Tailor- mad(e) solutions!

I feel like hitting him with my handbag, but remain smiling focusing on a distant void. He scratches his head and continues to look bemused. I am not going to rise to his bait, i think to myself. Perched atop a shaking stool, i refuse to budge and it is now half past ten. All i can hear is the tut tut tut of his sewing machine. My eyes blur now but i sit rigid and by the time the hooks are tied and the blouse is in my hands, i let out a breath of relief. Thank God, i can attend my wedding wearing a blouse! I rush to take my train at twelve midnight, straight from my tailor! Our family has a great history of sitting with tailors and snatching stitched dresses at the strike of twelve midnight- starting from New Year night mass to Christmas night mass. My maternal Uncles took turns to wait in the shop of Star Tailor to get their pants stitched. Those were the days when there were no seros, peter englands- we had only Saravana Tailors and Star Tailors. Star was a star those days, uncles came to New Year masses well after twelve, with safety pins in pants- no time for fitting the zip you see!

Pic courtesy- Google

When i grew up, i was more attracted to readymade garments- salwars and skirts. But when i had to wear sarees, the readymades failed miserably and i had to find out a standard tailor. I started experimenting for almost three years. One stitched it too tight, one too big, one missed sleeves, one forgot to stitch hooks. After so many trials and errors, i settled for Sabari Tailors, Srirangam. It is almost half an hour drive from my home, but distance doesn't matter when  it comes to blouse and dignity! Fondly christened ANNA by me, Sabari anna stitches well, corrects flaws well but the only drawback- he never gives the dresses on time. I had to beg, threaten, weep and once sat for two hours stubbornly in his shop asking him to stitch a blouse. I hate that person who found out the saree-blouse combo.

Fed up with 10 day stitching period for a single blouse, i tried to stitch one on trial basis from a lady tailor nearby. Usha too was the same, she finally handed over the stitched blouse after 15 days. But to my shock and dismay, i found it a good few sizes smaller, may be she stitched it for my imaginary younger sister! But having a tailor nearby is always handy, so i gave her cotton salwar materials to be stitched once in a while- that are fit to be worn strictly at home only! Then i gave her curtains, bedspreads, towels- she is now aptly called "patchwork" Usha!!! Any wear and tear- Usha is there! I wish i took my stitching class seriously when i was in school. They taught us lot of types of stitches- herring bone, lazy daisy, french, back stitch, chain stitch, about twenty varieties. What they failed to teach us- how to get work done by a tailor!

Ranganathan Street- Pic courtesy Wikipedia

Talking of tailors and how can i not talk about T Nagar Ranganathan street's famous Tailors? Spinsters do weird things like do impulsive shopping. I was a worse example, when i boarded Pallavan Express one fine morning. Got down at Mambalam and bought some salwar materials in Kalanjiyam. Now came the thought, why must i take this all the way to Srirangam to stitch? There were innumerable tailors waiting for orders around Ranganathan Street who stitch in a jiffy and i decided to try one. I selected the most distant one who was obviously free. Handing him the materials, i was told to go shop for accessories and be back in an hour. My mouth dropped open, my eyes almost popped out an hour exactly later when the neatly pressed dresses were delivered with a smile! What service! I doubted the size, but they all fit well! After so many such impulsive trips, i was familiar with these inkie winkie tailors. But i lost touch once i got married and there was no time for such shopping trips to Chennai.

After a few years, i decided to test the waters there. Having bought four sets of material, i gave to one such tailor and collected it promptly after an hour. Imagine the look in my face when i tried one of the dresses when i got back home. First one- two sizes large, second one- failed to pull down beyond my head, third one- off- shoulder, fourth one- all rolled in one. Stupefied in shock, i ran to "patch work Usha" to correct them. After lot of hard work, she managed to rectify them, as usual fit to wear at home! Nobody else can get on my nerves so worse as tailors! God knows what happens tomorrow, Sabari Tailors is to deliver five sets of salwars tomorrow evening by eight. My train leaves at ten. That gives me 2 hours grace time to catch the train. Two hours is one helluva grace time, what say Sabari anna???