Weird fabric in clothes shop

Bought it and hemmed it myself.
I haven’t seen anything like this, but being maxi it seems a good idea to be able to cut to desired length.

She may have had a bad day, but yes she was rude.You can always return another day to buy it.

Thanks Oreo- but who would have the courage to cut it themselves? It was quite a full skirt and and not to the floor.

It hasn't put me off going back in the shop, other staff in there can be very nice but if I see her again I won't go in- is that petty or not?

I would not buy. The assistant was very rude.
It seems to me that the garment/skirt was of shoddy material too.
I check fabric composition of any garment I buy, and I do not buy any made from a by product of the petrochemical industry.
I also check the labels of garments in charity shops.

A good assitant would have acknowledged your question, explained the fabric - special weave, for example or other and then discussed with you how the skirt could be shortened - pinning it up and checking it was even, how to mark the skirt for cutting and whether you needed to turn the rough edge in when you turned the skirt up.

Better still, she should have known the name and details of someone who did alterations and given it to you.

personally I would not return to a shop where the assistant talked to me like this woman talked to you.

Thankyou all. I suppose shopping local isn't all that it's cracked up to be which is a shame because we have no turkish barbers on the high street!

The fabric was cheap and I'm glad now I didn't buy the skirt.

I wore my £8 Windsmoor charity shop coat tonight and everyone said how great it was- so I'll be sticking to them from now on...!

How many shop assistants are able to go into detail on the fabric of the clothes they sell? She could have simply said, 'I don't know anything about the fabric, I just sell the clothes.' You were lucky that she had time to talk to you at all.

Gosh rude or what I ve never come across sonething not finished off and I think that was a load of old guff she was giving you to excuse an unfinished item she was trying to get rid of
Good miss I would think
Coat sounds good Can’t beat a good charity shop not that I m bias of course

mum2three

How many shop assistants are able to go into detail on the fabric of the clothes they sell? She could have simply said, 'I don't know anything about the fabric, I just sell the clothes.' You were lucky that she had time to talk to you at all.

This is a small independent shop with a small number of regular customers. There is rarely anyone else there when I go in and believe me they do talk in detail about the clothes they sell. I've been going in there on and off for years.

Bluebelle no it wasn't a hard sell. I really think some people buy that fabric so they can cut it to fit if they are on the short side. I just never came across this before so maybe they are just going this stuff from China and hoping people won't notice.

Interestingly a young man came in before I left looking for a size ten skirt presumably for a woman in his life- she showed him one similar to mine just as I was leaving. To be fair like a lot of women's fashion shops they don't have may skirts or dresses- just separates which is why I liked the skirt.

Yes, charity shops are my style but we don't have one on our high street since Covid. I have to go further away for the good ones.

On the subject of cutting clothes with sharp scissors/ tailor’s shears, if man made material you can just get away with cutting and not hemming, tho I prefer to hem.
Last year I cut the sleeves by quite a bit on a jumper from M&S that turned out to have sleeves long enough for a gorilla.
I didn’t hem in that case as it looks fine, it won’t unravel as it isn’t wool.

Well maybe it is more common than I thought!

Maybe I've always bought clothes that already fitted me?

I've seen lots of denim skirts and jeans without hems over the last few years - it was a bit of a thing for a while. Some fabrics are plasticized as well, which means it can be cut without it fraying.

I do think the assistant was rude, maybe she was embarrassed at not being able to answer the questions properly. Maybe she didn't understand that you were just curious and thought you were being rude about the clothes. Maybe she's not selling enough to make her commission, or whatever. Who knows.

If it was polyester it could have been laser cut, this melts the fibres which prevents fraying. Simply cutting it won't do this but if the fibres are tightly knitted you may get away with it.

Oh thanks for this info. It's good to know about these innovations but I remain sceptical that it can be washed a lot without fraying- either way the woman was rude and didn't deserve my custom.

AmberGran she wasn't embarrassed at all but clearly thought I was stupid when most of her customers clearly buy this stuff and then go home and cut it shorter! I think she thought I was clearly dim for not seeing this and maybe I was?

For me it would depend if she was always rude or not. if she was, she's not up to the job.

if it was a one off I might think something was going on in her life and she just wasnt up to being as she should.

I do feel sorry sometimes for my hairdresser and similarwho have to talk all day and some people rabbit on about themselves at length sort of dumping stuff and don't try and connect as a person. Must be absolutely exhausting.

I think it may have been that they like their regular customers. Only for locals where I live. I get it all the time!

It would be very hard to get a good finish from hemming it up if the fabric was pleated.

If you do ever decide to alter the length of a fairly full skirt yourself, fold the skirt to the length you want, then pin it.

You will need to pin the part you have turned up at the top too.

Try the skirt, preferably with someone to advise you if the new hem is straight, or squint.

If it is all right, tack it in place, then cut the excess material away, leaving a centimetre or two to turn in at the upper, inside edge of the hem. Then hem.

I never buy polyester as I am allergic to it, so I do not know if it would fray or not.

Like you, I would not buy anything in a shop where the assistant was rude. She is after all paid to be polite and helpful, even on her "off" days.

I wonder if the fabric could have been Ponte Roma?

keepingquiet

Hope this is in the right place to post.

I like when I can to patronise my local shops and we are lucky I suppose that we have an independent fashion clothes shop in the high street.
I go in now and again for a look but they very rarely have anything that's right for me.

Today, though, they had exactly what I was looking for- a maxi length tartan skirt.

There was no size label but the woman in the shop explained it was one size as it had an elasticed waist. Fair enough.

I tried it on and it looked pretty good. I thought it was lined, but I realised the lining was just the back of the fabric, and it had no hem- it was just cut at the bottom. I had never seen fabric like it, checked it was washable (polyester) and decided at just over £30 that I would buy it.

I asked her about the fabric and the lack of a hem- but she just said lots of clothes are made like this now so people can cut them off if the length is too long (I'm slightly above average height) and that lots of clothes are made like this now.
I asked if it might fray after washing though, and she said rather snappily that no one had ever brought one back, and people like the fabric because it means they can cut it to size.

I wondered how it could be cut so that the hem would be straight and just asked her how it was done. I was just being curious.

She said with scissors- did I not know how to cut things? Although I was planning to buy the skirt I was put off doing so by her being very rude. Another customer then came in as I was trying to put the skirt back on the hanger, still unsure whether to buy it or not.
Another customer came in and she left me at the counter- so I just decided to leave the skirt there and left the shop.

Has any one else come across this 'cut it yourself' fabric before?

Do you think I should have bought it, seeing as it looked quite nice?

Do you think I was right to leave when she had been so rude?

What would you have done?

She’s just the sales girl she probably didn’t know the answers. It sounds like you did go on a bit v

fluff

I wonder if the fabric could have been Ponte Roma?

Sounds like it. Perfect for a beginner to sewing.

AuntieE

If you do ever decide to alter the length of a fairly full skirt yourself, fold the skirt to the length you want, then pin it.

You will need to pin the part you have turned up at the top too.

Try the skirt, preferably with someone to advise you if the new hem is straight, or squint.

If it is all right, tack it in place, then cut the excess material away, leaving a centimetre or two to turn in at the upper, inside edge of the hem. Then hem.

I never buy polyester as I am allergic to it, so I do not know if it would fray or not.

Like you, I would not buy anything in a shop where the assistant was rude. She is after all paid to be polite and helpful, even on her "off" days.

My point was there was no hem- it was just cut.

I'm no seamstress either, but even I could see you couldn't turn it up and make a hem because of the thick plastic backing.

It said 95%polyester with 5% elastic fabric.

I don't know what Ponte Roma is- but I know there was no sewing involved at all. Just scissors!

The closest was to describe it was a bit like patterned oil cloth like tablecloths, but it had a brushed cotton feel to it on the front. It certainly wasn't pleated.

I often cut lengths off dresses as I'm only 5'2". I put the frock on the ironing board, measure the requisite amount I want to remove from the bottom (say it's 4") and use the tape measure to work round the entire hem to the same 4 inches all the way round. I don't bother with pins till I'm actually doing the next stage - the turn-up. Never bother to tack either but I am a very experienced dressmaker, so each to their own method!

She probably didn’t know so rather than say she went on the defensive (some people are like that)
I’ve just got back into sewing and there appears to be a lot of new fabric about and some of it does need hemming, though the old foggie in me says that’s wrong