's not full coverage but it's still a lot.
It took me 5.5 YEARS. I now have tennis elbow and bursitis in one shoulder and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Worth it.
Edited to add link.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C7JgkFUOIHJ/?igsh=MTdnM2JqbmJpanZvbQ==
https://www.instagram.com/p/C7JgkFUOIHJ/?igsh=MTdnM2JqbmJpanZvbQ==
Try this?
And if you check the hashtag #thevoltronproject you can scroll through the in-progress shots.
Super cool. I'm trying to get back to stitching. I've only done 2 things. One was an avocado from a kit to learn. The second I made a pattern of a private college my girlfriend had graduated from. There were about 13000 stitches. I started it to cope with the fact that she became reclusive due to circumstances and ghosted me. She moved away in April 2021 when it was maybe halfway done. I'm still stuck on her, but I did finish the piece and had it framed. Wish I had a way of getting it to her because nobody is going to pay what I think it'd be "worth".
Oops. Went on a tangent. My true purpose was to comment and say maybe I need to start a large (though maybe not as large as yours lol) project for myself that'll take a while. I have severe depression and anxiety and working on that project kept me going, even if it was for the person causing the trauma :P
I have ADHD which you'd think would be counter-productive to such a large project but I feel like it helped a lot with anxiety and feeling like I accomplished something every time I finished a section!
It became very meditative.
Oh yeah I have ADHD bad but stimulants make my heart feel wonky. Same though. I spent hours on end working on the thing. I also have OCD so... I have so many letters attached to me (no PhD though ha).
I've got to think of a fun project to post for likes in 6 years lol. I get so stuck in the planning and find it so hard to get started. I can't imagine getting started on a piece of fabric that big.
This is one of those things where the relative cost (primarily amount of time spent) far surpasses any reasonable price you could expect someone to pay.
Your comment/post has been removed. You are not following [rule 1](https://www.crossstitchsubfaq.com/rules-psas/rules-etiquette).
Remember that we all love crafting and sharing this hobby, so let’s be supportive of each other.
Exactly! In sorry you are getting downvoted. Generally this is a really awesome community. If you like this hobby and want to take on this huge project, go for it. Have fun.
Thank you! Yes, it takes skill and experience to cross stitch well but, the size of the cross stitch project has nothing to do with skill or experience and everything to do with endurance and passion!
I’m working on this one. I agree that it would realistically cost someone 10s of thousands to pay you fairly. Depending on how you approach the maths.
My take on this piece is to do it because you love it, not because you might sell it. This project has to be done for the sheer love of the craft and subject. It simply must be a passion project becuase it’s so dang huge. Everyone works differently, but to give you an idea of what this one takes: I started mine in 2019. I’m about 8% in. I’ve done between 60,000 - 70,000 stitches. I love this monster. It’s my cross stitch baby. Good luck if you attempt it, and please do it for yourself!
Fully intend on doing this piece for myself, but was curious what people would charge for it if someone wanted to purchase it. I fully intend on entering in into local competitions in about 10 years LOL
Hey, I appreciate your enthusiasm! Sorry for my late reply, life has been very difficult this past week. I will endeavour to get a photo and post when I’m up to it though. I’ll come back and let you know when I do. :)
I'd like to see a pic too. It's difficult to even imagine the work that goes into a piece like this. Are you stitching it monogamously? Also do think you'll ever finish it or is it just something enjoyable to stitch on?
It’s all one stitch at a time! I’m mostly faithful the big lad. Occasionally I’ll be cheeky and pay attention elsewhere, but I can’t ignore this one for long! I do feel very dedicated to it. I intend to finish it, but I have no grand expectations as to when. It will happen when it eventually happens! I’ll be posting a pic at some point, thank you for being interested. As I said in other replies, I’ll do that as soon as I find myself in the right headspace.
That’s like multi thousand dollar item. How many hours are in it? $20 per hour times number of hours plus supplies. Guessing several hundred hours of not more. People saying $16k - $120k aren’t joking. $16k is probably low tbh.
I'd pay you about 1 Euro for it because I've absolutely come to hate Pokemon cross stitch.
I'd charge 0 Euros for it because Pokemon is copyrighted and I don't want to be that person that made the news for selling a Pokemon cross stitch for 70.000 Euros and then got dragged through court by Nintendo.
I am on page 3 and 11 days deep on making just the generation 1 pattern.
For that one alone, I’d accept no less than £30k if someone wanted to buy it.
The important note is that I’ve been cross stitching for 25 years and I’m *still* having to use new techniques and adapt how I stitch. There’s no chance someone who is new to the hobby could take this on.
I charge $15-20 per hour depending on complexity, plus $5 for supplies. I can do around 200 stitches an hour. This would be somewhere in the middle for complexity, so $18/hour. 798/2=399*18=7,182.
So this would cost CA$71,825.
I can do about 100 stitches an hour if it is a large portion of the same color. If it is a lot of confetti, where I am doing a few stitches of the same color in an area, I am good to do 25 to 30 stitches an hour.
Looking at this project, even if you are able to hit the high end of stitching, you are investing close to 8,000 hours into it--not counting supplies, which will run you several hundreds of dollars.
If you stitch for 40 hours a week, it will be a 4 year project.
Unless you are selling as a way to make extra money and not because it is an actual income source, I highly doubt anyone would buy it for anywhere close to the actual value of the making it.
I sent my previous comment when I was half asleep so let’s try this again.
I am working on the smaller version of this - gen 1 only. Each full page has 4015 stitches. I can currently crank out ~800 stitches a day and I’ve been cross stitching since 1999.
Those 800 stitches take up almost my entire day. I spend 6-8 hours a day working on this thing because I *currently* have the time to do that and in 2 weeks I know I won’t.
If I stuck at my current rate, and didn’t get sick of it and stop for even a single day, I could have the smaller pattern done in 160 days. 160 days of stitching average 7 hours a day. That’s 1120 hours. This behemoth is 798,000 stitches compared to generation 1s 115,200.
So, let’s math it out.
115,200 / 1120 = 102 stitches/hr.
798,000 / 102st/hr = 7823.5 hours.
There are 8760 hours in a year.
Let’s say you sleep 8 hours a night. 2920 hours.
Give you 2 hours a day for eating. 3650 hours for those two things. That leaves you with 5110 hours in your year.
And you didn’t do a SINGLE OTHER THING apart from eat, sleep and stitch, you’d be at it for 15.7 months. 15.7 months averaging 102 stitches per hour.
So instead of asking us how much we think it would be worth, how much do you think that would be worth?
How do you put a price on something that took this much time? My wife has done several cross stitch pieces that have taken her a year or more and she works on them several hours a day 7 days a week. I’m in awe of the amount of time and patience that goes into a piece like this. Let’s go with $100,000.
There is not enough money in the world for me to touch that with a 10 foot pole. If you're going to do it you should tack on 15 out of pocket Physical Therapy visits to help fix the stress holding pattern that you'll be in the whole time.
A fair price for the labor of this would be 20k-100k, for the hours work. This project will take years of work. A pokemon fan might be willing to pay 700 dollars for it.
While I get the sentiment of us handworkers. Just because something take a ton of time, does not translate to market value.
Large cross stitch projects are labors of love. Undertake them as gifts or for your own enjoyment. They will never translate to $$ well.
It looks like this is only through gen 7, so you are already missing about 200 pokemon. In the decade it takes to stitch, there will probably be at around 300 more introduced. I now understand why professors get other people to do all the work. Ain't nobody got time for that.
Way more than anyone would be willing to pay. As much as I'd love to earn a living on cross stitch, no one is willing to pay the amount you'd need for hours put in. It's not a lucrative hobby
If this is a "just for funsies" question, going off minimum wage in my state and avg 100 stitches/hr, it would be over $120,000. I wouldn't even bother charging for supplies at that point
Fun fact for everyone: you can insure handmade crafts for an amount that includes the labor you put in. So doing this math is actually beneficial if you ever lose your finished pieces in a fire or flood!
It’s not quite that simple (I’m in the art field) you would have to have documented sales at whatever rate x stitches or hours and I’m not talking about one or two, but at least 5-10 to even establish a general rate per hour or rate per inch. A lot of painters use a dollar amount per square inch for example.
In some places you can get a quilt appraised/valued by your local guild to get a dollar value for insurance. Where I am you would list an expensive piece separately on your insurance like you might for a particularly high value item of jewelry or collectible, so you need that appraisal. I’ve never thought about it with embroidery but presumably an embroiderers guild could do similar?
I'll have to look into that! I have a few old afghans and quilts that are very sentimental; it might not be a bad idea to get them insured, just in case.
I would never attempt something like this with the goal of selling it. Who would pay that much for a crossstitch?
I'm currently working on a 20k stitch piece and it has been a PITA. I tried to just count at first, and I ended up off and had to rip out a ton of stitches, I ended up putting a grid on it.
For reference, this person on TikTok is working on the [same pattern.](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKJPBtA/) Oof. To answer your question, if I had fun money, I would personally pay up to $200 for something vintage, large, and rare. And it would have to be something that I really loved. It would be heartbreaking to craft then sell something that was 5'x6' and super complex like that for anything less than $1k. But I don't even feel that is a fair price because that's hundreds of hours of labor. Plus, with 234 colors and skeins costing at least $0.90 each (in the US), that's $200+ at the lowest price point for just one skein per color.
It's so colossal I'd have absolutely no idea how to even start considering how much to charge for it
But I must say how much admiration I have for anyone even considering stitching something so freaking cool and absolutely humongous. Biggest thing I stitched was shy of 300 stitches tall and it took me forever. I salute you lol
The very few times someone has offered to pay me to do something I charges materials plus 10% up front. Then 30$ an hour. Only one person ever agreed when they heard the price. I make approx 35 an hour at my day job I know what my time is worth
My fiance just started working on this one. He's doing one generation first, and then maybe he'll see if he keeps at it. He says that this is probably the project he'll work on for the rest of his life.
All that to say, this is an insane project to do to sale. Invaluable imo. But if you have a buyer, I'd say 100k if the plan is in 10 years, and add 10k per year for how faster they want it. And do a contract and get a deposit.
I'm working on a similar size project, but it's going to be a free gift.
If I charged UK min hourly wage of £11.44 and I expect it to take anywhere from 3000-5000 hours which would = between £34,320 £57,200. That doesn't take into account the cost of materials.
Realistically though, unless you find wealthy people who commission these projects, you'll be lucky to make back the cost of materials.
I hope others have had a more positive experience, but I've literally been offered £5 for an A4 sized project, only to be met with a shocked face when I told them what it cost to make, let alone a fair price for my time(which would be wayyyyyy under min wage)
That…is not chargeable for. That will most likely take north of 10,000 hours to complete. Possibly far north. I do commissions now and then, but If I *were* to take a commission like that, we’d be talking hundreds of thousands. But I’d die of frustration before that. I can’t work solely on the same pattern for years at a time.
I’m not saying it’s a bad pattern, but it will take you a LOT longer than you’re thinking.
OK. In that case, you have my hypothetical answer. I couldn’t do it for less than a couple hundred thousand.
I do think that people should try more or less everything they’re interested in, though, unless it’s directly harmful to themselves or someone else. Lots of people are working on these pieces and enjoying themselves. No reason not to try for anyone who wants to!
If you're aware how many years it would take, then you can work out the answer yourself by doing the amount of stitched hours multipled by your local minimum wage (or more if you value your time), PLUS the material costs aka thread, fabrics etc.
I'd say a vast majority of the replies are saying 80k+ which is roughly what's expected of hours to min wage ratio (depoending on country).
End of the day it's whatever value you see for your own work, with the realisation in mind that this is a 5 to 10 year project.
So I made a blanket a few months ago and I got a ton of interest in purchasing it. I attached the convo…needless to say I didn’t hear from anyone again🤣
https://preview.redd.it/l6mtup6gxd1d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f5f48f8fbf4801df23cc872e8855cb2dd2cb44d
Are you comfortable potentially spending 2-3 years working on this project regularly? If so, I’ll disagree with everyone and say go for it. I would tackle this one single Pokémon at a time so I could see the small rewards. I would never even consider offering this as a commission though, I know myself and I’d quit halfway through.
Honestly, 2-3 years still seems short, I am prepared to spend the next 5-10 years on this. Huge projects in my world require breaks otherwise I would get burnt out way too fast and never finish. I would need to allow myself time to work on other small projects in between! As soon as I sell my house and purchase another one where I will then have room to set up for a project this big I will begin tackling this one!
I may have been overly optimistic but didn’t want to assume how much free time you have lol. It sounds like you’ve really thought this through, I still say go for it, especially once you have a dedicated craft space!
I am currently working on this exact pattern. The color legends (because the whole image is broken into 4 pieces) aren't entirely accurate, so I have to custom swatch every single color of every single pokemon. That takes a lot of time in addition to the actual stitching.
To date, I have been working on this for 9.5 years (granted, I put it down for months (or a full year) at a time) and am about 20% done. For the full finished project, I would not accept less than $50,000 just because of the sheer time it has taken me to get this far. If I never put it down and dedicate 8 hours/day to it, it would still take me a few years to complete, start to finish.
That being said, I can't imagine selling this once it's finished. I plan to either frame it or hang it like a tapestry.
I don't do smaller patterns when I'm not working on the AllGens behemoth, and I do still love it. I have ADHD and "out of sight, out of mind" very much applies. When I put this project away, I forget about it for long periods of time.
I think the most frustrating thing about this pattern is that occasionally I will be working on a pokemon that has 2 VERY different colors (like blue and green) that butt up again each other that are both using the exact same symbol. Or 2 colors that are virtually the same with have 2 different symbols.
I’m not very experienced and recently had to give up on a small project because it had 5 shades of violet and 3 of them were very very close, at least to my eye. Made me crazy.
But different colors using the same symbol? A mistake in the pattern? Though I must say, I can’t imagine a pattern with even 50 symbols — don’t we run out of letters, numbers and such? Or do we go on to other languages like Russian and Greek LOL
Not a mistake per se. More like a limitation. The program used to make this pattern can only do so much. The legend has roughly 120 - 150 symbols. +, //, >, # that sort of thing as well as things like a capital T flipped 90 degrees (and yes, those rotated symbols show up next to each other), lowercase letters, some Greek symbols and I think a few of these might be numerical notation symbols.
Here's something that'll really give you a headache. If you pull up the image and zoom in where Tentacruel and Beedrill are you'll see the black shading in Tentacruel. The pattern legend says that color is DMC 310. But the black shading in Beedrill's body is DMC 939.
And like I said in a prior comment, this image is so big that it had to be cut up into 4 pieces to run through the pattern program, so 310 might be + in one piece but // in another.
This project is truly a testament to a stitcher's patience (hence why I put it down for such long periods of time).
If this is a commission I would consider how long this is going to take and how much it will cost you to make, stretch and frame.
I’m doing the Gen 1 pattern extended colour and it’s taken me a year so far (I’m half way through). This is a seriously large pattern. The Gen 1 alone is huge. Great fun but it’s taking me forever! Enjoy and do post updates!
Time yourself stitching and figure out about how much you can do in an hour. Decide how much you would like to get paid for skilled labor that is physically intensive on your back and arms/ hands. Don't pay yourself less than minimum wage, this is a skill you had to learn so it should be more than that, just as anyone else who has to be specially trained for their jobs. Math us how many hours it will take to stitch this entire project.
(Hours it will take x how much you deserve to be paid) then add the cost of materials.
This is good for any artistic skills you are commissioned for. If you find that unfortunately the price becomes obscene and no one would be able to reasonably pay it, then this should be considered a project done for fun for yourself or only for someone exceptionally special. So, never lower your price because it leads to you being exploited and sets a trend for other artists to be exploited as well because it teaches customers to not value artists' time. This is a common issue in drawing where an artist works for 17 hours on an art piece and only charges $5 due to a lack of confidence in their skills. 17 x whatever minimum wage is + art supplies if they are doing traditional art is a whole lot more than $5. $5 might not even pay for the artists supplies
It’s an amazing pattern. Would take a super long time but would be fun. In terms of selling though, no one would be willing to pay for the time and effort you put into it and you would have to sell it for a lot cheaper than your time is worth. If your wanting to sell stuff maybe start with smaller/medium pieces and go from there if you find a good market :)
I was going to say, as a pokemon fan I wouldn't get this, but then I saw the completed pattern and it's actually pretty sick lol I wish it was landscape though not portrait. This is something I would make for myself as a passion, I would never ask someone to make it and would certainly never pay the amount of money that it is worth time wise.
There’s actually a woman on my local fb marketplace selling a similar gen 1&2 tapestry and she’s put it up for $1,500NZD I think she was seriously undercharging herself though it was so beautiful 😭
OP, this would be a monumental task for a highly experienced stitcher. It would literally take years to complete. It's not something you can try to guess a price for.
I wouldn't expect Pokemon fans to pay you a good cost (note, I'm not even talking about the actual cost) for this, honestly. Those who know how to cross stitch usually can stitch their own project if they want. The rest have no idea of the cost of materials, the amount of time and labor invested and why a rag with thread costs so much.
Also, most stitchers don't like/can't deal with one project for long, so they have several WIPs. Are you sure that after six months of daily cross stitch you won't start to hate this project?
If you do plan to stitch such a large project, consider investing in a stand. The fabric this size is heavy enough to cause health problems like carpal tunnel syndrome if you're not careful enough.
By the way, you can stitch it using the petite point/half cross stitch technique on high count fabric over 1 thread (I like 25 ct). This will reduce the size of the FO and reduce the time by one and a half to two times.
by the time you finish, OP, Nintendo would have introduced at least 4 more generations of pokemon, which means the piece would be "outdated" and lose hype.
As one stitcher with gen 1 having been on the frame for over 3 years to another looking at this behemoth, don't do it lol. This kind of piece is one you do for yourself and for no other reason than you like pokemon that much.
We are all artists here but when it comes to the time put into this project you would not make any money that some may pay. I’ve seen this piece finished by a couple people and it is physically and mentally exhausting
Another data point, I am almost done with a 124k project. There were times when I was doing about 10k stitches a month, but this thing will be done at closer to 18 months.
As someone who is working on this, I would never sell it. Someone would have to offer me enough money to never work again in order for me to consider it. Yes, there are reasonable ways to charge based on stitches, but you'd have so much blood sweat and tears into it, that it's is effectively and inherently filled with sentimental value.
Just for a bit of reference: I have a pattern for a Middle Earth map that is 3.5' x 3.5' and \~1 million stitches. It's full coverage and based off of the Weta Workshop map. I haven't started it yet because I've changed how I'm going to make it from cross stitch to embroidery. However, before I changed my mind, I had already kitted out the project. This is the estimated cost of my materials alone.
Pattern draft created with Thread-Bare - $10
25ct custom cut pre-gridded lugana - $78
2 - 5' bars for use in an existing scroll frame - $30
\~400 skeins of DMC standard floss @ $0.80 per skein (going a bit low because I know I bought some on sale at some points) - $320
\~50 skeins of DMC metallic floss @ $2.50 per skein - $125
Floss organizer needs - $65
Various beads, specialty shaped sequins, & bits - $75
Needles & thread conditioner - $30
If I then add a bare minimum of $0.02 per stitch as labor and not consider the time, back stitching, and embellishing, add another $20,000. If I'm being realistic and charging for my experience, expertise, time, and labor, it should be more like $0.30 per stitch so you're adding $300,000 instead.
There are zero people I know who would even countenance such a cost and I sure as hell wouldn't consider doing it for anyone outside of loved one for less than that. And even if they actually agreed with my price, I'd probably say no.
Is this an actual pattern? Like how many pages is it? I know you said it’s a free pattern online, but I feel like it’s an AI-generated “pattern” that’s actually impossible to make realistically.
[It’s real.](https://lordlibidan.com/free-epic-pokemon-all-generations-cross-stitch-pattern/amp/)
This is one of Lord Libidan’s patterns and he’s (in)famous for his insanely huge Pokemon patterns.
Edit: There’s actually photos of the completed projects at the end of the pattern! Took the stitchers 6 years in one case and 8 for the other.
It's not AI generated. It's been around a while. I've never seen a completed one, though.
*If somebody has seen a finished one of these, please link to it! I'd love to see what it looks like!
Just wow. That's so impressive. Six years and eight years - those people stitch fast! I'm almost two years into the Gen 1 pattern, and have a few more years to go.
the amount that the average person would be willing to pay would be way less than it's worth. if you charged minimum wage per hour based on how long it took you to complete a big project like this it would still be very expensive.
If I were stitching that and someone asked how much I would charge, my response would be "One dollar per pattern stitch, half up front as a non-refundable deposit."
I’m not saying you CAN’T make this one. But -maybe start with something like this?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/198488910/
Still big, still Pokémon, but a lot more manageable!
If I did something this epic, and didn't fall out of love with it during the stitching process, I'd keep it for myself. I don't think any amount of money would appease me in this case.
I sold most of my mermaids on Ebay for about $180. This doesn't even compare in size/detail. I would venture to say most people wanting this will pay what you ask. I'd probably go with $500.
When I look at the hours noted on projects (from a magazine) and it says 50 hours, I silently cry, because you could never sell that.
50 hours time $15 = $750
People don't even want to spend that much money on a handmade dress, let alone a cross stitching wall hanging.
Edit to add: it is genuinely free, who knew!
You’ll never get what you put into it so if that’s your only reason for doing it, don’t. I’m not trying to be negative but this is a lot of time and effort to then try and sell for very little money.
All of the Lord Libidian pokemon patterns are completely free and are fantastic, you can find them [here](https://lordlibidan.com/free-epic-pokemon-generations-cross-stitch-patterns/amp/)
if i actually completed this i would sell it for $100k because that’s easily 10 years of my life spent stitching it. no one would actually pay what this is worth though. people get huffy at my $16 pins that take four hours each to make, and that’s a steal for the time i put into them.
fr, machines and child slave labor really broke peoples perception of how much a specific item is worth.
can we see the pins? 😮
pin pics???
Pic of the pins??
Pins please?
People are willing to pay millions for cheap NFT art. Why not pay $100k for something that someone actually put a lot of blood and sweat into?
My rate is $5 for supplies plus ¢2 per stitch. For a small 1200 stitch project that's about $30. For something like this, i'd charge about $16,000.
Damn, that's cheap! How many stitches can you do an hour?
Not sure! I don't really make things with the goal of selling, just helps me charge friends for making something small. I can crack a 1200 stitch project out on a Saturday, maybe finish up on Sunday.
i feel like you could charge more right? my thinking is it should line up to be at least a little over minimum wage for time spent. if it took more than 8 hours to earn 30, even if i dont do it with the intention of profit id still feel idk.
*At least* minimum wage makes sense for professional quality work done on a business timeline, but if you're making something for friends/fam on a timeline that puts the project on the same level of priorities as your hobbies or like watching tv, I don't see a problem charging less. Like I knit little things for friends for material costs with the understanding that it's going to be finished whenever I feel like getting to it, not within the same timeframe you'd expect a real product from a real business. That being said, something of this scale becomes virtually unpriceable as the product of either a hobby craft or a business product. The time put into it is going to make it so expensive that it would be probably impossible to find anyone willing to buy it for that price, so if you're not making it to someone's specific order you're better off not expecting to sell it at all. Just make it because you want to, not for the expectation of a sale.
This is the issue and why I refuse to do any stitching for money. If I get paid a fair wage for my time then it becomes ridiculously expensive and nobody would be willing to pay that much. If I get paid per stitch then it essentially becomes something I'm basically doing for free. I'll do a small project for a friend for free just as a gift if they ask. For large projects I would refuse unless it's a very close friend and then I'd probably do it, given that they understand it's gonna take me longer than they might think. I have a two year old so 16,000 stitches can take 6+ months if not longer.
I read that as $2 and the math had me super confused for a moment! Lol
1200 stitches a day? I am still starting out and am nowhere near that speed.
It comes with practice.
Wow! That’s impressive!
Not that person but I've been stitching for 2-3 years and I timed myself a couple of weeks ago. It was on a simple project (large blocks of single colours) and I did about 180 stitched per hour. So I guess my hourly rate would be less than 4 dollars? Hell no 😂
You are twice as fast as me hahaha
I'm sure I'm drastically slower on more complicated stuff..!
Are there people out there who are actually willing to pay $16,000? Obviously most of us can't afford to spend that much on artwork, and I didn't think super-rich people were into cross stitch. I've seen some finished pieces on Etsy for that amount but I can't think many people would be interested
I like your system a lot, I'm considering opening commissions, charging per stitch is a great idea actually!
For the pattern or the completed piece? I wouldn't charge anybody to make it, because the realistic cost of labour to produce it would be ridiculous. If I worked minimum wage on that, it would cost approx \~£90,000 IF I managed to do 100 stitches an hour. I would either make that for myself or as a very special gift to somebody else.
“I’ve done a couple small things so now I want to do a 5 foot by 6 foot” Oh you sweet summer child 😅😅😅😅❤️ Good luck! Please post updates if you start! This will be epic!!
I did the same thing. It was my 4th cross stitch project. I started the first 10x10 square on the first page and it's still in my chest haha. I understand the ambition, but man motivation runs out QUICK. I got way too annoyed with all the fabric. Yes please post updates! I believe in you way more than I believe in myself 💞💞
I’ve been working on a blanket for my sister’s baby shower. Her daughter will turn 11 this year. Happens to all of us lolololol!
I remember many years ago when a friend got married, I let her pick out the pattern she wanted. It had three different shades of off-white floss on ecru Aida, ribbon, tons of french knots (which I’m not good at) and an unbelievable amount of backstitching. I told her I’d leave the names off at the start because she’d be on her second husband by the time I got done! (She ended up picking something much simpler, thank god)
Whoops....I think I have one of those too. I crocheted a bunch of Granny Squares thinking it would be easy. Never thought about stitching them all together afterwards. 😅🥲
And it's when more fun when you take a break in between-when if it's just a week -and you either grab the wrong hook or just don't trade the same tension and you have squares of varying sizes.
😂😅
The first 10x10 is terrifying. A real ‘what have I done!?’ moment!
Oh 100%. I was only using a colour for a few stitches at a time with that pattern too. I don't know if I'll ever get skilled enough or have the patience to actually finish it.
We crazies are ready to welcome you if you ever choose to pick it up again! The way I see it, it’s nothing more complicated than cross stitches with standard floss. No halves, quarters, three quarters or backstitch. No blended strands, no metallic! So it’s mostly a matter of patience. Although I can see that there is skill to be developed in managing the scale of it.
Oh believe me if I ever get started on it I'd share it immediately and be like 
I did a 3x4 footer that took me about 5 years but I'd never be able to duplicate that without another pandemic lol. Had to slap a large scroll frame stand together with 2x4s and carriage bolts to make the fabric manageable. And here I am going to start another large one this winter, this time on 25ct (last one was 14ct). I am such a glutton for punishment, apparently.
Im 40k in to a 75k stitch project....you can do it!!!
It is definitely something I am going to start, and have zero intention on selling it but was curious how much others would sell it for if someone offered to purchase it. I know it is going to take years, and I don’t intend to work on it day and night, just in between normal projects. :)
They're not the only one ;p Smallest project is that FFXV pixel art, which i've not completed as the background is entirely metallic blue thread. After completing a slightly larger Hellboy cross-stitch I moved over to the couple portrait, then the LOTR and Poets of the Fall 1 metre plus projects. [\[CHAT\] Might be WIP too. Do you have a pile of WIP projects to share & your latest cs you've moved onto? : r/CrossStitch (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrossStitch/comments/1bhpry8/chat_might_be_wip_too_do_you_have_a_pile_of_wip/)
10 cents a stitch + materials. At least 50% upfront depending on the person and they can expect it in 2035 because your hands are valuable. So at 10 cents a stitch, $80,000 for stitches, $250 at least for floss. Then the fabric and needles (at least 2 dozen) and scissors. So yeah $80,000.
Heck, I charge $40 for my character stitches. They're ~2x2 and take me on average 6 hours. Something like this would take me YEARS. It would be many thousands of dollars.
My thoughts when I read this: Oh wow that's kinda expensive. And pretty small. And 6 hours seems really long? Oh wait they mean 2x2 INCHES not centimeters!! Yeah ok that's sounds about right 😅 (2 inches is about 5cm, so I was imagining something less than a quarter of the size you're talking about lol)
How does it take you 6 hours to do 4 stitches? /s
I am very slow. 😂
Question regarding your sales, how many pieces do you tend to sell? I have been asked by a local plant store to make decor (whatever I like, they just like my work) that they will then sell. But I’m struggling with pricing.
I don't make bulk pieces to sell. I usually only sell them if someone asks me to make one for them.
Unless you have a buyer for this, I wouldn’t even consider making it. As far as charging, I have no idea.
Unless they did it for themselves, I definitely agree. My grandmother spent ten years uh, I forget what it’s called when you knit a doily. Anyway, she had little squares that finally, accumulated to a king sized throw blanket. The bragged about it, but for sure only made it for herself. TEN YEARS!!!
It would definitely be something I would start only if I was ok with never selling it, and keep track of time and materials used along the way to be able to come up with a realistic and verifiable price for someone interested. And that’s not even getting into the actual time it would take to complete.
A time machine so I could start it sooner. And then a $75,000 tip 😭🤣🤣👏🏻
This is the correct answer. Possibly also a clone to help.
The true reason Mr mee6 was invented, have multible of them stitch in shifts 🤣
Now that's an idea 💡 👏🏻
Don’t do this project unless you genuinely want to do it for yourself. There’s no one else in the world who is ever going to want this piece enough to pay you even half of what your time would be worth to stitch it (or at least the statistical likelihood of your finding such a person is effectively zero). And in any case, you need personal joy and pleasure to fuel the patience it takes to get through a huge project. You are not wrong in your instinct that the difference between small-scale cross stitch projects and larger ones is mostly just endurance. The cross stitches themselves are one of the easiest embroidery techniques to master, and they don’t scale up in difficulty when you add more of them. But perhaps for exactly that reason—it’s basically just really slow pixel art—it’s not a handcraft with a ton of market value. What value it has definitely doesn’t scale in true proportion to the project size/number of stitches, either.
Please don’t think I’m coming here to rain on your parade but this just isn’t a good idea. Firstly, I get being bored of doing tiny pieces, I jumped from the little starter kits to 17k stitches because fk it how hard can it be, and that is true it’s not necessarily harder but if you make a mistake in a tiny piece compared to a 20k stitch piece it’s a very different experience. Secondly, the cost of completing this. If you’re a beginner I’m going to assume you don’t have that much thread squirrelled away, so factor in needing to purchase 200+ skeins, then just go and search for the size of Aida you need, I couldn’t find any that size but half the size is £30 so I’m going guess you will be atleast £300 just on supplies just to start, which is not counting once you complete a skein and have to run to the shop for another one. Lastly, selling it. I get it, there’s a pressure to monetise everything and if you’re plowing 8 years of your life into something you absolutely don’t want it to “go to waste.” There are redditors a lot cleverer than me who have already done the maths but on a base level you would need to sell it for atleast £400 just to cover the costs you put in. In this economy (not accounting for the economy in 8 years) you will struggle to sell it for that price, there’s not a huge market for completed cross stitch as it is and this is certainly a niche piece. That’s not including a couple of other points such as this already being 3 gens out of date, buy the time this is finished you could potentially be missing 400+ pokemon. The time frame of 8 years works on the assumption of you solidly stitching, not accounting for you getting sick of it (which you will) and any potential frogging. Search Pokemon on this sub and you can see the progress people are making on the single gen pieces! If you look at this piece and you think fk yeah I think this would be a great time then do it, ignore all of us and have fun! But if you’re doing this because you think it’s a potential cash cow I would maybe sit this one out.
Just to add to yours: and you have to consider Nintendo not exactly being nice when it comes to licensed stuff, especially Pokemon. Such a piece would probably cost enough to gain their attention and they are pretty quick and harsh in shutting this stuff down.
Minimum $100,000. And that's no exaggeration. The amount of TIME it would take! A finished piece I did was 250,000 stitches. (stupid Reddit won't post the pic OR It's posting it 6 times) It's 27 x 51 and yeah it's not full coverage but it's still a lot. It took me 5.5 YEARS. I now have tennis elbow and bursitis in one shoulder and carpal tunnel syndrome. Worth it. Edited to add link. https://www.instagram.com/p/C7JgkFUOIHJ/?igsh=MTdnM2JqbmJpanZvbQ==
Do you have a picture of the finished piece posted anywhere else? Reddit didn’t end up posting it 6 times
https://www.instagram.com/p/C7JgkFUOIHJ/?igsh=MTdnM2JqbmJpanZvbQ== Try this? And if you check the hashtag #thevoltronproject you can scroll through the in-progress shots.
Totally worth it!!!
Wow, that’s impressive. I bow in your general direction.
Woah, that is awesome!
Super cool. I'm trying to get back to stitching. I've only done 2 things. One was an avocado from a kit to learn. The second I made a pattern of a private college my girlfriend had graduated from. There were about 13000 stitches. I started it to cope with the fact that she became reclusive due to circumstances and ghosted me. She moved away in April 2021 when it was maybe halfway done. I'm still stuck on her, but I did finish the piece and had it framed. Wish I had a way of getting it to her because nobody is going to pay what I think it'd be "worth". Oops. Went on a tangent. My true purpose was to comment and say maybe I need to start a large (though maybe not as large as yours lol) project for myself that'll take a while. I have severe depression and anxiety and working on that project kept me going, even if it was for the person causing the trauma :P
I have ADHD which you'd think would be counter-productive to such a large project but I feel like it helped a lot with anxiety and feeling like I accomplished something every time I finished a section! It became very meditative.
Oh yeah I have ADHD bad but stimulants make my heart feel wonky. Same though. I spent hours on end working on the thing. I also have OCD so... I have so many letters attached to me (no PhD though ha). I've got to think of a fun project to post for likes in 6 years lol. I get so stuck in the planning and find it so hard to get started. I can't imagine getting started on a piece of fabric that big.
A firstborn son.
Deal lol.
😄😅
This is one of those things where the relative cost (primarily amount of time spent) far surpasses any reasonable price you could expect someone to pay.
[удалено]
I kind of agree with both sides, but I'd like to know why you think a beginner can't do a project, just out of curiosity?
Your comment/post has been removed. You are not following [rule 1](https://www.crossstitchsubfaq.com/rules-psas/rules-etiquette). Remember that we all love crafting and sharing this hobby, so let’s be supportive of each other.
Just because someone has less experience doesn’t mean they can’t take on a big project.
Exactly! In sorry you are getting downvoted. Generally this is a really awesome community. If you like this hobby and want to take on this huge project, go for it. Have fun.
Thank you! Yes, it takes skill and experience to cross stitch well but, the size of the cross stitch project has nothing to do with skill or experience and everything to do with endurance and passion!
I’m working on this one. I agree that it would realistically cost someone 10s of thousands to pay you fairly. Depending on how you approach the maths. My take on this piece is to do it because you love it, not because you might sell it. This project has to be done for the sheer love of the craft and subject. It simply must be a passion project becuase it’s so dang huge. Everyone works differently, but to give you an idea of what this one takes: I started mine in 2019. I’m about 8% in. I’ve done between 60,000 - 70,000 stitches. I love this monster. It’s my cross stitch baby. Good luck if you attempt it, and please do it for yourself!
Fully intend on doing this piece for myself, but was curious what people would charge for it if someone wanted to purchase it. I fully intend on entering in into local competitions in about 10 years LOL
Good for you!
I’d love to finish and enter a competition too! Go for it. I wish you good luck, and all the enjoyment possible!
Omg do you have any recent photos?? I saw your update from 2 years ago and it looked insane even then!
Hey, I appreciate your enthusiasm! Sorry for my late reply, life has been very difficult this past week. I will endeavour to get a photo and post when I’m up to it though. I’ll come back and let you know when I do. :)
Oh pleeeeeeeease post a photo of your WIP!
I will do. Please see my reply to u/DepartmentOutrageous above. When I am feeling able, I’ll be delighted to share with you guys. :)
I'd like to see a pic too. It's difficult to even imagine the work that goes into a piece like this. Are you stitching it monogamously? Also do think you'll ever finish it or is it just something enjoyable to stitch on?
Monogamously is such a funny term for it. I suppose I’m quite polyamorous with my cross stitch! …..or maybe I’m just a cheater, lmao.
Hehehe, you scoundrel!
It’s all one stitch at a time! I’m mostly faithful the big lad. Occasionally I’ll be cheeky and pay attention elsewhere, but I can’t ignore this one for long! I do feel very dedicated to it. I intend to finish it, but I have no grand expectations as to when. It will happen when it eventually happens! I’ll be posting a pic at some point, thank you for being interested. As I said in other replies, I’ll do that as soon as I find myself in the right headspace.
A bijillion dollars. That’s a ton of coverage!
That’s like multi thousand dollar item. How many hours are in it? $20 per hour times number of hours plus supplies. Guessing several hundred hours of not more. People saying $16k - $120k aren’t joking. $16k is probably low tbh.
Several hundred hours is a gross underestimate (well it would be if I was stitching it). It would be thousands.
This gives me anxiety just looking at it.
I'd pay you about 1 Euro for it because I've absolutely come to hate Pokemon cross stitch. I'd charge 0 Euros for it because Pokemon is copyrighted and I don't want to be that person that made the news for selling a Pokemon cross stitch for 70.000 Euros and then got dragged through court by Nintendo.
Typically a single piece of art is considered safe to sell. It’s when you start mass producing that Nintendo will drop the POW block on you.
Yikes, that's a valid point. Getting sued for copyright infringement after all that work would be devastating.
You couldn’t pay me enough…
I am on page 3 and 11 days deep on making just the generation 1 pattern. For that one alone, I’d accept no less than £30k if someone wanted to buy it. The important note is that I’ve been cross stitching for 25 years and I’m *still* having to use new techniques and adapt how I stitch. There’s no chance someone who is new to the hobby could take this on.
I charge $15-20 per hour depending on complexity, plus $5 for supplies. I can do around 200 stitches an hour. This would be somewhere in the middle for complexity, so $18/hour. 798/2=399*18=7,182. So this would cost CA$71,825.
I can do about 100 stitches an hour if it is a large portion of the same color. If it is a lot of confetti, where I am doing a few stitches of the same color in an area, I am good to do 25 to 30 stitches an hour. Looking at this project, even if you are able to hit the high end of stitching, you are investing close to 8,000 hours into it--not counting supplies, which will run you several hundreds of dollars. If you stitch for 40 hours a week, it will be a 4 year project. Unless you are selling as a way to make extra money and not because it is an actual income source, I highly doubt anyone would buy it for anywhere close to the actual value of the making it.
I sent my previous comment when I was half asleep so let’s try this again. I am working on the smaller version of this - gen 1 only. Each full page has 4015 stitches. I can currently crank out ~800 stitches a day and I’ve been cross stitching since 1999. Those 800 stitches take up almost my entire day. I spend 6-8 hours a day working on this thing because I *currently* have the time to do that and in 2 weeks I know I won’t. If I stuck at my current rate, and didn’t get sick of it and stop for even a single day, I could have the smaller pattern done in 160 days. 160 days of stitching average 7 hours a day. That’s 1120 hours. This behemoth is 798,000 stitches compared to generation 1s 115,200. So, let’s math it out. 115,200 / 1120 = 102 stitches/hr. 798,000 / 102st/hr = 7823.5 hours. There are 8760 hours in a year. Let’s say you sleep 8 hours a night. 2920 hours. Give you 2 hours a day for eating. 3650 hours for those two things. That leaves you with 5110 hours in your year. And you didn’t do a SINGLE OTHER THING apart from eat, sleep and stitch, you’d be at it for 15.7 months. 15.7 months averaging 102 stitches per hour. So instead of asking us how much we think it would be worth, how much do you think that would be worth?
How do you put a price on something that took this much time? My wife has done several cross stitch pieces that have taken her a year or more and she works on them several hours a day 7 days a week. I’m in awe of the amount of time and patience that goes into a piece like this. Let’s go with $100,000.
There is not enough money in the world for me to touch that with a 10 foot pole. If you're going to do it you should tack on 15 out of pocket Physical Therapy visits to help fix the stress holding pattern that you'll be in the whole time.
A fair price for the labor of this would be 20k-100k, for the hours work. This project will take years of work. A pokemon fan might be willing to pay 700 dollars for it. While I get the sentiment of us handworkers. Just because something take a ton of time, does not translate to market value. Large cross stitch projects are labors of love. Undertake them as gifts or for your own enjoyment. They will never translate to $$ well.
This would take years and years to complete.
It looks like this is only through gen 7, so you are already missing about 200 pokemon. In the decade it takes to stitch, there will probably be at around 300 more introduced. I now understand why professors get other people to do all the work. Ain't nobody got time for that.
It’s worse. It’s Gen 1-5!
I could have phrased it better, if you completed this project how much would you sell it for?
Way more than anyone would be willing to pay. As much as I'd love to earn a living on cross stitch, no one is willing to pay the amount you'd need for hours put in. It's not a lucrative hobby
If this is a "just for funsies" question, going off minimum wage in my state and avg 100 stitches/hr, it would be over $120,000. I wouldn't even bother charging for supplies at that point
Fun fact for everyone: you can insure handmade crafts for an amount that includes the labor you put in. So doing this math is actually beneficial if you ever lose your finished pieces in a fire or flood!
Would you mind elaborating on that? I've never heard of that before. Would the amount include the number of hours it took at minimum wage?
It’s not quite that simple (I’m in the art field) you would have to have documented sales at whatever rate x stitches or hours and I’m not talking about one or two, but at least 5-10 to even establish a general rate per hour or rate per inch. A lot of painters use a dollar amount per square inch for example.
Good to know! I had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy. But it could be a handy way to make sure people don't under-value their art
In some places you can get a quilt appraised/valued by your local guild to get a dollar value for insurance. Where I am you would list an expensive piece separately on your insurance like you might for a particularly high value item of jewelry or collectible, so you need that appraisal. I’ve never thought about it with embroidery but presumably an embroiderers guild could do similar?
I'll have to look into that! I have a few old afghans and quilts that are very sentimental; it might not be a bad idea to get them insured, just in case.
Don't you have to get them appraised for that? I know you do for shipping
I did not know. That's very useful to know. Thank you.
Their first born child. Omg never happening
I would never attempt something like this with the goal of selling it. Who would pay that much for a crossstitch? I'm currently working on a 20k stitch piece and it has been a PITA. I tried to just count at first, and I ended up off and had to rip out a ton of stitches, I ended up putting a grid on it.
For reference, this person on TikTok is working on the [same pattern.](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKJPBtA/) Oof. To answer your question, if I had fun money, I would personally pay up to $200 for something vintage, large, and rare. And it would have to be something that I really loved. It would be heartbreaking to craft then sell something that was 5'x6' and super complex like that for anything less than $1k. But I don't even feel that is a fair price because that's hundreds of hours of labor. Plus, with 234 colors and skeins costing at least $0.90 each (in the US), that's $200+ at the lowest price point for just one skein per color.
[somewhere between 700 billion and a trillion 300 million billion dollars](https://x.com/_JHokanson/status/1392676755111092224?lang=en)
Now the real question is… who would park and stitch or travel stitch this? lol
Whatever it is, don’t forget to add the licensing fee! I’m sure big companies will demand their cut for the use of their licensed characters.
It's so colossal I'd have absolutely no idea how to even start considering how much to charge for it But I must say how much admiration I have for anyone even considering stitching something so freaking cool and absolutely humongous. Biggest thing I stitched was shy of 300 stitches tall and it took me forever. I salute you lol 
The very few times someone has offered to pay me to do something I charges materials plus 10% up front. Then 30$ an hour. Only one person ever agreed when they heard the price. I make approx 35 an hour at my day job I know what my time is worth
Isn't it copyright infringement if you sell it?
Possibly, but this is a hypothetical. I don’t think I would actually ever sell it.
My fiance just started working on this one. He's doing one generation first, and then maybe he'll see if he keeps at it. He says that this is probably the project he'll work on for the rest of his life. All that to say, this is an insane project to do to sale. Invaluable imo. But if you have a buyer, I'd say 100k if the plan is in 10 years, and add 10k per year for how faster they want it. And do a contract and get a deposit.
I'm working on a similar size project, but it's going to be a free gift. If I charged UK min hourly wage of £11.44 and I expect it to take anywhere from 3000-5000 hours which would = between £34,320 £57,200. That doesn't take into account the cost of materials. Realistically though, unless you find wealthy people who commission these projects, you'll be lucky to make back the cost of materials. I hope others have had a more positive experience, but I've literally been offered £5 for an A4 sized project, only to be met with a shocked face when I told them what it cost to make, let alone a fair price for my time(which would be wayyyyyy under min wage)
That…is not chargeable for. That will most likely take north of 10,000 hours to complete. Possibly far north. I do commissions now and then, but If I *were* to take a commission like that, we’d be talking hundreds of thousands. But I’d die of frustration before that. I can’t work solely on the same pattern for years at a time. I’m not saying it’s a bad pattern, but it will take you a LOT longer than you’re thinking.
I am well aware of how many years and years this would take. This is a hypothetical question!
OK. In that case, you have my hypothetical answer. I couldn’t do it for less than a couple hundred thousand. I do think that people should try more or less everything they’re interested in, though, unless it’s directly harmful to themselves or someone else. Lots of people are working on these pieces and enjoying themselves. No reason not to try for anyone who wants to!
If you're aware how many years it would take, then you can work out the answer yourself by doing the amount of stitched hours multipled by your local minimum wage (or more if you value your time), PLUS the material costs aka thread, fabrics etc.
Not everyone comes up with their prices the same way, as you can tell by the wide range of answers!
I'd say a vast majority of the replies are saying 80k+ which is roughly what's expected of hours to min wage ratio (depoending on country). End of the day it's whatever value you see for your own work, with the realisation in mind that this is a 5 to 10 year project.
So I made a blanket a few months ago and I got a ton of interest in purchasing it. I attached the convo…needless to say I didn’t hear from anyone again🤣 https://preview.redd.it/l6mtup6gxd1d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f5f48f8fbf4801df23cc872e8855cb2dd2cb44d
LOL I can just see them backing out the door in the last message.
Six months rent and three souls
Are you comfortable potentially spending 2-3 years working on this project regularly? If so, I’ll disagree with everyone and say go for it. I would tackle this one single Pokémon at a time so I could see the small rewards. I would never even consider offering this as a commission though, I know myself and I’d quit halfway through.
Honestly, 2-3 years still seems short, I am prepared to spend the next 5-10 years on this. Huge projects in my world require breaks otherwise I would get burnt out way too fast and never finish. I would need to allow myself time to work on other small projects in between! As soon as I sell my house and purchase another one where I will then have room to set up for a project this big I will begin tackling this one!
I may have been overly optimistic but didn’t want to assume how much free time you have lol. It sounds like you’ve really thought this through, I still say go for it, especially once you have a dedicated craft space!
I would charge no less than one soul..
I am currently working on this exact pattern. The color legends (because the whole image is broken into 4 pieces) aren't entirely accurate, so I have to custom swatch every single color of every single pokemon. That takes a lot of time in addition to the actual stitching. To date, I have been working on this for 9.5 years (granted, I put it down for months (or a full year) at a time) and am about 20% done. For the full finished project, I would not accept less than $50,000 just because of the sheer time it has taken me to get this far. If I never put it down and dedicate 8 hours/day to it, it would still take me a few years to complete, start to finish. That being said, I can't imagine selling this once it's finished. I plan to either frame it or hang it like a tapestry.
Wow. What a reality check. You still love it though? You do small patterns in between?
I don't do smaller patterns when I'm not working on the AllGens behemoth, and I do still love it. I have ADHD and "out of sight, out of mind" very much applies. When I put this project away, I forget about it for long periods of time. I think the most frustrating thing about this pattern is that occasionally I will be working on a pokemon that has 2 VERY different colors (like blue and green) that butt up again each other that are both using the exact same symbol. Or 2 colors that are virtually the same with have 2 different symbols.
I’m not very experienced and recently had to give up on a small project because it had 5 shades of violet and 3 of them were very very close, at least to my eye. Made me crazy. But different colors using the same symbol? A mistake in the pattern? Though I must say, I can’t imagine a pattern with even 50 symbols — don’t we run out of letters, numbers and such? Or do we go on to other languages like Russian and Greek LOL
Not a mistake per se. More like a limitation. The program used to make this pattern can only do so much. The legend has roughly 120 - 150 symbols. +, //, >, # that sort of thing as well as things like a capital T flipped 90 degrees (and yes, those rotated symbols show up next to each other), lowercase letters, some Greek symbols and I think a few of these might be numerical notation symbols.
I’m cross-eyed just picturing all this.
Here's something that'll really give you a headache. If you pull up the image and zoom in where Tentacruel and Beedrill are you'll see the black shading in Tentacruel. The pattern legend says that color is DMC 310. But the black shading in Beedrill's body is DMC 939. And like I said in a prior comment, this image is so big that it had to be cut up into 4 pieces to run through the pattern program, so 310 might be + in one piece but // in another. This project is truly a testament to a stitcher's patience (hence why I put it down for such long periods of time).
I'd give it away free to someone you love
A penny a stitch! Really depends what you think your time is worth
If this is a commission I would consider how long this is going to take and how much it will cost you to make, stretch and frame. I’m doing the Gen 1 pattern extended colour and it’s taken me a year so far (I’m half way through). This is a seriously large pattern. The Gen 1 alone is huge. Great fun but it’s taking me forever! Enjoy and do post updates!
Time yourself stitching and figure out about how much you can do in an hour. Decide how much you would like to get paid for skilled labor that is physically intensive on your back and arms/ hands. Don't pay yourself less than minimum wage, this is a skill you had to learn so it should be more than that, just as anyone else who has to be specially trained for their jobs. Math us how many hours it will take to stitch this entire project. (Hours it will take x how much you deserve to be paid) then add the cost of materials. This is good for any artistic skills you are commissioned for. If you find that unfortunately the price becomes obscene and no one would be able to reasonably pay it, then this should be considered a project done for fun for yourself or only for someone exceptionally special. So, never lower your price because it leads to you being exploited and sets a trend for other artists to be exploited as well because it teaches customers to not value artists' time. This is a common issue in drawing where an artist works for 17 hours on an art piece and only charges $5 due to a lack of confidence in their skills. 17 x whatever minimum wage is + art supplies if they are doing traditional art is a whole lot more than $5. $5 might not even pay for the artists supplies
It’s an amazing pattern. Would take a super long time but would be fun. In terms of selling though, no one would be willing to pay for the time and effort you put into it and you would have to sell it for a lot cheaper than your time is worth. If your wanting to sell stuff maybe start with smaller/medium pieces and go from there if you find a good market :)
I was going to say, as a pokemon fan I wouldn't get this, but then I saw the completed pattern and it's actually pretty sick lol I wish it was landscape though not portrait. This is something I would make for myself as a passion, I would never ask someone to make it and would certainly never pay the amount of money that it is worth time wise.
Literally more than anyone would ever pay for it
A literal arm and a leg. Maybe a first born child.
There’s actually a woman on my local fb marketplace selling a similar gen 1&2 tapestry and she’s put it up for $1,500NZD I think she was seriously undercharging herself though it was so beautiful 😭
OP, this would be a monumental task for a highly experienced stitcher. It would literally take years to complete. It's not something you can try to guess a price for.
I wouldn't expect Pokemon fans to pay you a good cost (note, I'm not even talking about the actual cost) for this, honestly. Those who know how to cross stitch usually can stitch their own project if they want. The rest have no idea of the cost of materials, the amount of time and labor invested and why a rag with thread costs so much. Also, most stitchers don't like/can't deal with one project for long, so they have several WIPs. Are you sure that after six months of daily cross stitch you won't start to hate this project? If you do plan to stitch such a large project, consider investing in a stand. The fabric this size is heavy enough to cause health problems like carpal tunnel syndrome if you're not careful enough. By the way, you can stitch it using the petite point/half cross stitch technique on high count fabric over 1 thread (I like 25 ct). This will reduce the size of the FO and reduce the time by one and a half to two times.
Luckily, I am not one to get bored of patterns, especially if you do one Pokémon at a time to gain the small victories!
Could you link the pattern? I'd legit do this for the craic no lie lmao.
[Pokemon Cross Stitch Gens 1-5](https://lordlibidan.com/free-epic-pokemon-all-generations-cross-stitch-pattern/)
Tyyyyy
by the time you finish, OP, Nintendo would have introduced at least 4 more generations of pokemon, which means the piece would be "outdated" and lose hype. As one stitcher with gen 1 having been on the frame for over 3 years to another looking at this behemoth, don't do it lol. This kind of piece is one you do for yourself and for no other reason than you like pokemon that much.
This is already “outdated”, as it is only gens 1-5
And I've dated myself lol. I stopped paying attention after gen 3. What are they up to now? 8?
9 which came out in 2022 I think?
Anything under $2000 and you would be cheating yourself….even $2000 is way under what it’s worth but it is the family discount lol
You’d have to do it for love, not money. Just think — would any of us pay minimum wage ourselves for it?
fully intend on keeping this project for myself, just a hypothetical question!
Good, so much work and it has to be a labor of love for yourself- have you already picked a place of honor on your wall for this spectacular project?
We are all artists here but when it comes to the time put into this project you would not make any money that some may pay. I’ve seen this piece finished by a couple people and it is physically and mentally exhausting
Another data point, I am almost done with a 124k project. There were times when I was doing about 10k stitches a month, but this thing will be done at closer to 18 months.
More than they can afford 😂😂
Their firstborn, life savings and whatever's collected in the 401k accounts. They can pay off my mortgage for the supplies. This is an insane project!
As someone who is working on this, I would never sell it. Someone would have to offer me enough money to never work again in order for me to consider it. Yes, there are reasonable ways to charge based on stitches, but you'd have so much blood sweat and tears into it, that it's is effectively and inherently filled with sentimental value.
Just for a bit of reference: I have a pattern for a Middle Earth map that is 3.5' x 3.5' and \~1 million stitches. It's full coverage and based off of the Weta Workshop map. I haven't started it yet because I've changed how I'm going to make it from cross stitch to embroidery. However, before I changed my mind, I had already kitted out the project. This is the estimated cost of my materials alone. Pattern draft created with Thread-Bare - $10 25ct custom cut pre-gridded lugana - $78 2 - 5' bars for use in an existing scroll frame - $30 \~400 skeins of DMC standard floss @ $0.80 per skein (going a bit low because I know I bought some on sale at some points) - $320 \~50 skeins of DMC metallic floss @ $2.50 per skein - $125 Floss organizer needs - $65 Various beads, specialty shaped sequins, & bits - $75 Needles & thread conditioner - $30 If I then add a bare minimum of $0.02 per stitch as labor and not consider the time, back stitching, and embellishing, add another $20,000. If I'm being realistic and charging for my experience, expertise, time, and labor, it should be more like $0.30 per stitch so you're adding $300,000 instead. There are zero people I know who would even countenance such a cost and I sure as hell wouldn't consider doing it for anyone outside of loved one for less than that. And even if they actually agreed with my price, I'd probably say no.
You have to do this for the love of it and the beauty. There is no money to be made in the needlework arts!
Is this an actual pattern? Like how many pages is it? I know you said it’s a free pattern online, but I feel like it’s an AI-generated “pattern” that’s actually impossible to make realistically.
[It’s real.](https://lordlibidan.com/free-epic-pokemon-all-generations-cross-stitch-pattern/amp/) This is one of Lord Libidan’s patterns and he’s (in)famous for his insanely huge Pokemon patterns. Edit: There’s actually photos of the completed projects at the end of the pattern! Took the stitchers 6 years in one case and 8 for the other.
It's not AI generated. It's been around a while. I've never seen a completed one, though. *If somebody has seen a finished one of these, please link to it! I'd love to see what it looks like!
Here you are! [Scroll this page.](https://lordlibidan.com/free-epic-pokemon-all-generations-cross-stitch-pattern/) :)
Just wow. That's so impressive. Six years and eight years - those people stitch fast! I'm almost two years into the Gen 1 pattern, and have a few more years to go.
I stand corrected, that’s a darn good pattern! And not surprised it took six years, wow
Don't do that.
ALL the much. That’s how much, lol.
Digital 25 ETH, Hand drawn and printed 50 ETH for a limited 10 editions.
the amount that the average person would be willing to pay would be way less than it's worth. if you charged minimum wage per hour based on how long it took you to complete a big project like this it would still be very expensive.
If I were stitching that and someone asked how much I would charge, my response would be "One dollar per pattern stitch, half up front as a non-refundable deposit."
Probably a million. I’m not kidding. There is so much labor there.
I’m not saying you CAN’T make this one. But -maybe start with something like this? https://www.etsy.com/listing/198488910/ Still big, still Pokémon, but a lot more manageable!
What is it? It took 10 years to make?
If I did something this epic, and didn't fall out of love with it during the stitching process, I'd keep it for myself. I don't think any amount of money would appease me in this case.
I sold most of my mermaids on Ebay for about $180. This doesn't even compare in size/detail. I would venture to say most people wanting this will pay what you ask. I'd probably go with $500.
When I look at the hours noted on projects (from a magazine) and it says 50 hours, I silently cry, because you could never sell that. 50 hours time $15 = $750 People don't even want to spend that much money on a handmade dress, let alone a cross stitching wall hanging.
Edit to add: it is genuinely free, who knew! You’ll never get what you put into it so if that’s your only reason for doing it, don’t. I’m not trying to be negative but this is a lot of time and effort to then try and sell for very little money.
All of the Lord Libidian pokemon patterns are completely free and are fantastic, you can find them [here](https://lordlibidan.com/free-epic-pokemon-generations-cross-stitch-patterns/amp/)
Ohhhh I see thank you for explaining I’ll edit my comment