My sartorial beginnings

Sartorial : relating to tailoring, clothes, or style of dress

Inspiration

I absolutely love the below episode. Do watch it! I wont say this was my first inspiration but this video definitely made me think about it seriously. Hey also, I have a playlist of people making things or things being made

Also, RIP Anthony Bourdain 😢

First trial - Recliner cover

For my first ever attempt, I wanted to stich something I incorrectly assumed was going to be easy - I wanted to try stitching a cover for a new recliner we had bought. I ordered a inexpensive bedsheet from Amazon to cut and stitch together. The plan was to draft it using this so that I get practice on measuring and stitching.

This is when the complexity of working with a 2D fabric to cover a 3D surface dawned on me. It took me over 2 hours just to measure the recliner, determine how many pieces to split this into, account for curvature, geometry, the folding out leg rest etc. Another couple hours to chalk out the shapes on the bedsheet and cut them out. The result was pretty good!

Just when I though maybe this trial can be made into a usable product, I noticed the bedsheet tearing at the stitched places. The fabric turned out to be such bad quality that it was tearing everywhere the sewing needle had passed it. Thats what I get for buying a cheap product but no harm done as I did mean it to be a test before I actually make one.

The actual cover

For the first trial I stopped midway after it started to self-destruct so I couldn’t really try cutting out the odd shaped side panels. For the final one mom gave me a large used bedsheet but this is a good quality one that has probably been washed hundreds of times but yet holding strong! Also meade measurement tweaks and other changes as learning from the draft and the end product looks really good!

Future plan

So the plan was always to get into bespoke clothing. Fine suits like the one Frank Shattuck makes. Though it will take many years to reach that level. From my searches online, it seems like fine tailoring or sartorial arts are very hard to find tutorials for. Either its like a protected craft or there just isn’t enough interest for people to make content for it online. Most people who learn this apprentice under a “master” tailor and I did try reaching out to a few but got no replies. I am assuming I would need to know at least the basics before they agree for an apprenticeship.

I did eventually find a few people online teaching the bespoke arts. Putting down a few below:

• Rory Duffy - His full course on making a Savile row coat can be purchased on Vimeo.
• International School of Tailoring - Completely free! Also by a Savile row trained tailor
• Cornelius Quiring - Makes lots of great videos on tailoring and is a joy to listen to

My sewing machine