Why I did it at all
I wanted wide-leg trousers. Specifically, I wanted something between two pairs I had seen on a runway — the volume of one, the pleating of the other. Nothing in shops came close, and the designer versions were priced for someone with a different income. So I found a maker and hired her directly.
What I got right
- I knew exactly what I wanted. Two reference images, and I could point at which element I wanted from each.
- I started with something low-stakes. Trousers, not a wedding dress. If they had gone wrong I would have lost a modest sum and learned something.
- I picked colours I would actually wear. One yellow, one blue, both intended to work with tops I already owned.
What I got wrong
I sent photographs and a conversation. I did not send a specification. Looking back, that is the entire lesson.
A photograph does not say how high the waist sits on me. It does not say whether the pleats are pressed or soft, whether there is a lining, how wide the hem should be, or what the closure is. Every one of those was left to be inferred, and inference is where custom work goes wrong — not through anyone's incompetence, but because two people looked at the same image and pictured different garments.
The single most useful thing you can do before commissioning anything is write down the parts a photograph cannot show: measurements, closure, lining, exact finished length, and fabric weight.
What I would do differently
- Send measurements up front, taken properly, rather than a size.
- Agree the fabric before starting, including weight — wide-leg trousers in a fabric that is too light lose all their structure.
- Ask for a photograph mid-construction, before the hem is finished. Cheap insurance, especially with a remote maker.
- Write the brief down. Not because anyone is untrustworthy, but because writing it forces you to decide things you had not realised were undecided.
Would I do it again
Yes, and I have. The economics work: for roughly what a mid-range retail garment costs, you get something cut for your body in a fabric you chose. The barrier is never the money or the availability of makers — there are skilled people everywhere who would like the work. The barrier is knowing how to ask.
That is the whole reason this tool exists. It writes the document I should have sent in the first place.