This page teaches you how to build the yarn-cost and residual lines of a towel costing sheet by live formula, for anyone who builds or checks a towel order's cost: a merchandiser, a factory owner, a buyer, or a student. This lesson mainly teaches the money flow of a towel order: how a price is built up from what is actually known, then checked. Track 6's denim course already fixed the formula-first costing method on Order B, the jeans, using Order B's own real, fixed fabric consumption, fabric price and target FOB price. This lesson applies the same method to Order E, the towel, using Order E's own real, fixed yarn consumption, yarn price and buyer target price, woven by Nile Terry Mills.
Without this method, a person costing a towel order might type a residual figure by hand, or worse, invent a further split of Order E's residual with no supporting figure, the way this academy never invents a number Order B's denim figures do not need either. Either mistake breaks the same rule this lesson teaches: calculate by formula from what is known, and never invent a figure this academy has not fixed.
You need: lesson 8.1 and a costing sheet's cost-component structure from Track 1. You do not need Order B's denim figures memorised; this lesson reuses its method, not its numbers.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: what makes a terry or towel product different from cut-and-sew apparel (lesson 8.1); terry and towel quality faults (lesson 8.2); assembling a complete towel order file (lesson 8.4).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Costing sheet | The document that lists a garment's cost components and adds them up to its total price. |
| Cost component | One part of a garment's total price: fabric, trims, making, overhead, or profit. |
| Formula | An instruction in a spreadsheet cell that calculates a value from other cells, instead of a value typed in by hand. |
| Typed number | A value entered directly into a cell as a fixed figure, with no formula behind it. |
| Yarn | Fibre twisted into a continuous thread. Fabric is made from yarn. |
| Terry weave | A woven fabric structure that uses an extra pile warp beam, fed more loosely than the ground warp, so it rises into loops on the fabric surface for absorbency, instead of lying flat like a plain weave. |
| Pile weight (GSM) | A towel's total fabric weight expressed in grams per square metre (GSM); a standard textile-industry measure used to compare how plush or absorbent different towel constructions are. |
Costing a towel order follows the same formula-first method already fixed for Order B's denim: start from the inputs that are actually known, calculate the yarn line cost by formula, then calculate the residual needed to reach the target price by formula, never a typed total. Order E, the towel, gives every input this method needs: yarn consumption, yarn price and buyer target price are all Order E's own real, fixed facts, woven by Nile Terry Mills. The residual stays one combined line, weaving, finishing, overhead and profit together, because no further split is fixed for Order E, the same way Order B's own denim residual is never split beyond what is actually fixed.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| How the residual is documented | Order E's costing: yarn consumption, yarn price and buyer target price are Order E's own fixed facts; weaving, finishing, overhead and profit are combined into one honest residual line, since no further split is fixed for Order E. A garment factory's own costing, once its supplier figures exist, may split loom time, finishing labour and packing into separate lines. | Combining unknown costs into one honest residual, rather than inventing a split with no supporting figure, keeps a costing sheet from overstating what is actually known. |
| Export or domestic pricing | Order E, an export order, frames its total as an FOB price, the way Order A's T-shirt and Order B's denim do. A domestic towel order would frame it as an ex-factory price plus local delivery, the way Cedar & Co.'s domestic costing works. | The formula-first method stays the same either way; only the price framing changes, exactly as it does for a garment order. |
| Make to order or make to stock | Order E is costed against its export buyer's own target price (MTO), the way Order B's denim jeans order is. A towel order made to a local brand's own forecast (MTS), the way Cedar & Co. buys, is costed against a shelf price the brand sets itself, then worked backwards to a factory target. | The formula-first method stays the same; only which party sets the target price differs between an export MTO order and a domestic MTS order. |
| The product being costed | The same yarn-cost-plus-residual structure applies to Order A's T-shirt fabric cost, Order B's denim cost, and Order E's towel yarn cost. | Learning the method on any one product lets you cost any other; the structure does not change, only the cost component that starts the calculation. |
Order E is a real, fixed cast order, the same order lesson 8.1 already introduced: a bath towel, 15,000 pieces, woven by Nile Terry Mills for export. This lesson applies the Costing sheet's yarn-cost and residual formulas to Order E's own figures. Every number that follows is Order E's own real, fixed fact, not a teaching stand-in.
Order E's yarn line cost comes from multiplying Order E's yarn consumption per piece by Order E's yarn price per kilogram.
Order E's residual is Order E's buyer target price minus Order E's yarn line cost, covering everything else, weaving, finishing, hemming, packing, overhead and profit, as one combined line, since Order E's own figures are not fixed any further than this.
Totalling the two lines by formula confirms the sheet reconstructs Order E's buyer target price exactly.
| Cost line | Order E's value (USD per piece) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer target price | 3.50 | Order E's own fixed fact, section 27 of docs/02 |
| Yarn (0.30 kg/piece x USD 4.00/kg) | 1.20 | Order E's fixed consumption and price, calculated by formula |
| Everything else (weaving, finishing, hemming, packing, overhead, profit) | 2.30 | Residual by formula; kept as one line since no further split is fixed for Order E |
| Total | 3.50 | Formula-summed; matches Order E's buyer target price, the sanity check |
A common mistake is splitting Order E's USD 2.30 residual into separate weaving, finishing, overhead and profit lines, inventing numbers that add up to 2.30 but are not themselves fixed anywhere. Section 27 of docs/02 fixes Order E's residual as one combined line, weaving, finishing, overhead and profit together, "no further breakdown fixed," the same way Order B's own denim residual is never split beyond what is actually fixed. Presenting an invented split as if it were part of Order E's real figures would misrepresent the state of the master cast to a learner or reviewer.
This lesson shows how to cost a real woven towel order, Order E, made by Nile Terry Mills. First, a target price is set as a reference figure: USD 3.50 per piece. Then, a yarn cost is worked out by formula: how much yarn one piece uses, times what that yarn costs. Whatever is left after subtracting the yarn cost from the target price is called the residual, and it covers everything else: weaving the loops, finishing the fabric, sewing the hem, packing, running costs and profit, all combined into one line since no fixed figures exist to split it further. Adding the yarn cost and the residual back together should exactly equal the target price; that is the check that the formulas are correct. Every single number here is Order E's own real, fixed fact, and inventing a further split of the residual would misstate that fact.
A merchandiser preparing a costing presentation for Order E's buyer wants the Costing sheet to look more detailed, and proposes splitting the USD 2.30 residual into three invented lines: weaving USD 0.90, finishing USD 0.80, and overhead and profit USD 0.60.
The facts in front of the merchandiser:
The document the merchandiser drafts:
Is it safe to present this breakdown as Order E's real costing? Decide before you open the answer.
No. The three invented lines are not fixed anywhere in docs/02; only their sum, USD 2.30, is Order E's real, fixed residual.
First fact: section 27 of docs/02 fixes Order E's residual as one combined line, explicitly "no further breakdown fixed." Second fact: the 0.90/0.80/0.60 split was invented to add up correctly, not sourced from any real figure Nile Terry Mills has provided.
The merchandiser should present the residual as one line, USD 2.30, and note that a further split would need real figures from Nile Terry Mills before it could be shown as fact. Presenting an invented split as Order E's real costing would misstate a fixed cast fact, the mistake this lesson's method is built to prevent.
Framed qualitatively, presenting an invented split of Order E's residual as if it were fact could mislead a buyer or reviewer into believing Nile Terry Mills has provided figures it has not. That single mistake undermines trust in every other figure the academy presents as genuinely fixed, such as Order B's own real denim figures (denim, jeans), since a reader who has been misled once may then start doubting figures that really are fixed. This is the credibility risk this lesson's own residual line, kept honestly combined at USD 2.30, is designed to prevent.
The Costing sheet has five columns: cost line, quantity, unit cost, target price, and a calculated line value, plus a notes column that sources each figure to section 27 of docs/02. The target price row, the yarn row and the residual row are filled in with Order E's own figures, and the total row sums them by formula, never a typed number: yarn's line value is quantity times unit cost, the residual's line value is the target price minus the yarn line value, and the total sums both. For a different towel order, replace Order E's figures with that order's real, fixed numbers, leaving every formula untouched.
[Download the Towel order file](../../templates/T06-C08-towel-order-file.xlsx)
1. Why does Order E's Costing sheet keep the USD 2.30 residual as one combined line rather than splitting it into weaving, finishing and profit lines?
2. What is Order E's yarn line cost per piece, and how is it calculated?
3. A different towel order uses 0.25 kg/piece of yarn at USD 4.20/kg, with a buyer target price of USD 3.00 per piece. What is its residual, by formula?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costing sheet | كشف التكلفة | Fiche de coûts | Maliyet tablosu | The document that lists a garment's cost components and adds them to the price the factory quotes. |
| Cost component | عنصر التكلفة | Élément de coût | Maliyet bileşeni | One part of a garment's total price: fabric, trims, making, overhead, or profit. |
| Formula | صيغة حسابية | Formule | Formül | An instruction in a spreadsheet cell that calculates a value from other cells, instead of a value typed in by hand. |
| Typed number | رقم مكتوب يدويًا | Nombre saisi manuellement | Elle girilen sayı | A value entered directly into a cell as a fixed figure, with no formula behind it. |
| Yarn | خيط (غزل) | Fil | İplik | Fibre twisted into a continuous thread. Fabric is made from yarn. |
| Terry weave | نسيج التيري | Tissage éponge (terry) | Havlu (terry) dokuma | A woven fabric structure that uses an extra pile warp beam, fed more loosely than the ground warp, so it rises into loops on the fabric surface for absorbency, instead of lying flat like a plain weave. |
| Pile weight (GSM) | الوزن بالجرام لكل متر مربع (جرام/م2) | Grammage (g/m2) | Havlu gramajı (GSM) | A towel's total fabric weight expressed in grams per square metre (GSM); a standard textile-industry measure used to compare how plush or absorbent different towel constructions are. |
You can now calculate Order E's yarn line cost and its residual to Order E's buyer target price, both by formula. The next lesson brings this Costing sheet together with the Towel Order Shape and Quality Fault Log sheets into one complete towel order file. Back to the course map