Chapter 62 Choosing an Apprentice

Should I do business as a tailor?

Of course not.

Lin Xiushui stood among a group of tailors and said, "I've done it, what are you doing?"

They're all tailors now, they make it themselves.

One of the women said, "We won't make them, we'll wait to wear them."

"These days, it's better to wear clothes than to make them."

"Everyone who sees it gets a share."

Everyone agreed that these women were skilled at making vests and undershirts, but not so much at making skirts.

Tailors are also specialists in their craft, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Lin Xiushui wore this dress simply to show off her new dress; wearing new clothes without going out is like wearing them for nothing.

That way, she can reply to Jin the tailor and count out exactly how many people have praised her, so she won't have to change her surname.

The brand name is solid and reliable.

But she was too confident. Faced with the requests of several women, she couldn't resist. She couldn't bring herself to share with everyone she met. Only by growing twelve hands could she ensure that everyone got a share.

She only grasped a little of the art of clothing; she didn't actually become the Thousand-Armed Guanyin. If she had, she would have been very willing, as she could have made many garments.

Five hundred hands cut clothes, five hundred hands sew clothes, she runs the entire tailoring workshop by herself.

Everyone gathered together, and then a few women who made skirts came along, also curious to see what was going on. They were quite skilled, making all kinds of skirts, such as pleated skirts, three-pleated skirts, and swirling skirts. They didn't usually have much contact with Lin Xiushui.

“I think this skirt would be better if it were made of gauze. It would be more flowing when you walk, and the gauze would look better,” said a round-faced woman.

The other woman glanced down and said, "Actually, we could do something with the belt. This blue and white belt is nice, but it's not too flashy and makes the dress look even better."

When making a skirt, one must consider not only the skirt itself, but also the waistband, which is called a skirt belt. It is usually a piece of cloth embroidered with various patterns. There are also jade pendants, which are strung together with many colorful threads and jingle when walking. And there are also palace sashes made of colorful threads, which are wrapped around the waist and tied with various jade pendants and other objects.

Lin Xiushui listened very attentively and took out paper and pen to write it down. Everyone around her laughed and said, "Look at her, she really is a natural-born tailor."

"Since you're listening so attentively, why don't you come and learn something from our skirt-making workshop?"

Lin Xiushui answered without hesitation, "I'll go."

The group burst into laughter. Lin Xiushui snorted and accepted many orders for fabric. She later went to the skirt shop, where everyone was making pleated skirts, and she watched as many were made.

She received many compliments today; even Madam Gu said the dress looked nice.

After finishing her work, Lin Xiushui went to see the tailor, Jin.

“Then make yourself a jacket to wear. If you show it to me, I’ll consider it a profit,” the tailor said, glancing at her.

She always felt that if she could do such a good job with her collar, she should be even more meticulous with herself.

When Lin Xiushui returned, she had been admiring the jasmine-patterned collar for half a day. The drawnwork was just right, the jasmine flowers were made with silk thread, the green threads of the leaves shimmered in the sunlight, and the white threads of the flowers gradually turned from light to a touch of green.

Inside the room, Lin Xiushui was surprised. She let out a short "ah," and said, "The outfit is quite nice right now: a white tube top, a blue jacket, and a blue skirt."

"How about a harsher tone?"

"Did this garment save your life?"

No, she saved the garment's life, mending it stitch by stitch and embroidering some patterns, allowing the jacket to continue to live and be worn by her in the summer.

After leaving the tailor's house, Lin Xiushui weaved through the crowd, going into each tailor shop to see if anyone had any ideas about making clothes for her, but she didn't have any at all.

There's nothing to do. Let her send some cloth to the other women, see what they wear, how they coordinate their outfits, so we can copy some of theirs.

Thinking about it this way, Lin Xiushui felt that she was incredibly smart.

One person might only have a few ideas for matching clothes with a skirt, but ten or so people could come up with dozens of ways. With so many methods, there's bound to be one that suits her.

Lin Xiushui didn't want to keep the beauty and pleasure brought by the clothes to herself, especially since they could bring business to the dyeing shop.

She walked into the dye shop, where Aunt Lan was drying blue cloth. Long poles were covered with pieces of newly made cloth, and Qingya was stirring them with a dye stick.

Making a living by dyeing and binding fabric is not easy. The jobs they take are mostly from their neighbors, and the scale is small, just doing some small business.

Seeing someone come in, the two quickly looked over. Qingya put down the dye stick, took a few steps, and stared at the skirt. "Is this a skirt made from the cloth we dyed?"

Aunt Lan took a few steps forward, bumping into Qingya and making her stumble and almost lose her balance.

"Mom, you can look, but why are you pushing me?"

Aunt Lan pushed past her, and when she saw it, she was immediately struck by its beauty. She looked it over from all sides, nodded repeatedly, and didn't take her eyes off it for a moment. "Good, this dress is good."

The fact that the fabric they painstakingly dyed themselves was transformed into beautiful dresses was a great encouragement to the two of them, who were always worried that they wouldn't be able to sell the dyed fabric.

Like blue cloth on a dyeing rack, it flutters and flies in the summer breeze.

For a cloth dyer, having their fabric made into clothes and worn is the greatest compliment and recognition.

“Cloth is fine,” Lin Xiushui pointed to the cloth, then to the skirt, “it’s all essential.”

She then mentioned the fabric requests, asking, "We need eleven bolts of fabric. How long will it take to make them?"

The mother and daughter exchanged a glance and said in unison, "Eleven horses?"

Aunt Lan quickly said, "Let's see what style you want. If we can make it, it will be ready in five or six days."

Actually, I've never taken on so many dyeing jobs before.

The biggest job they had ever taken on in their little dye shop was making three bed curtains for someone else, with very complicated patterns, which earned them a lot of extra money. The rest of the work was the few bolts of fabric that Lin Xiushui had bought earlier.

The dyeing shops were so unprofitable that if you walked around the whole town, you would hardly find anyone wearing clothes that came from their dyeing shops.

Qingya often comforted herself, saying that everyone wore them secretly.

Right now, there's no need for that. A job has come up, and the mother and daughter want to hug each other and cry, but they also want to laugh. They've become like they're about to cry but can't. With this expression on their faces, they say they want to make a fine piece of cloth especially for Lin Xiushui.

Lin Xiushui had not anticipated the various events that this blue dress would trigger.

She didn't have much of a plan for the clothes she was making, but she was busy making clothes for the little girl, putting together outfit after outfit. She had a lot of fabrics and patterns to use, and she tried them on again and again.

While waiting for the cloth to be made, Lin Xiushui didn't rest. She first went to set up a stall under the covered walkway. It was still cool today, and everyone finished work early.

An older woman raised her eyebrows dramatically. "Good heavens, who's here?"

Another woman said, "Oh, I thought you weren't going to set up your stall in this sweltering heat anymore, and were planning to save up all the money until this fall and winter."

A passerby stuck his head into a pillar and said, "This should be written in the Sangshukou Newspaper."

Lin Xiushui sat down. It had only been five days since she last set up her stall. It really wasn't that serious. She had been making clothes, learning new skills, and earning money all along.

Besides, people have seen her a lot these days, and some even come to her house to ask her to make clothes. Lin Xiushui really doesn't have much free time, otherwise she would have taken over all the work.

She simply said, "Come, come, let's revise the clothes."

In short, everyone—sitting, standing, even those sleeping against the pillars—looked over, and some got up to get something.

“I do have some clothes to make, I’ve been saving them up for a long time,” said an elderly woman with mobility issues, as she slowly got up, leaning on a pillar. “I’ll go home and get them.”

And then he never came back today, and Lin Xiushui really didn't believe it.

On the other side, a man wearing a straw hat walked over, carrying a long coat, and asked Lin Xiushui to alter it, "It would be best if you could add a collar for me."

Lin Xiushui looked at the sky, and everyone else looked at the sky too. The sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly. Every step they took made them shiver with sweat.

They can't even stand the word "padded jacket," let alone add a collar to it.

Some people lamented, "It's my fault. I tore up the lunar calendar yesterday, and now it's time for the autumn calendar."

"Yes, I lost a few months of my life."

"Can you stop interrupting me?" The man took off his straw hat to fan himself and said something infuriating, "You guys feel hot in the summer, but I feel no different from when I'm in the winter."

“I’m in the ice cellar every day collecting and chiseling ice. I’m so cold that my headaches are about to flare up. What am I going to do if I don’t cover myself with my coat?”

This man was an ice harvester in Bingjingwu. In the winter months, the government would send people to harvest ice, store the ice that had formed in the water in deep ice cellars, cover it with thick mats, and take it out in the summer.

It wasn't cold at first when I went inside, but soon I started shivering from the cold. Even wearing a padded jacket couldn't keep out the chill, and my neck always felt cold. I had to wear a thicker collar.

He said it was cold, while the man on the other side said it was so hot he was dying of drought. He asked Lin Xiushui to make him a hooded oilcloth, the kind the dog used to wear, so he could go deep into the mountains and wait for the clouds to thicken so he could call for rain.

They really are going to wear oilcloth cloaks to shout at the mountains.

Lin Xiushui was intrigued after hearing this; what kind of job was this?

What about her real work altering clothes? Oh well, she thought, there's money to be made.

As I said before, as long as there's money to be made, she'd do anything, even make clothes for pigs, against her conscience.

She retracted the second half of her statement, keeping it but deleting and modifying it, as long as there was money.

Of course, there's plenty of serious work to be done. Lately, I've been working in the tailor shop, doing one thing after another.

The work she had taken on was endless, and Lin Xiushui really wished she had a thousand hands to scoop up every piece of cloth.

The next day, Madam Gu came to see her and sat in the house and said to her, "You said before that drawn thread embroidery can make more things, but it requires manpower. Now the tailor shop has taken in a lot of apprentices."

"There are about seventy or eighty. You and a few tailors can go and choose first."

Among the several tailors mentioned by Madam Gu was a woman with exceptional skill in making brocade skirts, who managed the entire skirt-making workshop and had about thirty people under her command.

A woman with her own unique embroidery patterns can sell a single pattern for seven or eight strings of cash. She has five or six apprentices and only works half a day.

There were also women who did other jobs, and they were well-known and had their names recognized throughout the entire tailoring industry.

Lin Xiushui's name was listed alongside theirs, making her one of the first to be chosen as an apprentice.