I'll miss you most of all, Scarecrow

[mapsedge]

Psyching myself up, ever so slowly, to retire the Seamlyne line of clothing at the end of this season. It's been a long time coming. Every year mljm and I get into The Discussion about how the sewing is taking over our lives and I have no time for family for all the orders that have to go out. She's right, of course: when the season kicks in, there's no balance in our lives. We held on to the business with the justification that it would help her to stay home with the kids, and that required one hell of a time commitment from me, the only tailor in residence. With me tied up on the machines, M had no time for a life of any kind for herself.

And, when you get down to the sheer accounting of it, there's not much justification for keeping it around.

I've closed the website to orders on several occasions, always with the intention of reopening at some point. Once was when M was put on bedrest with our second child so that I could devote myself to the care of our family while she was laid up; another time (twice, actually, that I can think of off the top of my head) because I just couldn't stand having The Discussion yet again.

But we took a hard look at the books this year, and that was the final push to the decision. Where it used to be that Seamlyne supported the income from my day-job, it's now the other way around often as not. Besides, working a full-time job during the day plus having a family makes it extremely difficult (if not impossible) to devote the kind of time the business would require to make it successful and still maintain any sort of balance in our lives. The market is there (and, for the record, it's not ren faires!), I just don't have the energy to reach it. I raised the prices to a number realistic to the effort required, and I'm sure I effectively killed the business right there.

To save my sunny outlook (stop that snickering), I don't think about it much. I mean, we've just recently gotten good at it: credit card acceptance, the time required to actually make a pair of tights reduced to a ridiculously low number, shipping down to a fine art. So far as I know, I'm the only person who has taken the time to refine the patterns and construction methods to the edge they've got, and, given the other choices of merchandise out there, I hate to see that go away. Plus, it's a pride thing: I like hearing, "Your tights rock!"

On the other hand, I have a little girl who thinks her daddy is the best thing in the world, even better than Smarties, and I in turn miss my family. Amazing how you can live in a house with three other people and never really see them. I miss my wife; there's little time for any kind of intimacy - let alone the really good kind, how about just having time to talk? - when there's yet another order on the board that has to go out.

I have to admit I'm looking forward to finishing the kitchen, pursuing my musical interests (4mb download, if you're intested in a sample). The movie biz looks interesting, and has the better potential for long term returns if it all pans out. Web development pays better per hour, and there's plenty of that for programmers who are willing to dig up the work. And I'll be able to spend more time with my family, maybe take a vacation, knowing I won't have to worry about The Next Big Order. We'll still sew from time to time for folks we really like, I'm sure.

So. Anybody want to buy an industrial serger or two? How about forty-five yards of blue suncloth? Anyone?

Comments

[the-themiscyran.livejournal.com]

So if the clock is ticking, how long do we have to stock up?

[billthetailor.livejournal.com]

End of the season, say...Oct 31 or until the fabric runs out. At the risk of sounding like a TV ad, quantities are, quite literally, limited: we won't be ordering fabric. Our lycra supplier has discontinued all the colors that are most popular for our ren faire customers, like dark brown and hunter green, another of the drivers for our decision. We haven't taken inventory yet; we're still working on getting the final orders out the door.

[billthetailor.livejournal.com]

And, btw, the price online is not the price local folks and people we know will pay. We'll adjust back to the previous prices.