I like a 29-inch inseam on my trousers. I hate it when pants drag along the ground and become tattered, though that’s what most of the young men today seem to prefer – ragged pant bottoms. But it’s hard to find pants with 29-inch inseams, most are 30-inches or more,
So, get them altered, right? Not if you want to pay a tailor almost as much for hemming as you did for the original price of the pants. Hemming a pair of pants today costs from $10 (good luck) to as much as $20 and that’s if you can find someone to do it.
There was a time not so long ago when folks sewed and altered their own clothes with a Singer sewing machine. My grandmother had a manual Singer which she pumped with a pedal. My Mom had an electric one. I remember when we bought it. Everyone gathered round and oohed and aahed. It was like getting your first set of encyclopedias. I remember in third grade we had a Thanksgiving school play, and Mom made my entire costume out of a green satin. I was to play the part of a Pilgrim, and all the kids’ moms made their own costumes.
When we first married, Nancy and I also invested in a Singer. I think it was about sixty bucks. Back then, nearly every household owned a sewing machine. When I began working for Leggett in Barracks Road, one of the biggest departments in the store was Fabrics. They sold fabrics for clothing, drapes and upholstery and they were constantly busy, spreading bolts of colorful fabrics out to cut for various creations from a Singer sewing machine.
Singer have been around for quite a while, since 1851 to be exact. During WWII, the Singer factories ceased making sewing machines and switched to army equipment, including M7 sights for anti-aircraft guns. After the war, Singer began kicking out reasonably priced, electric sewing machines and nearly every household in the country had one. Lots of folks made their own clothes.
But no more.
Today, there’s not an inch of fabric at Belk’s (formerly Leggett’s) and it’s hard to find a seamstress to take in a pair of slacks or even sew on a button. It’s easier to just buy a new pair.
