Choosing Your Maker

Some questions from newer folk lately have sparked my own ruminations, and I thought it was about time to do a Part The Second to an older post about Why Things Cost Money.

Hiring sewing work done is a 100% historically accurate thing to do! In the mid-19th century, regular working class women (and certainly middle class and higher) did not do every stitch of their own sewing (unless need or preference required it.) Hiring a sewist for all of the work, or part of the work, is entirely bog-common.

(For some fun reading, check out Carrie Williams’ diary detailing her at-home work, found in “So Much To Be Done“, edited by Ruth Moynihan. Awesome book. And Carrie is just tremendously personable.)

(That link to the book is strictly courtesy; I don’t have affiliate linking. Probably ought to look into that? But when I share a link, you can be confident it’s done from admiration, not pecuniary consideration.) (Also, you can get hardbacks for under $8 and paperbacks for under $6, including shipping. This is an *awesome* book and you should probably just order a copy.)

So, when hiring sewing work done in the form of purchasing a finished wardrobe item, what are some things to keep in mind?

Recommendations

Asking others for their preferred makers for X item is a great way to refine the vast options you might find in a Google search. You can usually get honest assessments and tips, too. But beware of blanket endorsements. No individual is “The Best” at every single aspect of mid-century wardrobes and material culture, and their quality may change over time.

I get uncomfortable if someone recommends me with “Liz is awesome at EVERYTHING! She’ll set you right up!”—because frankly, I’m *not* awesome at everything. I have good dressmaking and fitting skills. I can do some pretty amazing things. But I’m not my first choice for drafting a tailored men’s frock, or building a straw bonnet. I’m still learning in those areas, and won’t do them for other people until I’m a lot further along!

Asking others for recommendations can lead you to lesser-known makers who don’t advertise widely, and that can be an absolute treasure! Many makers keep their client list small for excellent reasons, and a personal introduction to one of these private makers can bless your historical work for decades to come.

Take a close look at the standards of the person doing the recommendation. Not everyone has the same goals and baseline as you. If you want your own standards met, you’ll need to get recommendations from those who share that standard. If you want to upgrade, look for notes from those whose living history impressions make you envious along historical accuracy lines. If your goal is to look like you stepped out of the past, don’t heed recommendations from people who look like they stepped out of the Gunsmoke Extras Cabinet.

Take a close look at a maker’s *current* work. It’s a simple fact of humanity that sometimes quality goes downhill over time, through aging or hiring out work or infirmity or laxity or sheer boredom or lack of research application. There are some makers who were considered top-notch ten years ago–but whom I cannot recommend now, because they’ve taken too many shortcuts, produced poor results, and similar frustrating situations. I don’t exempt myself from the push to Keep Improving… that’s half the fun of providing resources! Keeping up a good standard, and pushing the envelope both keep me engaged as a maker. Look for someone with the same engagement!

Visual Comparison

Even with a positive recommendation to an engaged maker, know what you’re looking at before committing to a purchase. I’m always better impressed with a maker when they show me original/extant items side-by-side with their repro piece, and they compare very, very closely.

By “closely”, I’m looking for something that’d be identical, but for a patina of age (our repro items should be appropriately aged for the use they’d have in our target year, which is generally Not Much Aging). I’m looking for the same proportions as the original. I’m looking for the same materials, manipulated the same way. I’m looking for compatibility in internal and external construction techniques. Even if something is a composite reproduction, incorporating features from multiple extant pieces, I want to see the pieces replicated closely, and with consideration and coherent logic.

There are many things that can bump a maker off my list on the visual comparison component. Using modern saris (because they often have charming border print styles) for 1850s border print tiered dresses is rarely successful. While they’re both involving border print elements, modern saris aren’t made in mid-19th century print motifs. And since my criterion is “match it closely”, that’s going to fail for me, and I’ll use a different maker. I’m always going to have the key elements of mid-century fabric styles in my mind; if an otherwise-well-made dress fails at fabric style, that’s sadly going to be off my list… and I’ll probably look very carefully before buying other items from the same maker, since we may have a fundamental priority mis-match.

Critical Questions

It is always appropriate to ask a maker questions.

I’m not talking about asking them to give away their favorite fabric sources, or to give you free lessons in how they make things. Those are professional resources that you should expect to pay for, and even then, they may not be for sale.

I’m talking about questions like, “Can you tell me about the interior construction? What features does this item have, and are they commonly supported in original primary sources? Can you point me toward some of the references you’ve used?”

If you’re asking for references, expect them to be able to refer to two or three in the public sphere. Sometimes people hide behind “in private collection”, then do atypical things, and never will divulge even a single image of their proprietary sourcing. I tend to feel (and this is maybe harsh, but it’s realistic) that this “only private sources no one can look at” attitude is pretty iffy, and even when I’ve got a lot of proprietary sources in my stash of info, I’ll want to make sure there are several readily accessible to the public, to which I can point them for their own inquiry.

Another critical question to ask yourself, and your possible maker, is “Does this item really support my historic goals?” A top-notch maker will want to know your interpretive needs and activity needs, as well as personal preferences, so they can hone in on the specific range of work they provide that best suits your actual needs. They’ll even try to talk you out of buying something from them if it’s not right for you goals.

Beware a maker who tries to justify selling you something they have on hand, versus what would be truly right for your needs. “It’s here” is not a valid purchase reason if the item doesn’t meet your need criteria!

Budget Considerations

Consider that just about half of anything you pay to a maker is immediately eaten up with taxes and business expenses burdening the small proprietor. The other half buys supplies to make the item you want, keeps the lights on, and buys the pizza and ramen and avocado toast. If a maker meets your needs for the Big Three Considerations above, don’t give them grief about charging skilled rates for the labor you’re asking of them. If you need to save up for the purchase, do so.

I recommend getting a reloadable pre-paid debit card, and squirreling funds onto that card as often as possible. A few dollars here and there will net you a neat nest egg toward useful purchases, and you can use it on-line very easily, as well as in person.

Here’s to the Makers! They make specialty hobbies a whole lot easier!