I needed to buy some new “good” trousers, ie: not jeans. While walking up the street towards the shopping centre I had to pass the Red Cross shop and decided to pop in and see if there was anything there. I don’t often think to visit an op shop when looking for clothes, but maybe I could be lucky.
Well, this time I was definitely in luck. I came away with a pair of charcoal Sportscraft woollen trousers that looked like they had never been worn for the princely sum of $12.00. You have to be very happy with that. They fit like a glove, other than being way too long, which is the usual story for this shorty.
Taking up hems is not one of my favourite jobs, but needs must.
While I was doing the hand stitching, I remembered how much I like stitching with woollen fabrics. When I used to make my own clothes in my teens and early 20s, wool was my favourite fabric to work with. It has a lovely hand and drape. These trousers are from a nice fine woollen suiting. They will be lovely to wear.
I also got to thinking about how I used to take up hems commercially…….. Well, as a teenager in the early 1980s, I used to get paid $5.00 to take trouser hems up for the fellow next door. When I think about it, that wasn’t too bad for back then.
I also had a paid job of hand stitching down the waist bands on wrap around skirts that a friend’s mother used to make out of calico and hand paint with designs. They were quite the fashion item around here back then. The waist band and long ties were finished, but the hem was just zig zagged for the purchaser to hem themselves. I was paid $5.00 per waist band.
These days I will just stick to taking up hems for myself, Mum and Mick, if necessary. That’s far more than enough.
11 comments:
I think we all hate taking up hems!
nice find...from another shorty
Those 'new' trousers took you on a lovely walk along memory lane.
Fancy that, working as a junior seamstress all those years ago! $5 back then would have been quite good money indeed. I seem to recall that the wages for my first job at an insurance company were £6,50 a week.
I don't think I've ever been able to buy slacks or skirts that are the right length. I too am a shorty. Well found Janice.
Op shops are definitely the place to go. I would rather make something from scratch than take up a hem!
I'm a shorty too & even more than when I was younger. Ugh! Take just about everything up and used to do it for neighbours in different places we've lived. They look very nice . Take care & hugs.
I loved those wrap around skirts!! I wish they'd come back in fashion. :-)
I am so glad you found good woolen trousers. Up here in the tropics I am always on the lookout for cool linen ones. ;-) We never wear wool.
For a $12 pair of pants , it doesn't seem so painful to shorten them, I'm sure.
As always, I enjoy your stories.
a bargain...I don't like hemming or alterations much either
Good one, a bargain. I hate alterations and because you sew. everyone brings them to you. I have several for mum sitting on my sewing table I’m attacking tonight.
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