Workshop improvements… Got a new tailor’s donkey made up and a shiny new iron! GOOD TIMES!
(thanks Becky)
Another birds themed shirting, new in stock, but only five or six shirt lengths available. It’s a very high quality cloth and fairly inexpensive, found in my local fabric shop in Brixton.
(&the swans are about 2cm across)
The cloth selection is slowly growing, month by month, book by book. So far suppliers are:
Smith & Woolens, Lear Browne & Dunsford, Bateman & Ogden, and Pederson & Becker. Probably almost a thousand different suitings to choose from so far and growing every month.
Ready for a first fitting. A classic double breasted suit, the cut is slightly generous on the chest and more comfortable but more fitted around the waist & hips. The sleeves are drafted using a 1930s technique, again slightly more room but with a nice shape and you may or may not notice the seam on the front of your cuff is in the middle, this is why it’s called a 50:50 sleeve (tailoring talk). The cloth is made in England and bought from Smith & Woollens. More photos to follow…
Heavy shirt / jacket with wooden buttons and the collar buttoned down on the shoulders (a bit experimental!).
The art of drawing flat shapes on a piece of paper to create a 3 dimensional sculpture.
First fitting, not a million miles off! A bit more room required on the back and a bit less on the front, a change in the sleeve pitch (tailoring talk) and some other minor adjustments. More photos to come…
Bengal stripe Oxford with mother of pearl buttons and a soft button down collar. (Available in a range of other colours).
Hand made in 1939 by Italian tailor Giuseppe Guarini of Rome. Some of the nicest trousers I’ve seen! A very baggy cut, high waisted, everything is finished by hand, even the side seam. All the hand sewing in the construction of these trousers makes for a very soft garment, perfect for the summer in Italy 1939. This pair is made from a very high quality linen, i also have a pair of ankle swingers in the same cut in white cotton.
Copies of these trousers cost £160 plus cloth, all visible stitching by hand. The same construction can also be used in making trousers with a modern cut.
A new dress for Miriam. A very simple cut, nice shape with a boat neck, in African print cotton.
A bit of music in every garment.
You may or may not know, but as well as a Tailor I also moonlight as a DeeJay. As you can see in the background on the picture below (to the left of the mannequin in last blog entry) there’s a 45 on the wall, most garments will end up with a bit of this record in there somewhere as I use it as a curved ruler for drawing the curves on certain parts of the garments. (The record is actually a crappy one but love this James Brown instrumental at the moment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLifQUiWDGM)
