One gimp please

Today we started on the button hole. For the first couple of weeks I kept saying to myself "when am I going to get good?" cause things were just going really slow and my stitching wasn’t the best. But the button holes just clicked with me, I’m a natural. To continue practicing at home I was going to need some gimp.

To sew a buttonhole first you punch a circular hole in your layers of fabric and from here cut a straight line the length of the button hole. Then you sew around the raw edges with any old thread and finally sew over this with a thicker thread called gimp. We were told you could buy this in a shop called William Gee in Dalston. The shop is dark and grimy and has bars on the window. I’m not sure how I feel about going into a place called Gee that resembles a dungeon and asking for a gimp. "Bring out the gimp!"

We also worked on felling some lining. I like felling, it’s an easy stitch and lining is nice to work with. I had to leave college early to get to work though. I told them at the interview that I would be busy til 1 on Wednesday and 5 on Thursday and Friday and they were kind enough to not put me down until half 5 Friday. At the end of the evening they brought down a load of cans of fosters and had a little meeting to tell us that the main man wants to cut down a lot on our hours so I’ll probably be needing another job soon. 3 days in and my half-hearted dream of becoming a proper bar man is already in doubt.