Beyond Recognition

Today

I really like to sew. Turning a length of fabric into something that not only covers but graces the human body, or creating something useful and beautiful out of an unpromising remnant is one of life's pleasures.

Having such a skill does sometimes lead people into thinking that I approach the job of carrying out repairs with the same degree of enthusiasm. "It's just a zip", they say, or "Could you just pop in a new lining?"

The trouble is, repairing such items on a ready-made garment can be very time-consuming as you have first to figure out just how much unpicking you have to do to arrive at the point where the zip or whatever can be fitted. And it never quite seems to match up to the original.

In My Day

Back in 1984 I decided that I had to eke out the family income. So, on top of a full-time job, looking after my niece Claire, foreign students and the girls, I advertised myself as seamstress. I did make some beautiful frocks of which I was proud but I also found myself being asked to do repairs and alterations. One problem with this sort of work is that the job can take nearly as long as making a garment from scratch, but no-one wants to pay as much.

I was approached one day by a bachelor schoolmaster. Would I reline two Harris Tweed jackets for him? The linings were now so embarrassingly in holes that he didn't dare take the jacket off in front of his pupils. I didn't really know what was involved so I agreed to do them for a fiver each + cost of materials.

The garments were delivered. First I had to unpick the old lining to use them as a pattern. A good Harris Tweed jacket (and these had been good about twenty-five years previously) has gussetted pockets set into the lining and little tape or chain hanging loops. The jackets had frayed cuffs and bulges in the elbows where the lining had long ago torn.

They had also probably never seen a dry cleaners. As I pressed the pieces of old lining a miasma of old sweat arose to my appalled nostrils. The tweed was now very misshapen so I also had to press it to try to restore something of its original shape. I carefully turned back and repaired the cuffs. Then I made the linings, gussetted pockets and all.

When I came to fit them into the jackets I found that the pristine new linings, not having stretched and sagged over the years, made the jackets feel a lot more snug than they had recently. I had difficulty getting the client to accept this and he grudgingly paid his money.

The job had taken me about forty hours and I had to throw away my disgustingly stinking ironing board cover. The fee barely covered buying a new one...

Then there was the time my sister-in-law Marilu asked me to replace a zip in a pair of jeans that she hadn't worn for five years. I had to figure out how to use her mother's sewing machine, carry out the job in her front room and she never forgave me for the fact that she'd put on so much weight over the five years that she could no longer do them up.....

Never mind, putting in two replacement zips and repairing straps on two dresses is a labour of love for my Becky. I just hope she's properly grateful!