I'm sure you're wondering what I want to write about mobile tailors but my dear readers, I saw something and that's what I want to show you or better still tell you but I'm sure most of you if not all must have had even the tiniest experience with them.
I never thought I would write about this until one day...before I get to the point, let me start from the beginning. Mobile tailors are called by different names depending on the preference of the caller. Some people call them obioma (good heart), ejikanishop (shoulder is the shop, my favorite name) but for the purpose of this article, they are mobile tailors. They're the ones with their machines on their shoulders and you know they're just around the corner when you hear the sound of their scissors as they open and close it.
I usually make use of their services because the nature of their job allows them go from house to house hence home service. Another reason is because it gives me the opportunity to make adjustments on a lot of clothes at a very low cost. I can also try out the adjusted piece of clothing and return it back immediately for re-adjustment if necessary. For many other reasons aside the ones I mentioned, I prefer them to the ones who have a shop.
I've made use of very good ones, the ones I consider very sharp. I tell them once, they get it once without having to re-adjust. Sometimes I even have to get their phone numbers and unfortunately, some of them don't have phones. I've also made use of the not-so-good ones, the ones you have to give a three-day lecture in less than thirty minutes and they would still do the wrong thing and re-adjust it more than five times until the wearer gets tired of testing and testing then gives up on them.
Of all the not-so-good ones I've used, there is this one that I think deserves a trophy for his unproductivity. He was the one who inspired this write up. It happened on the 12th of this month, it was a Saturday. My mum needed one of them to help her make one of her jean trousers fit and I also had some trousers to slim fit. Prior to that day, I collected the number of the last tailor I used because I considered him to be very smart as a result of the work he did for me that day. So I told her this then she said I should call him and I did but he didn't show up even when we already fixed a time. Plan B was to be initiated which was to look out for other tailors, we also told one of the shop attendants in front of the house to make our search easier.
Some hours later, the shop attendant brought in a tailor but my mum had already gone out so I decided to give him my own stuffs. I gave him three trousers to re-adjust but I gave him another one that fit perfectly so he'd use its measurement for the rest. He was a very old man which was rather unusual and he spoke english like an ibo man so I concluded he was an old ibo man. As if that wasn't weird enough, he did something I had not seen any other mobile tailor do. When mobile tailors want to call out their clients, they do the scissors thing but this man called me "madam" instead. I responded and went to meet him, he wrote on the ground with chalk calculating the amount of clothing he would have to deduct from the actual ones I gave him. That was the first time I saw someone write with chalk on the floor just to slimfit and I was quite impressed though startled because I thought he was being professional in his own way. It was just some minutes past five at the time so we negotiated the price and reached a consensus. I went back in to keep doing whatever. An hour passed and I told my brother to go check on him to make sure he hasn't been trying to call me, he said no. I slept, woke, slept, woke, checked my time, it was already past seven. I went to check on him quickly and saw that he was still on it, I was astonished. I went back inside to rest. After almost thirty minutes, he was done so I paid him without trying them on because I had already lost interest. Some minutes later, I decided to try them on and discovered that this man adjusted only one properly, the rest weren't manageable. I wasn't even angry, I just kept wondering what the markings on the ground was for if he still ended up producing something like that. He spent three hours trying to slimfit three trousers so I figured he spent an hour on one, lol, I'm still laughing now. It wasn't like I gave him a fresh material to sew me a skirt and blouse or a dress so why would he take forever to slimfit and wouldn't even do it well.
Slow and steady didn't win the race after all, if he had been fast and made mistakes, I'd have tried them out and he'd have re-adjusted but no, he took the whole day. I'd have to get another tailor to re-adjust them, what is worth doing at all is worth doing well and this is the end of my story.
*draws curtain*
Facebook - Odusola Aanuoluwapo
Twitter - @odusolar
BBM - 2ACA8612
I never thought I would write about this until one day...before I get to the point, let me start from the beginning. Mobile tailors are called by different names depending on the preference of the caller. Some people call them obioma (good heart), ejikanishop (shoulder is the shop, my favorite name) but for the purpose of this article, they are mobile tailors. They're the ones with their machines on their shoulders and you know they're just around the corner when you hear the sound of their scissors as they open and close it.
I usually make use of their services because the nature of their job allows them go from house to house hence home service. Another reason is because it gives me the opportunity to make adjustments on a lot of clothes at a very low cost. I can also try out the adjusted piece of clothing and return it back immediately for re-adjustment if necessary. For many other reasons aside the ones I mentioned, I prefer them to the ones who have a shop.
I've made use of very good ones, the ones I consider very sharp. I tell them once, they get it once without having to re-adjust. Sometimes I even have to get their phone numbers and unfortunately, some of them don't have phones. I've also made use of the not-so-good ones, the ones you have to give a three-day lecture in less than thirty minutes and they would still do the wrong thing and re-adjust it more than five times until the wearer gets tired of testing and testing then gives up on them.
Some hours later, the shop attendant brought in a tailor but my mum had already gone out so I decided to give him my own stuffs. I gave him three trousers to re-adjust but I gave him another one that fit perfectly so he'd use its measurement for the rest. He was a very old man which was rather unusual and he spoke english like an ibo man so I concluded he was an old ibo man. As if that wasn't weird enough, he did something I had not seen any other mobile tailor do. When mobile tailors want to call out their clients, they do the scissors thing but this man called me "madam" instead. I responded and went to meet him, he wrote on the ground with chalk calculating the amount of clothing he would have to deduct from the actual ones I gave him. That was the first time I saw someone write with chalk on the floor just to slimfit and I was quite impressed though startled because I thought he was being professional in his own way. It was just some minutes past five at the time so we negotiated the price and reached a consensus. I went back in to keep doing whatever. An hour passed and I told my brother to go check on him to make sure he hasn't been trying to call me, he said no. I slept, woke, slept, woke, checked my time, it was already past seven. I went to check on him quickly and saw that he was still on it, I was astonished. I went back inside to rest. After almost thirty minutes, he was done so I paid him without trying them on because I had already lost interest. Some minutes later, I decided to try them on and discovered that this man adjusted only one properly, the rest weren't manageable. I wasn't even angry, I just kept wondering what the markings on the ground was for if he still ended up producing something like that. He spent three hours trying to slimfit three trousers so I figured he spent an hour on one, lol, I'm still laughing now. It wasn't like I gave him a fresh material to sew me a skirt and blouse or a dress so why would he take forever to slimfit and wouldn't even do it well.
Slow and steady didn't win the race after all, if he had been fast and made mistakes, I'd have tried them out and he'd have re-adjusted but no, he took the whole day. I'd have to get another tailor to re-adjust them, what is worth doing at all is worth doing well and this is the end of my story.
*draws curtain*
Facebook - Odusola Aanuoluwapo
Twitter - @odusolar
BBM - 2ACA8612
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