“Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” - Mark Twain
You know how when you really don't want to do something, you really don't want to "eat the frog" and you put it off, and keep putting it off until it just looms over you, weighing on your mind? We'll this is me at the moment, so the time has come to bite the bullet, eat that frog and do that horrible thing that I really don't want to do!
When I first started making the uniform bags, I didn't really pay attention to exactly how much work they do take, I just looked at my Harris Tweed bags and went with a similar pricing structure to those. However, the Harris tweed bags are cut from a simple piece of cloth, so all I do is iron the cloth, stabilise it and cut out the pattern, and make the bag - simple (well, almost! :-D ).
With the uniforms however there's seams to unpick, badges to carefully remove, darts or shaping to try and work around, jacket linings to remove, buttons to remove. then once the bag pieces are cut out and stabilised (with 2 layers of stabiliser to support and give structure to the bag) I then need to re-add the badges, buttons, add medal ribbons etc... and all of this before I can really get into the fun stuff of actually sewing it all together! In the time I've been making the uniform bags (nearly a year!) I've also improved the quality of some of the additional features - for example, the leather handles are custom made for me by a company in Street (where Clarks Shoes come from!), but also, some of the other items I use to make the bags (zips, buckles etc..) have increased in quality and price.
So, where am I going with this waffle? Basically, I'm now in position where I need to raise my prices a little, I really don't want to, but with the bags taking up more and more of my time, this means I spend less time now running my photography business, which so far has been helping to fund my sewing work. I am 100% self-employed, I have no work other than my sewing and photography, so I need to make sure I am able to make enough money to pay the bills, as well as invest back into my business so I can keep sewing lovely bags! I will be raising the prices at the end of May, and with this in mind I thought I'd give you all a chance to get an order in quickly before I do raise the prices, any orders placed and a deposit paid before the end of May will be at the current prices, all orders placed after 1st June will be at the new prices.
I'm so sorry to do this, it's not what I want to do, but it's what I have to do for my business to be a proper business, and not just a "hobby" this decision has been hanging over me a for a couple of months, I was going to do it at the start of the year, but couldn't do it, so then moved it to the start of the financial year, again avoiding doing it, so I'm a little late getting to this point, but now I've done it, there's a little weight lifted!
Heidi B x