Pocket square project...

[kingvlad]

Does anyone have suggestions or advice in regards to locating a seamstress? I recently inherited a collection of vintage, printed silk / cotton scarves and was hoping to have them cut and finished as pocket squares. My tailor noted that I needed to find an apt seamstress capable of hand-rolling both silk and cotton edges. I am located in the Columbus, OH area but would be willing to ship the scarves to be finished as long as the price did not become extraordinary.

Moreover, is their a market for unique pocket squares? As in, as I would be creating three or four squares per scarf, would the Styleforum community be interested in purchasing the "doubles?"

Thank you for any time and input!

Nick

 

[ShayaEXQT]

Post pictures please!

 

[kingvlad]

I apologize in advance for the quality of the photographs—I do not have any camera save my iPod at school.

The first scarf is not true to life as far as color. In reality, it is much less blue and much more red / pink. Somewhere between purple, fuschia, and magenta (the second image is a much closer match). The print is in white. The edges are hand-rolled and the tag reads as follows: Glentey, 100% SILK, hand rolled, MADE IN JAPAN.





Scarf #2 is my personal favorite. It is much heavier silk, and the print is spectacular. The color matches the second picture well, with the electric blue silk and navy / white print. The label reads "MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN BY Jacqmar, LONDON ENGLAND, 100% SILK."





The third scarf is by ECHO. Like the first, the material is lighter; however, the label reads "ECHO, 70% CHINON TO-0001, 30% SILK, DRY CLEAN ONLY, MADE IN JAPAN." The color, in real life, is a warmer, olive tone on a white or ecru background.





The next scarf is labeled "ALL COTTON, MACHINE WASHABLE, DO NOT BLEACH, MADE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA" and has machine stitched edges. The colors are red, brown, cream, and bottle green. The outer squares of different shades are created by overlapping green and brown, red and brown, and all three colors.



This scarf is, quote, "A Burmel ORIGINAL, HAND PRINTED, ALL COTTON HAND ROLLED, MADE IN JAPAN." It is almost transparent, hence the check pattern that you can see through it (that of the chair). This scarf is lime green, pink, reddish brown, green, and white.





The next scarf, in natural, blue, and brown, has the label "SYMPHONY SCARVES, MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN." I am not sure of the material, but it feels more like cotton; however, it has a shine not unlike silk. The texture is my favorite feature, as all of the stitching is raised. The edges are hand rolled.

 

[kingvlad]

Pictures posted.

 

[JumpinHowie]

Those look great. I cant wait to see how they turn out. If you could alos let us know how much it ends up costing you per pocket square that would be nice.

 

[kingvlad]

Will do. Still having trouble finding a seamstress that I can get to. However, once completed (and hopefully they will be soon), I'll post pics, costs, and hopefully a few extras for sale (because it is silly to have two or three versions of the same square. Any advice from anyone else is still greatly appreciated!

 

[Sanguis Mortuum]

Hand-rolled edges are quite specialist work, I would make sure to get an example of a particular persons work before getting them to turn all of those into pocket-squares. Maybe have them do a single square first.

Alternatively, maybe you could see whether Sam Hober would be willing to convert them for a price, a long as posting them to Thailand and back wouldn't be too expensive.

 

[Maccimus]



Hand-rolled edges are quite specialist work, .

Really? My mother checked a talbot PS, practiced for about 15 minutes and then quickly hand rolled one for me. The first one is definitely not perfect but I'd say quite passable.

 

[Sanguis Mortuum]

Hand-rolled edges are quite specialist work, .

Really? My mother checked a talbot PS, practiced for about 15 minutes and then quickly hand rolled one for me. The first one is definitely not perfect but I'd say quite passable.

I suppose it's probably not too difficult for someone who has sewing experience, but it may be difficult to find someone willing to take the time to do it properly; it can a couple of hours or more to do an entire pocket-square, and for someone who hasn't hand-rolled edges before it may take even longer.

 

[Sam Hober]



I suppose it's probably not too difficult for someone who has sewing experience, but it may be difficult to find someone willing to take the time to do it properly; it can a couple of hours or more to do an entire pocket-square, and for someone who hasn't hand-rolled edges before it may take even longer.

You are 100% correct.

To make an OK pocket square is not that hard if you have talent, but to make a luxury pocket square takes making hundreds of practice ones under the supervision of an expert, and then it takes 2+ hours to make each pocket square on average.

Currently there are only a very few luxury pocket square makers in the world.