Made to measure

This is a small part of the week, and it is simple on purpose. We cut a shirt, a plain pair of trousers, a straight skirt, or a day dress, to your measures, from a pattern this room already knows. We do not make haute couture. We do not cut wedding gowns, corsetry, or a jacket with a canvassed chest.

If you want a copy of a dress from a show or a particular designer’s pattern, we will say no at the start. It saves both of us a fitting. Altering a jacket you already own is on the repairs page. Cutting you a new one is not.

The four things we cut

A shirt has a collar, a plain cuff or a short sleeve, a curved hem, and a chest pocket or none. No western yoke, no pleated front, no contrast fabric that has to be matched like a costume. House cotton is included in the ₪520 price. Two fittings are included. From the day we cut, allow about twelve working days.

Trousers are flat front or a single pleat, with side pockets, belt loops, and a plain hem. No jeans pattern. We alter jeans; we do not draft new ones. The room’s short list of wool is included in the ₪980 price. Your own cloth, if we accept it, is the making charge of ₪760, cloth not included. About fifteen working days from the cut.

A skirt is straight, or a gentle A-line, with a side zip or a back zip and a waistband. House cloth is ₪680. Making only, if you bring cloth we accept, is ₪480. About twelve working days.

A day dress has a waist seam, a set-in sleeve or a short sleeve cut simply, and no boning, no built-in bra we have to engineer, and no train. Cotton or linen from the house is ₪1,450. Making only is ₪1,180. About eighteen working days, and four more if we decide a toile is necessary. We will say that at the first fitting, not halfway through the cloth you paid for.

All of those prices include VAT at 18%. On the ₪1,180 making charge, the VAT is ₪180.00 exactly and the amount before VAT is ₪1,000. On ₪520, the VAT is ₪79.32. House cloth means the plain cottons, linens, and the short list of wool we keep, not any cloth in the city.

How a fitting actually goes

Fittings are by appointment, Sunday to Thursday, between 13:00 and 17:00. They are not walk-in, and they are not on Friday or Saturday. The first meeting is measures, a conversation about the collar or the pleat, and the cloth. If you own a shirt or a pair of trousers that already fits you, bring it. We will not copy a logo or a designer’s cut. We will use it as a clue: where you like the shoulder, how long you like the cuff, whether you sit down in the trousers or only stand in them.

We write the measures on a paper pattern with your name. That paper is personal information. How long we keep it, and how to ask us to destroy it, is on the privacy page. You pay 40% when we cut, because the cloth cannot go back on the bolt. The rest is paid when you collect. If a dress shape is uncertain, the next appointment is a toile, in calico, and only then do we cut the cloth you chose. A shirt usually needs two fittings, not three. The second one is the shirt itself, with enough seam left to change a shoulder if we were wrong.

The hem of a dress or a pair of trousers is finished in the shoes you bring to the last fitting. The same rule as the hems page: the shoe is part of the length. If you miss a fitting, the date moves. We do not guess a hem the night before you need the garment. Two missed fittings and we will ask you to book again from the next free afternoon, not to “squeeze in” on a Friday.

Tell us the date you need the garment when you book the first fitting. Twelve working days is not twelve calendar days, and it is not “a week and a bit” if that week contains a Friday drop and a Saturday. Count Sunday to Thursday only. If the date cannot be met, we will say so before we cut, when the 40% has not yet been paid. Once the cloth is cut, the date can move if you miss a fitting, and the cloth is yours.

To start, write the garment, that it is made-to-measure rather than a repair, and the date. Wait for a reply with an afternoon. The message itself is not the appointment. What to send.