Lynne in Sierra Leone: Handbags and Glad Rags (part two)

Moving on from the handbags it’s time to look at the glad rags.

African prints are amazing for their brightness and bold patterns. On every corner in Freetown there is a small wooden shed housing tailors with very old foot pedal sewing machines. From these most unlikely places appear the most gorgeous outfits and I know as I have one!

Before coming I had been told that there would be many opportunities to have clothes made from scratch or from copying some favourite items. At the bottom of the main Siaka Stevens Street there is a right hand turn that takes you into Print Alley. Here there are an overwhelming range of fabrics. I have been once so far but it is a bit of a TK Maxx experience as you have to be in the mood to work your way through the packed stalls. My hand was forced on this however when I was invited to a wedding! Yes here for only one month and I was already off to a wedding.

Who was getting married? The son of a lady at work but more of that in the next post as for the moment I want to concentrate on the frock.

What material to choose? What design? How do you choose a tailor? Oh the worries. The first question was answered easily as there is a tradition here called asheobi where people representing with bride or groom all wear the same fabric. The mother of the groom therefore provided me with the lappas (that’s the measurement of cloth).

The next step was the tailor. Luckily one of the secretaries at work was willing to share hers so on Thursday afternoon (the wedding being the following Wednesday) the tailors assistant appeared in my office to take the measurements. This was all a trifle confusing as I had no idea what style I wanted so he took random measurements for bust, waist, hips, length of dress, sleeve and depth of neckline. He was then dispatched to come back with a book of designs. Oh my when that appeared it was mind boggling. I randomly picked a short style thinking that it would be the shape that was copied and not any of the design features. Oh dear that is where I went wrong.

Monday came and still no dress. I asked about it and was soundly told off for picking something too complicated given the time constraint. Complicated? It looked simple enough to me. Tuesday provided the answer when it arrived. There was an interesting satin section on the front that I did not expect. This had been in the design I picked but I never thought the tailor would attempt to reproduce it as it involved alternating strips of ribbon fabric. Undeterred I tried it on - low and behold it nearly fitted- slightly tight across the chest but that was easily fixed as there was lots of extra fabric in the seams. When the finished frock appeared the office was in uproar with cries of “Mabinty I like your style” coming down the corridor as I tried it on to show all the women and men! Not too short and they loved the front section. All this for an all-in cost of Le 76,000 (£11.50).

So what does it look like? Here you are the views of the front and back (nicely hung from the washing line) and finally me wearing it.