Just recently, when I was booked to give a talk, I decided to treat myself to a new vest. A catalog I had never seen before arrived from Serengeti and I loved their clothes. They truly offer elegant-looking products. Settling on a red paisley tapestry vest, I was very eager to receive the item and was thrilled when it arrived. It is a beautiful but very loosely-woven garment and the first defect I noticed was some loose tapestry threads that were still attached at each end, but forming unattractive loops in the bosom area.
I wondered what to do. Time was of the essence. It had taken them quite longer than most companies to ship and time was running out to come up with a replacement, plus I’d have the additional costs involved, even if that meant just schlepping the package to the post office for mailing. Luckily, I remembered a neat little hook, like a miniature latch hook, that works on the same principle. It came from a dismantled industrial machine from the mills in Manchester (perhaps the Pandora Knitting Mills, whose factory outlet store was the site of many a knitted Christmas gift in my family of origin). My student had been given a bunch of the tiny hooks by her aunt (who may have worked there). My memory is foggy because so much time has elapsed since I met this student for just one series of classes she attended at my home years ago. I have found her gift to be very useful. To do the repair, first I had to find this item again. It is only perhaps 1 1/2″ long. Once I located it, I tediously went to work pulling the loose loops to the interior, between the lining fabric and the tapestry threads. It was not an easy task.
The good news is that I wore the vest to the speaking event, and received many compliments. The bad news is that when I took it off, I noticed great raveling at the site of all of the buttonholes. I was not a happy camper. I called Customer Service and they said, “Well, you could have just returned it.” I explained that I did not consider that an option due to the circumstances. I told them to just please take my name off of their customer contact list. For them, the situation was settled.
Today, I realized that I could not live with the raveling buttonholes. I rounded up some red buttonhole twist thread and decided to use my seasoned embroidery skills to repair the damage. I’m half way through the project of stabilizing the holes with many shreds of fibers to try to bundle and tack. It is frustrating and this repair is not my best work but I will be able to wear the vest again… if I keep it buttoned.
I checked the country of manufacture: “China.” The original buttonhole stitches were done by machine and were too short in length to secure the buttonhole. As you know, when a buttonhole is made by machine, it has to be cut, via a razor or sharp scissors. In doing so, someone also clipped the interior edges of the securing stitches, thereby creating the problem.
I can’t help but notice shoddy workmanship. Being a Yankee, (make that a very FRUGAL one), I wanted to keep the vest and fix the problem. I have just one word of advice to Serengeti: Fire your buttonhole maker!
Patricia Cummings, an outspoken critic of inferior academic work and goofy buttonholes
Quilter’s Muse Publications
