"A stitch in time saves nine"

I HATED Fashion and Fabrics back in high school. I didn’t have much of an interest in clothes then, well, at least not in how they were made. The worst days were when we had to go through four straight periods of Fashion and Fabrics. I had to endure two cool hours of practical lessons on Friday mornings and another hour of Fashion and Fabrics theory on Tuesdays. I didn’t care much for the subject and would’ve rather done Food and Nutrition. Now the Food and Nutrition class was living it up. They got to cook fancy things and were guaranteed of a lit lunch once every week. And guess what, I had to be stitching together baby dresses with a bib neckline and skirts with a pocket while they ate chocolate soufflés and chicken picatta.

If I could, I would’ve dropped Fashion and Fabrics but that wasn’t allowed at my school. You were to take all the subjects offered in the class you were in and only opt out of writing any subject during public examinations. I couldn’t do that either, not write Fashion and Fabrics at “O” Level – my mother would’ve skinned me alive! I eventually learnt how to cook, I live with brilliant chefs but had it not been for my Fashion and Fabrics classes, I may have never learnt how to sew. But it’s only last week that I was truly grateful I did Fashion and Fabrics. One of the girls leading praise and worship at church wore a blouse whose seam was running on the inner sleeve. It distracted me so much I kept wondering how she had left the house without noticing her blouse needed some backstitching.

The girl wore a pretty skirt, killer heels and her hair was freshly done but all that was clouded by the running seam. And it would’ve have taken under 10 minutes to get the seam sorted out. Or she shouldn’t have worn the blouse at all. It’s like a stain on a white t-shirt, it doesn’t matter how clean the rest of the t-shirt is; people will always focus on the stain. Same applies with running seams, odd threads and offbeat buttons on your clothes. They’re distracting and people won’t care about how hot you look. And you know what – these are little things that really don’t cost much to fix, just a little bit of your time. You may be thinking, well, I don’t know how to sew. You don’t have to be an expert at it. It’s sewing not rocket science; anyone can at least sew on a button or mend a tear.

You just have to be conscious of a few things. For buttons, make sure the thread you’re using matches the garment. You can’t sew on a button on a white shirt with red or black thread. The thread has to be white and make sure the button you’re sewing on matches the rest of the buttons on the shirt. Most clothes come with extra buttons, either packaged separately or sewn on the inner seams of the garment. Don’t wait for your buttons to fall off either. If you think they’re hanging a little too loose, get a needle and matching thread and reinforce the button. Nothing irritates me like jeans which tear at the hem because someone is too lazy to turn up the jeans or cut off the extra chunk and neaten the hem. It sounds labour intensive but it’s actually quite straightforward. If doing it yourself is not an option for you, get a tailor to size your pants instead of you stepping on them as you walk.

It’s tacky and quite frankly makes laundry difficult. Even if you own a washing machine, such stains don’t come off easily. You’ll still need to hand wash to make sure all the dirt goes. Men are the biggest culprits when it comes to pants that are too long. Too long a pair of pants should bother you. They should bother you a lot. Pants too long that result in pools of fabric bunching over your shoes make you look sloppy. On the other hand – cropping your pants too short makes you look like a school boy wearing capris. So paying attention to where your trousers breaks is the difference between an outfit that sings and one that looks like borrowed clothing. The break of a trouser refers to the point where your pants touch your shoe. Having no break is the cleanest look.  Trousers without a break barely rest on the top of the shoes.