Getting Clothes Made

The benefits of living in a 3^rd world country (for me at least) is the availability and affordability of getting clothes custom made for me. I am not a picky person when it comes to clothing except that I want them to fit properly.

A trick that I have learned about myself is I need to know what I am going to look for or else I end up buying almost everything.  Before I went to the fabric market the last time I printed out several pictures of dresses and skirts that I wanted to recreate. I then began thinking about what type of material I wanted to buy (if I could find it locally or if it would be considered an imported material).  Then I could set out with list in hand how many yards I would need for each outfit. For me, 1 yard can make a skirt or a short sleeve shirt. And 2 – 2 ½ yards will make a dress, depending on how long the dress.

There is an area in Freetown called Fabric alley. It is a very narrow street overflowing with colorful fabric being hung from every place possible! There are local vendors on both sides in homemade stalls yelling and trying to attract the attention from any passersby to sell their fabric. Behind the stalls are actually small locally owned fabric shops. These shops are fairly dark inside due to the lack of electricity in the area and the only source of natural light is being blocked by the venders outside. Personally, I prefer to buy off the streets because the prices seem to be cheaper and the quality is the same.

My latest fabric shopping adventure I set out on I was quickly engulfed in the amount of choices that I had. Although I originally said that I am not picky, I am selective when it comes to the material that I buy. Several materials here are 100% cotton but feel more like plastic and are very stiff. The market women try and convince me that after several washes that the material will be as soft as my H&M shirt that I am wearing. Yeah, I don’t believe that.  I searched through several beautiful patterned selections and often came up empty handed but that didn't discourage me, I just walked 2 steps over to the next woman selling fabric. There are hundreds, if not thousands of patterns to choose from. It can become slightly overwhelming.

Fabrics found here are local fabrics from the providence to Ghanaian to other West African countries. Each country has a descent style and color pattern used and are easily identifiable from others.  I knew I wanted several Sierra Leonean fabrics but I also wanted the traditional Ghanaian fabric as part of a piece for a dress.

After looking at over a hundred pieces of different materials, some passed my inspection and then the bargaining began.  Bargaining is a skill that I have not honed to perfection so I typically leave it to either my driver, Kofi to deal with or my husband. While they are doing the negotiations I slide off to investigate the surrounding materials in other stalls just in case the price does not come to where I think it should. The local material I was able to get to the price that I wanted 10,000 Leones ($2.33) per yard (a few were put to 8,000 Leones ($1.86)). The Ghanaian fabric however was much more expensive but I wanted it so bad I didn’t care. I ended up paying 15,000 Leones ($3.49) per yard.  To me, knowing exactly what I was looking for made the selections easier, but that doesn’t mean that extra fabric here and there didn’t slip in. This has turned into one of my addictions.  

When I am looking for specific hard to find materials (such as jean and silk) I go to EuroTex. It is a fabric store two street in front of the fabric market. This has a huge selection of imported fabric from silk to lace to jean to sheer material and everything in between.  Things here are on average more expensive than the street prices, but at the same time, this is the only place you can find this.  I ended up leaving EuroText with silk and jean material both were at the price of 12,000 Leones ($2.79) per yard.

Once back home I immediately called my personal tailor to meet me at my house to collect everything I had so he could create the masterpieces that I would soon wear! He arrived at my house with a notebook in hand (I warned him it was going to be a lot). I had each piece laid out on the table with the print off of the dress I wanted to replicate on top. This must have been the easiest job he had ever had. There was no guessing explaining of what I wanted. There was a picture and he was to make it exactly like that. After he took my measurements, he took Jackson’s and Mo’s also. They were getting matching pants to wear on the beach together. So cute, huh?

We explained several times (no picture for these…stupid me) what we wanted these pants to look like. Extremely loose, long baggy beach pants with a drawstring in the front. There was to be no buttons and no formal crease line in the front. Simple enough, right?

The clothes came back and mine were almost perfect! A take in here and a let out there but the styles were exactly what I wanted! I couldn’t have been happier! Mo and Jackson’s pants though were a different story. They looked like dress pants with a perfectly pressed crease on the front of them, they were tight and too short. After re-explaining to the tailor (again, I didn’t print off a picture) what we wanted he took the pants back and tried again. A few days later he arrived back with my dresses that fit like a glove and Mo and Jackson’s pants that were…better but not right still.  Jackson’s pants were doable and he can wear them around the house. Mo’s pants, on the other hand, were still too tight! Back to the drawing board for the poor tailor. The third and final time we got the pants back Mo accepted them. They are now not beach pants but “wear around the house ONLY” pants. I think they look good, but the material has left tell-tell signs of being continuously let out. The scar from each stitch that was removed is visible if you look closely.

The total cost: 5 dresses + 1 skirt + 1 shirt + 2 Jackson’s pants + 2 Mo’s pants = 340,000 Leones ($79)

Material cost: 240,000 Leones ($55)

Total Cost: 580,000 Leones ($134) …………………Oh a side note, there is still enough material for at least two or three more dresses!

To me, this was and is amazing! I am going to make 2 outfits a month from him.