This is us, in 1995. Both of us wearing hand woven garments. Yes, that sports coat is handwoven - 2/60 silk warp with 2/60 silk and alpaca weft. It was professionally tailored for Doug and yes, he still has it.
While I still have the outfit I'm wearing (also fine silk), I no longer fit it, sadly.
When I rummage in my closet I find a lot of hand made clothing and each garment brings back the memory of making it. Usually I was trying to be 'clever' and sometimes I was pretty successful at getting the results I wanted.
But not always. Sometimes my plans went awry and I had to get creative and really work hard to make the fabric 'work'.
It was the sports coat where I learned the importance of a good HARD press. The first thing the tailor did after reluctantly agreeing to see me and see the quality of cloth I wanted him to work with, was press it - much harder than what I had done. It was a revelation.
Having a bit of background in terms of sewing, I immediately saw the subtle but oh, so, important change that extra compression had on a fabric that was ok, but not particularly 'right' for a highly tailored garment.
It was life changing, truly. After that I would send yardage to the dry cleaner with on site pressers and pay them what they were worth to do the job properly. Because hard pressing yardage with a hand iron is Very Hard Work.
Until I got my own industrial steam press. Which I miss dreadfully, but since I'm no longer making yardage for sewing, I can manage.
