We invite you, our subscribers to our Vimeo channel to share their thoughts, experience and any questions you may have while following our series and making your Savile Row suits. The series is quite detailed and I ask that all viewers realise that in some instances, patience is all that is required. I would never claim to have been particularly talented at sewing, I was just determined and motivated to achieve my dreams, dreams I am now sharing with all of you. We have received many requests for more videos, requests that will be answered in time. We thank you all for your generosity by subscribing to our series and ask that you help spread the word and share this resource with more and more people. The more subscribers we get the more video me and my team can offer to you all. A video series is a huge undertaking, as you will by no doubt now know there is over 60 episodes and almost 24 hrs of footage that went into the first series. What you don’t see is the hours of shooting, editing and sequencing that makes a video series. Since we started this project, we heard of many others in the trade promising to release the same and by the time of the release we have seen little evidence of the result. Our promise is to continue to add to our Vimeo channel, to commit all my knowledge to video so you the viewer can benefit from my experience. We ask that all contributors to this forum treat everyone with respect and tolerance. There is no room here for religious or political opinions or discussion. We ask that you keep your posts restricted to the subject of tailoring and sharing your tailoring projects. I look forward to hearing from you all soon.
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I have sent off a complete list of all the items needed for the each trimming package to Dugdales. They are still short staffed and said it would take some time to implement. I will add a list to the blog of the contents of each package.
@Kwan
I have the closed leg figuration as well and Rory shared with me the narrow figuration. If you look at the PDF of the Strait leg trouser draft there is 1, 1B, 1A. In the strait leg draft square down from 1B is the center line. For the narrow leg figuration square down from 1 is the center line. That is the difference. Hope it helps.
Hi Kwan, Thank you for contacting me and showing your appreciation. The book isn’t readily for releasing, anyone who has taken the live online class could tell you the same. There are still edits that need to be addressed and diagrams that need to be added to replace the dialogue I have we each of my students explaining the book further. When the book does come out it will be in support of a video series on the subject. Since January I have been reviewing the book with Jeremy and we’ve only just finished the trouser section. As for the trimming packages and Dugdales. Dragging them into the 21st century is proving a challenge to all involved. There are slow when communicating online but lightening fast when you call and place an order. As for the account type, this is the first time I have heard of this detail but I suppose you need to decide for yourself and how you see your relationship with Dugdales. Are you a student following videos or a business entity that will be providing a service to clients. Perhaps you should give them a call and speak to a representative. Regards, Rory
Hi Rory, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you and to ask a couple of questions.
First, thank you for welcoming me to the forum and thank you so very much for putting in the time and the hard work creating the video series. I've started off with watching the trouser series and it is truly an incredible resource. I want you to know that your efforts are recognised and appreciated. I will definitely move on to the coat making videos in due course.
In the video series you mention your pattern drafting book. If that's available for purchase I would happily buy it, not only for my own benefit, but also as a way of supporting your endeavours even further. Is it available for purchase? I would of course love to be able to join your online pattern drafting course, but at present that is outside of my reach (maybe one day in the not too distant future).
A final question, regarding getting the trimming packs from Dugdales, I went to their website and found that I had to create an account. I emailed them to ask what "account type" would be most appropriate, a required input, but they didn't respond. Would you say that following along with your videos means that I should choose the "student" type account? I know that they should really provide the answer, but if you have any advice I would appreciate it. All the best,
Kwan
thank you to offer your support! I have bunches from Dougdal and I am in contact with theire representative in Belgium. I bought bunches from Marling and Evans. I went to Paris to Premiere Vision. There I made contact with Carnet, Fox Brothers and Holland and Sherry. All were generously willing to send me bunches and did. After liking a lot of posts from James Hardings and English Cloth they contacted me if I was interested in bunches. I was honest to tell that I have no clients yet . Still they told me to be honoured to send me bunches. I guess the problems covid 19 caused were in my favour this time.
marketing is the next point of focus....
Hi Martin, Thank you for sharing your story with us. It always nice to hear what brought this community together. I am sure your story is mirrored by many on this forum. I know exactly where you are coming from. We all start out with the same issues, getting the bunches. Cloth merchants need to feel that the bunches they send out will generate sales and we can generate sales without bunches. When I arrived in NYC in 2010, I remember going to my first client with only two books I had managed to borrow from a merchant who was coming back the following week to retrieve them. In the end he let me keep them, but still it was a little difficult as clients expected this Savile Row tailor be have a huge selection. Unable to get bunches and still trying to find my feet I went to work for a custom tailor in Manhattan. One evening I was passing through the showroom when I came across the MD and Director throwing bunches into a bin liner. I waited round and lifted them from the side walk, cleared my board and never went back. Next day I rang each one of the company’s who owned the bunches and all offered to send me out the latest edition of that bunch. So because I had the old bunches they gave me new one. Scabal on savile row where good and gave out bunches on request, so are Holland & Sherry. I will speak to Dugdales and see if they will offer out travelling bunches so at least you can show your clients something. Many cloth merchants like Dugdales are showing their cloth on their website, so if all you had was a feeler and an iPad to show the designs, maybe that would be a way forward too. It takes time, social media is very important post often and good contain. Try to drive sales to your website. If there is anything more I can do just ask. Rory
Rory,
You might want to put this statement about your intellectual property rights in a separate post, lock it, and pin it at the top of the forum. I only just saw it by accident -- not that I ever would think it was OK to download your videos, of course. 😂
Just curious, do you think that in time you might ever offer the option of buying an entire course?
Terms & Conditions One of our members posted a comment which breached my intellectual property rights. We have since taken action to make sure this never happens again. No one here has the right to download and edit my videos for any reason. I don’t think it was done in malice so I have decided no further action will be taken. If anyone has an issue with the direction or angle of view, please post it here and I will take the actions necessary to amend the view point. I welcome all discussions on this forum, if there is an issue bring it my attention. For anyone who missed it. Intellectual Property Rights Unless otherwise indicated, www.handcrafttailor.com is our proprietary property and all source code, databases, functionality, software, website designs, audio, video, text, photographs, and graphics (collectively, the “Content”) and the trademarks, service marks, and logos contained therein (the “Marks”) are owned or controlled by us or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright and trademark laws and various other intellectual property rights and unfair competition laws of the United States, international copyright laws, and international conventions. The Content and the Marks are provided on the Site “AS IS” for your information and personal use only. Except as expressly provided in these Terms of Use, no part of www.handcrafttailor.com and no Content or Marks may be copied, reproduced, aggregated, republished, uploaded, posted, publicly displayed, encoded, translated, transmitted, distributed, sold, licensed, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose whatsoever, without our express prior written permission. You must not: Republish material from The Handcraft Tailor Academy Sell, rent or sub-license material from The Handcraft Tailor Academy Reproduce, duplicate or copy material from The Handcraft Tailor Academy Redistribute content from The Handcraft Tailor Academy
That’s exactly the reason I am offering this video series. I started with the coat because it was always going to be the longest. Though considering the time already spent on the Tailcoat, this one maybe a contender to that claim. We have decided to put it on hold for now in favour of the trouser series. After much debate we decided on the belt loop style. Not something I wear myself but as regional sales would suggest, belt loops are the preference of the common man. My father is the subject, something he committed to willingly and without disagreements, content in the knowledge he was getting yet another pair of tailored trousers. Easily pleased when he’s easy to please and very critical when it’s not what he was after. I have a grey coat I made him still hanging up unfinished as he doesn’t like the colour. I have made a few pieces for him that he does wear. At least one suit, a few sports coats and trousers. I honestly don’t know how many garments I made him, I am sure he doesn’t either. I have the cloth for the Overcoat making series. Again this is for my Dad, not that I don’t need one, it’s just that his has been on the back burner for two years now. And making a series out of it seems the only way to recuperate the investment in time. I usually shy away from speaking about projects in the pipeline for fear of failing to deliver. But with the introduction of this series I am confident to now take the time to make it into what I want it to really be. A resource where one can learn to make any number of bespoke garments. In truth I hope it will replace the need for lengthy apprenticeships. I spoke with one of my former students from 3-4 years back who was offered a board at Henry Poole, he declined citing he preferred working from home. But wouldn’t have that been a great claim, a student from here ending up there, only a few meters away from where I learn the craft under the traditional system. He turned his skilled learnt on RTW alterations to traditional tailoring techniques with my online courses. He also took an in-house coat making course and is considering signing up for the video series too. I do understand there is a need for short videos focusing in on certain sewing techniques and a detailed explanation on how to execute them successfully. All in good time. A week or two ago I shot a video on RTW alterations, something I was trained in before departing for London and Savile Row, skills I haven’t used since then. Thought it would be a great way for followers to earn while they learn. If it wasn’t for me sticking my big head in the way with the line ‘this is the important bit’, it would be up already for you all to enjoy. Still I have the other sleeve I can do now and it’s given me a recap on how I use to do it. It is important for me to offer a method for followers to earn while learning. I know many of you are probably switch from a day job to your nightly passion, but I suspect there are also those who want to make tailoring a way of life. Even my apprentice Terry could do with watching them. He learnt trouser making from the original footage from the failed video series that we edited to a mini series on YouTube. Proving that one can learn a skill from a video series, and that my ass hat of a filmmaker could only mess things up so much on his end that it didn’t completely distort the message I was trying to get across.
I fully admit that although I'd love to take a one-on-one course with you someday, I'm able to to take this series because it's affordable.
Well yes. To do the proper research. Many may think it’s too good to be true. Every industry person I have contacted including college lecturers insist the subscription fee is too low. In my mind it’s those who can barely afford it benefit the most from it. I don’t mind saying I was a very poor apprentice for seven years. Could just about pay my rent and feed myself. I cycled everywhere because I couldn’t afford a bus ticket. When I taught at Parsons, it wasn’t the wealth students that sat at the front and never missed a class. In time our numbers with grow, I have every faith we will come together as a community.
Thank you for your efforts, I really do appreciate them. Response has been slow, self promotion is a double edged sword. Some will take it a face value and others will be sceptical. It is an undertaking making a coat, I remember back when I was a novice sewer, and as much as I wanted to delve in and take on a coat, I wasn’t confident in my knowledge. The video series puts knowledge to one side and focuses on technique. If you can sew in a straight line and use a needle and thimble, you can make a coat. I have done as much as I can to promote these videos. People want to hear from your experience. Someone they can relate too. I do believe this forum is the key to it all. Granting you all access to me so you can ask your questions and feel like there is something more backing up the video series. Not just ‘there you are’ and ‘get on with it’. Students have to feel there is a life line. If you have questions, you can be given answers. And that’s exactly what I plan to provide.
Thank you, Rory. I'm sorry you're not getting the response you deserve. When I saw the announcement for the course, I posted about it in the two online forums I use the most. I'll try to think about some other places. In one space, the response was favorable, but some people thought they weren't quite ready for such an intense course. In the other, people also seemed interested; one said s/he hadn't been sure the course was offered by someone reliable but my post had allayed any fears. As you may be aware, there's a lot of puffery on the Web: home sewers with zero training and relatively little experience decide to create tutorials and pattern lines. It's made some people suspicious and cynical.
We thank you for joining us. Your story is mirrored I am sure by many here. I knew some of the FIT lecturers during my time a Parsons. I know there classes needed minimum student numbers or they would not proceed. An issue that wasn’t true of Parsons, I once taught a class or six students in my early days. I am also a master of women’s wear tailoring, something which isn’t widely known. I also taught women’s wear tailoring at Parsons for a semester. The techniques do overlap but the pattern drafting does not. I do intend to offer women’s wear tailoring video series like the menswear I currently offer. As with everything I offer time is against us. It takes huge resources to record and produce just one of these series. I will ask again as I have before and will again, for everyone here to join my efforts in recruiting more followers so I can dedicate more time to giving you the knowledge I possess and will freely share. Many of you may find it hard to believe but I want your journey to becoming a Master Tailor easier than mine. I have so much to give, all I ask is the support to make it happen. Our numbers are slowly increasing, I have exhausted my network contacts to spread the news of what is available here. I have listened to the wants and needs of you all and am currently undertaking not one but two follow up video series so I can appease both sides. As many of you know I have started a Tailcoat series, we have now added the Trouser making series also. I expect it to be a busy holiday session. We appreciate everything you can do to help promote The HTA and our video series.
I live in the United States. Over the years, I've taken men's tailoring courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology. They weren't true bespoke because we didn't draft the patterns; that would have been impractical for a class of at least 20 people. Instead, we made up patterns that had been drafted by the teachers, who were professional tailors. We didn't need inlays because these were tested patterns made for size 40 men's forms. I had two older, Italian-born teachers and a younger one who was American. As a result of those classes, I can say that 95% of the techniques in the videos are familiar, if not exactly the same. We never had time to learn hand buttonholes.
Although I learned a lot -- the teachers were very generous with their time despite the class size -- there was a continuity problem. FIT sometimes did not schedule classes in the men's tailoring series for years on end. It took me six years to complete three courses. On top of that, the school did not allow students to record the demonstrations so I would spend much of the class trying to find a place around the crowded table, with my head bobbing up and down between the demonstration and my notebook. I was told to make sketches, but I'm terrible at that. At the end of each 15-week course, I was always going to clean up my notes and make a little booklet for myself with photos (which were allowed), but I was always too exhausted and my notes had holes. So you can imagine how nice it is to have available a detailed video series like yours, which can be watched and re-watched at any time.
As a woman, I'd love to finish the ladies tailoring series at FIT (it was a bit more RTW-oriented), but the upper-level courses I need haven't been offered in a while. As with men's bespoke-style tailoring, many people simply aren't interested in learning these time-consuming techniques. Although I love men's tailoring, I'm a bit tired of making samples I can't wear, and am trying to figure out how to apply the techniques to a women's jacket. I am under the impression that the materials used are somewhat lighter. I've looked at couture tailoring books, and while of course there is some similarity, it seems to be a different area.
Anyway, I'm starting by watching the whole course through and enjoying myself. This is such a trove of information.
Hello from New York City. I am a pure hobbyist that has been learning how to sew/tailor for the past year or two. In that time I have taught myself basic techniques/projects and have been making dress shirts, ties, trousers, etc...now I want to advance on to a coat!
I just ordered my trimming pack from Dugdale Bros and I am excited to get started!
Hi David, I use handcock chalk available from Dugdales. Some comes in the coat pack, if you order the big pack. Which also has needles and basting cotton.
Rory - I see you are brushing off your chalk so it must be clay not wax. Is there a reason not to use the wax? Do you have a preferred brand? Is the brush just boar's bristle lint brush or something special?
I realize these may be simple matters, but In the age of online shopping recommendations are quite helpful. Thanks.
Hi Rory -- Can you post the link to the google drive here in the forum by chance? I checked the description in the first video, and unless I'm overlooking it, I do not see it.
"I would never claim to have been particularly talented at sewing, I was just determined and motivated to achieve my dreams..." -RD
Hi Rahul, welcome thanks for joining our community. Some free advice and I don’t want to knock your confidence but you should probably start with the coat and progress to the overcoat. Though similar they are very different garments. If you had more experience I would say ‘Go for it’. I was an eager novice once and started plenty of projects I couldn’t finish.