Wanna restyle your old favourite trousers or mend a heart-breaking hole in a much loved dress? Or tweak those shirts or tops that are an extra two inches wide, without getting dirty looks from your regular tailor?
Take a walk to Devaswom Board Junction, where a small-time tailoring shop, run by Baiju (aka Santhosh Kumar), his wife Savitha and uncle Suku, specialises in repairing old clothes. Be it a button that has come off, a worn out collar of a shirt, a sleeve that is too long, a trouser that is too wide, a shirt damaged by a cigarette, a jeans that need tapering, a pocket that developed a hole, a dress with a broken zip - Baiju and team work magic on them, with the finished product looking as good as new.
‘’Well, we started out stitching new clothes, like any other tailoring shop. But good tailors, like good masons, are now becoming a rare breed here in town. And, they are too busy to be bothered about old clothes. It was my customers themselves who suggested that I focus more on repairing clothes,’’ says Baiju. The idea became a hit.
The shop, Sreekumar Tailors, was set up by Baiju’s father Chandrasekharan Thampi, nearly sixty years ago, exactly at the same spot where it stands now. Chandrasekharan Thampi, who is now over 80 years of age, has problems with his eyesight and is confined to his home at Keraladithyapuram.
What comes seeking Baiju’s attention the most are old worn-out collars of expensive shirts. ‘’We just take the collar out from the shirt, turn it inside out, restitch it in, and the shirt will be as good as new. Earlier on, the shirts used to come with a plastic rib inside the collar to keep them stiff, but now it’s mostly soft collars, making restitching easy,’’ explains Baiju.
Restyling jeans is also Baiju’s area of expertise, whatever be the original cut. For fixing small holes, he uses an extra piece of cloth, paper and reweaves the old one with new threads.
One wash and the soaked paper would disintegrate, but it not only saves the jeans, but makes it look real gud. Baiju claims his rates for darning are much lower than what is charged usually.
Even while taking off that extra few inches from a jeans, Baiju’s technique of cutting out the extra length after saving the tail end, and then locking in that saved tail piece, makes the alteration appear totally invisible. Not only what is seen outside, but the stitches inside and the seam work also speaks volumes of the man’s commitment.
But how bad is it working with old clothes, after having worked with new ones, we ask Baiju’s uncle, who has been a tailor for over 40 years now. ‘’Oh, initially, it was pretty tough, but now I have got used to it. What I dread, however, is turning shirts inside out. This takes as much effort as stitching a new one,’’ says Suku.
At times, when customers bring in old clothes, they forget about the condition of the fabric, chips in Savitha, Baiju’s wife. ‘’At times, the material is so old that it would disintegrate and there is no point in putting in so much work for such material,’’ she says.
Normally, Baiju takes about four days to one week for one alteration work.
‘’We also provide same-day service for customers who are willing to wait for a little while. I also maintain a register of contact numbers of customers so that I can let them know as and when I finish,’’ says Baiju, while attending to a customer who almost lost a mobile phone that slipped out through his torn shirt pocket.