Budgeting

When we started this project we were given a budget of £420 that Graham had estimated, this included:

10mts Red/Scarlet silk    £150.00

10mts Silk suit lining        £120.00

Black Silk for trim              £45.00

Fur                                         £80.00 (Just an estimate at present)

Canvas for shoulder +

Threads etc.                       £25.00

TOTAL:                                  £420.00

In our toile we used approximately 5m of top fabric, therefore when fabric sourcing I was looking for silks that were around the £30 mark to keep to the £150 estimate laid out above.

After our meeting with the Mayor we decided to go back through our budget with the prices of the silks, fur and lining chosen.

We estimated some of the amounts we needed as well as definite choices and came up with this revision of the budget (the prices are including VAT): 

5m Red Silk @ £50 a metre = £250.00

Approx 4m Brown fur @ £25.20 = £100.80

Approx 3m Lining @ £9 a metre = 27.00

3m thick ribbon @ £6 = £18.00

3m thin ribbon @ £3 = £9.00

Threads, wadding, stayflex = £15.00

In total this comes to £419.80

When allowing for delivery and approximations on fur it came above the initial budget. 

We therefore emailed Hazel, the Mayors Assistant, with these changes asking if a budget of £450 would be acceptable for the robe as the silk was £50 a metre rather than the original £15 a metre used in estimation. 

We had to wait for a few days before receiving a confirmation from the Mayor. We did not want to spend £250 on silk if he were to change his mind. This therefore put us behind on our schedule. I have found that things like this happen when working with external clients and there is not a lot, as a costume maker, you can do but wait and be flexible with your time, which we have done.

Costing

Item	Amount per metre	VAT	Amount bought	Delivery/Extra	Total
Red Silk	£                       50.00		5.00	£12.50	£  262.50
Lining	£                         8.95		3.00	7.5	£    34.35
36mm velvet ribbon	£                         2.55	£                         2.04	4.00		£    12.24
75mm velvet ribbon	£                         3.00		5.00		£    15.00
14cm fur trim	£                       21.00	£                       12.60	3.00		£    75.60
7.5cm fur trim	£                       13.50	£                         8.10	3.00		£    48.60
				£                       9.00	£       9.00
					£           -
					£  457.29

Due to having to get the fur and velvet delivered, which we hadn’t planned, we went over budget.  We therefore have covered the cost of the wadding, threads and interfacing ourselves because we had it left over from our last project. This is clearly not ideal but because of time restraints and our location we had to get the deliveries. In future I will overestimate the budget in order that this does not happen again.