The Seamstress, Linda Kuntz What is Tailoring?

It's 1959, and I am sitting on the floor of the dining room. My mother is sitting at the table sewing.   I want to make clothes for my dolls, but I am too little to be trusted with a sewing machine yet.  I am, however, allowed scrap fabrics and scissors that cut.  My first wrap dress was born. I cut a rectangle, 2 holes out for arms, wrapped it around my doll and tied it with a ribbon.  My new doll dress was done and she loved it.  I knew I had found a joy!

My first machine was a classic Singer treadle modified by my grandfather with a motor and toggle switch. It only sewed forward, but you could adjust stitch length using a front lever with a screw. I really enjoyed using it.

My next sewing machine, inherited from my grandmother, had an enclosed motor, backstitch, and zigzag—Sears and Roebuck; it was built like a tank.

My mother and I often disagreed over what I should wear, so she told me that once I started buying my own clothes, I could choose whatever I wanted to wear. I think I babysat for the entire town for money to buy fabric and make my own clothing.

In 1967, I made my first dress—a baby doll style from real linen in a soft butter yellow. The design was simple: a triangle shape with puffed sleeves and a zipper. At the time, kettlecloth—a comfortable and easy-to-sew blend of cotton and rayon—was very popular. Clothing styles were straightforward then. My bell-bottoms had a width of 12 inches, my shirt cuffs were ruffled and extended over my hands, and my skirts, well, I made sure I always had nice underwear on.

In my early 20s, I took a blazer tailoring class, only to realize how much I had yet to learn about sewing. Each year, I attended an 8-week course with the same tailor, which greatly improved my skills and the finish of my garments. The experience shifted my view of sewing from a practical task to a creative journey of discovery.

After retiring, someone suggested I sell clothes at art shows. I began with just 10 garments at my first show and was thrilled that people appreciated my sewing skills.  I enjoy selling my garments directly to customers and mostly make one-size pieces to avoid sizing issues. Seeing someone smile or twirl in my handmade clothing is very rewarding, especially since well-crafted apparel is rare. Sharing my work gives me great satisfaction.

Unfortunately, sewing and making your own clothes is becoming less common. When I was young, everyone sewed—my mother made many of my clothes, and we often shopped for fabric instead of buying from stores. Our homemade clothes lasted, and we had a wider variety of beautiful fabrics than we do today.

 So TAILORING, what is tailoring?

Like love, it is an act.  tailoring is NOT fit or style, it is a method of constructing a garment from the first time you prewash the fabric until the end pressing. I press every seam 5 times before moving on to a new seam, an undercollar for a coat takes me about 3 hours and stands on it's own, lapel, sewn in a particular way to make sure it always turns toward the jacket.

Tailoring is the direction you stitch, the methods you use to make a garment more durable with the use of stitching and interfacings and facings. Tailoring is how you cut the fabric out, what direction the fabric lays. Tailoring, again, has nothing to do with fit or style. Tailoring is how I sew a button on.

Couture sewing is sewing to meet a French Board of Couture, a lot of hand sewing.  If you look at any picture of any atelier, you will see 30 seamstresses working by hand and two sewing machines up on the filing cabinet.

Tailoring cannot be added to a garment; a garment cannot be tailored.  A garment can be altered to fit.  Tailoring is an art.

In the picture above, I was playing dress-up as a bride when my father told me I’d have to marry a boy. I already had three of those little troublemakers in my home and wasn’t exactly fond of them. At first, I was defiant, but my father insisted a boy was in the cards for marriage. So, I borrowed his sunglasses and told him that if I had to marry a boy, I wasn’t going to look at him. When I was older, I changed the color of those glasses to rosy, and married twice, both boys.  Said with love.