Sewing person needed.
 

I have a jacket which has no button hole in the lapel. I have asked three different dressmakers/tailors in Accrington if they could cut one in and stitch round but none could.
Do any of our members know of anybody in Hyndburn who could take on what I thought was a simple task?
I would pay of course for the service.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Hi Russell, my cousin's wife does sewing alterations ,I will ask her if she could do this for you.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Thank you Frank, I am not needing the jacket for a week or two so there is no rush.

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Theres a shop on Church St, just up from witherspoons have yeh asked her? shes been very good wi stuff we have taken her.

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She is one who wouldn't do it Cashy.
Another was on Warner street and one upstairs in market.
The lady on Church street changed the brass buttons for white ones on a coat for me and is very reasonable.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

I think there is a shop on Abbey Street(next to the Arden pub) that does alterations.
it might be that these folk who say they can't do it, think it is too piddling of a job.
I can do buttonholes, but not to the professional standard that you would want Russell.

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Thank you Margaret.
I'll try the one on Abbey street on Thursday while I'm nearby at the Blind society unless something else crops up in the meantime.
It's a cream jacket I had bought and I want the button hole stitching round in dark red.
Why, it's just something I fancy having.
I don't like putting pins in to hold a poppy or carnation and being cream it would show after they had been removed.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

If you fancy something, then go for it.
I would be even more worried about me doing a button hole in red...as I say...I can do them but like them to be hidden...purely functional are my buttonholes....not to be shown off...a bit like my belly button.....it did the job, but isn't great to look at! :D:D:D

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Not even with a carnation in it?;)

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Gordon, not even with a diamond the size of a house brick to decorate it!

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Well I've tried to find a shop next to or near Arden Inn which looks like it might have a sewing lady but none exist.

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Its gone mate we used to use it, so we moved to the woman on Church St.

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She's OK on Church street but wouldn't do a button hole.

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Sorry for misleading you Russell, shows how long it is since I have been on that stretch of road to notice.

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No problem Margaret.
It's only recently she moved.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Russell I've contacted my cousin's wife and she does not do button holes. It was worth a try

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Thank you Frank.
Worth a try.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Gremlin it is clear from the replies to your apparently simple question that you have demonstrated how skills that were both common and easily accessed have now become difficult to find. Whilst I cannot point you at a particular person I do have two suggestions which might help.

1) If you have a local professional or amateur theatre group try to contact the person who looks after their costumes they may be willing and able to help, they often have to alter clothing.

2) Look around for someone who has a fairly modern sewing machine and is willing to spend a few minutes practising. When my parents were down-sizing in the 80's my mother decided to replace her old and trusty Singer sewing machine with a modern table-top one which could be packed away when not in use. I can remember some of her comments as she worked her way bemused through the half inch thick manual which described all the 'clever' things it could do., one of these was button-holes. If you can find someone with one of these machines there is a good chance they have not fully read its manual and are unaware of its full capability.

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I'll PM you Gremlin and put you in touch with Jack Gee, well known around town. Ex McKno's tailor retired now but still does the odd job or three.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Thanks DtheP.
Im dropping the jacket off with him later.
I bet I will know him when I see him, I had a few suits made at McKno's years ago.
And thanks to everbody else for their suggestions.

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Glad you are sorted Russell.

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Most people know Jack, top geezer.;)

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Too right he’s a top geezer. Was my husband’s best mate when they were in their prime. He was his Best Man at our wedding, has visited us here in South Australia and we stayed a few days with him and Dorothy in 2012. Often talk on the phone.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Apparently there is a man on Rawtenstall market who does alterations etc, a friend of mine has recently taken an old suuit to be altered to him. Not Hyndburn I know but thought it might help!

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Jack has made the button hole for me Dotti.
He said news travels fast and now half of Australia knows.
I had a few minutes chat with him and you were mentioned.

Also thanks to DtheP for suggesting I contact Jack.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Hi Gremlin. Good that Jack was able to make the button-hole for you. It's certainly a small world, you just never know who knows who....

...and I'll bet he didn't mention any of the things him and his nibs got up to in their misspent youth.

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Just shows dotti, i have known jack since i worked wi him in 1963, never knew he was a tailor,in a previous life. n dorothy i went junior school with, small world as yeh say.;)

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Hi Cashman. I thought that Jack was always a tailor, didn't know him to be anything else but.

Did you also know that he was a boxer when he was in the army, and was a brilliant bebopper in his youth. His nibs tells me that on one occasion the whole ballroom (Rawtenstall Astoria) stopped to watch Jack strut his stuff - lots of happy memories.

Re: Sewing person needed.
 

Talking of dancing, music and so on, I used to tell my kids the music they listened to was rubbish - until they pointed out that songs in my era included such as 'Ooh Bop She Bam She Doodlebop'....enough said! Now I'm REALLY showing my age.....

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...and as usual I've wandered off thread and this has nothing at all to do with sewing a buttonhole.

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Nah dotti in 63 i was a butcher fer Slingers @ Load Of Mischief, Jack was a driver fer em.;)

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Jack told me he worked as a tailor for McKno for 40 odd years.

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Well that's something I didn't know, Cashman. Didn't know he had at one stage exchanged needle and thread for a steering wheel. We were in Australia by then.

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Yes, that's what I thought, Gremlin. Maybe he did a bit of driving on the side, or the other way round.

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Next time we phone him I'll ask him about his double life....ha ha.

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Yeh must dotti, he worked full time fer slingers in 63, so 40 yrs he must be 120 ish.:D i think Mcnos finished late 60s/early 70s.

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Ol & Dotti

Jacks always done various driving jobs used to deliver a lot for a couple of butchers in the old market hall. I guess that came about with his link through Slingers. I'll ask him. ;)

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I knew the name jack Gee, and I remember a driver working for Slingers of that name.....didn't know it was the same chap although he would be the right age.
This was circa 1963.