What are Friday's for?

Today is Friday, thank goodness, and time to recover after a day at the market where it is cold and damp first thing in the morning. Still I love meeting the other traders and the customers (who would be without them). I was asked for waistcoats in barbershop red and white stripes, spots, dolphins, mermaids (go figure) and lastly for a theatrical event, a young lad wanted a high v-necked black waistcoat with a definte shape in mind. He promised me he would bring some pictures of what he wants whilst I try to find black and gold material - we'll see how that shapes up. Apart from all the enquiries I actually did not sell one waistcoat or take an order which when I thought about it was great because it has given me time to experiment.

I have a large gentleman who comes regularly with all sorts of challenges. Yesterday he tried on a long waistcoat he had had made by a theatrical seamstress and wanted me to adjust, it was made from what I can only describe as very heavy upholstery velvet and much too big for him. it was just three pieces serged all round with heavy thread, so I cut it down the back to resize it, lined it and put frog fastenings down the front. It did fit him, but was still really heavy and as he had had a frock coat made of the same material it would need a big man to carry all that weight together! I wonder what he will want next time???

Tomorrow, I'll write about my course with Sue Bleiweiss and post some pictures.