Mr Tailor Man - The Finale!

Hey Guys!

In my blog hop post, I harked back to my series of Mr. Tailor Man posts. You know, the one's I never finished? For those of you who are having a little trouble remembering, there was a tailor in my town who was retiring, and I basically bought the bulk of his remaining stock and equipment off of him!

So, I thought maybe somebody out there would like to see the final few bits. Ironically, I've hardly touched most of it, so they are basically where I left them! But I though some of you guys might like to see!

So the first thing is some tailor's wax crayons, which are like tailor's chalk - but wax! They leave a slight mark and I think it irons out of most fabric.

The next thing I got was a bunch of silk thread for hand-stitching. You can pull a single stand out of the packets, and it's super strong so that your stitching won't break. Who doesn't hate that 'pop' sound? I picked up one of each of the colours he had.

Then there were some shoulder pads! Not sure if I'll ever get to use them, but more jackets have some sort of padding in the shoulders than I think I realised!

Then there were some anchor buttons (similar to what we saw in the JPG exhibition) and some braided cord. There was also what I think was seam binding but the picture came out a bit fuzzy!

Now these I loved (and I didn't really get these for very cheap!) - some vintage spools. I look forward to displaying these properly somewhere!

Then we have some dress shields. These can be stitched into the underarms of a dress, so as to protect the garment from any sweat/deodorant, etc. As most of us know, this can otherwise end up in a beloved piece of clothing being damaged or stained.

I got a bunch of random zip. Strangely they were mostly green!

Then I got a bunch of suit buttons. Some are really beautiful! And I have matching small and big ones for the green buttons which is nice.

Some things I got for free were remnant pieces. These are small pieces of lining. most of it doesn't appeal to me as its a bit polyester-y but the pink piece at the bottom is really lovely - I wish I had more than the smallish piece!

I also got a bunch of suiting scraps, all smallish pieces.

Then there was the bigger suiting pieces. It appears past Emmie was very productive and measured them all! They are full width and the top few pieces ranged from 44cm to 78cm in length.

Then we have the beautiful velvet remnants. I love stroking these. I have no idea what to do with them but I might make a patchwork cushion cover to stroke. I love the deep red and the grey especially.

Then there were some smaller wool remnant pieces.

This is where I keep the significant fabric lengths I got, a couple of which you have seen before(and I won't point out), but most you haven't. On the final day, when he was closing he told me I could have whatever was left in the fabric section for £50. Included in this was a bunch of stuff I didn't really want, but it was sort of an all or nothing deal! The only thing I knew was missing from the first time I came in was some Harris tweed, but it wasn't a colourway I was super fond of so thats ok!

There's more wool, wool blend, and suiting.

 The most "god knows what I'm going to do with this" piece of fabric is this 100% Silk Italian suiting. Not sure how much is there (most of the stuff is a max of about 3 yards), but it's apparently worth over £300 if I remember correctly.

Then there's this bumblebee fabric, which I think was used for butler uniforms? Some sort of uniform. Its actually quite a blue-navy and yellow up close. I think there's a couple of flaws, but he has noted the total length and unflawed length.

Then there were more wool blends.

And of course, where would you be without your own bolt of hair canvas? Everyone needs a bolt of hair canvas in their stash. Like, duh! I use this in, like, every project. All I hear every day is Mr.G saying, "God, I think you really need to think about stocking up on some more hair canvas".

I think the only thing I left behind that day was a bolt of nylon pocketing, which was ick to be honest. I actually left the hair canvas initially but then Lauren did her tailoring posts and I had to turn on my heel!

SO that's your lot. No more Tailor Man :(

But there's always more fabric :)

Emmie x