Sending your own lace, buttons and trims with fabric

Photograph everything together

Lay the fabric out by a window in daylight and arrange each trim on it roughly where you want it. One overall photo shows how the colours sit together, which matters more than any single close-up. Our guide to photographing fabric for a quote covers light and angles. Then add:

• A close-up of each lace or border with a tape measure across it, so its width is clear.
• The back of the lace, which shows whether it has a finished edge or a strip to be hidden in a seam.
• Buttons side by side next to a ruler, front and back, so the size and the type of shank or holes show.
• Any tassels, latkans or pompoms, laid out in their pairs.

State metres and counts

Measure every length separately, even if it came as one roll, and give the total in metres or yards. Lace often arrives in two or three cut pieces, and a sleeve band cannot be made from two short scraps. Count buttons exactly and say whether you have spares.

If you are unsure how much a placement needs, our guides to lace and border work and piping and trims explain where trims usually go, and kurta plackets and buttons covers fastenings. The quote then confirms whether what you have covers every edge.

Label what goes where

Give each item a letter, put it in its own small bag with a label, and write the same letters in your quote notes. For example:

• A: gold lace, 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide, 2.5 m, for both sleeve hems and the daman.
• B: narrow piping lace, 1.2 m, for the neckline edge.
• C: 8 covered buttons, for the front placket, plus 2 spares.
• D: 2 latkans, for the back-neck tie.

Wait for confirmation, then pack

Stitching Only has two shipping stages: you send your fabric to us in Pakistan, and the finished outfit is shipped to you. The suitability of the fabric and trims, the quantity needed and the sending arrangements are all confirmed before you post anything, so you never send a parcel that turns out to be short. The 5 to 7 working days of making start once the quote is approved and paid in full and your parcel has reached us.

Cotton lace can shrink at a different rate from the fabric, so read should you pre-wash fabric before stitching before you post. When packing, roll lace around a piece of card, wrap metallic trims in tissue, seal buttons in a bag and put a copy of your lettered list inside. The guide to packing embroidered fabric for the post has more detail. When you are ready, request a Stitching Only quote.