Sewing

Tailors in larger Lithuanian cities used to join into communities. The oldest craft communities in Vilnius — goldsmiths and tailors — date back to 1495. The tailors of the capital expressed a complaint about disorder in their craft and unchecked newbies with lack of skill coming from wherever they please. Nobody else could take up tailoring in Vilnius, except for the tailors of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, the nobility, clergy and members of the tailors’ association.

Tailoring was the most honourable of crafts, learned by children of not only small landowners, but some of the larger farmers. However, up until the early 19th c. tailors did not frequently visit villages, because farmers usually produced their furcoats, overcoats and other upper clothes by themselves. Children and teenagers used to be dressed by their mothers or other women. Better-skilled tailors of the area always had loads of work. Sometimes they used to be booked for half a year in advance. However, rural areas usually were serviced by lesser tailors, who had been learning their craft for less than two years at some better tailor and eventually decided to pack their scissors, measurer and iron, and go out into the world, looking for work. In the late 19th c. better tailors acquired hand and later — treadle sewing machines.

Tailors were always welcome at farmers’ home, where the family would treat them to better food, such as eggs, sausages and butter. Being the best matchmakers, they were also especially valued in families with daughters. People say that good story-telling and jokes were a characteristic trait of the majority of tailors. Men from the entire village used to spend their evenings listening to tailors’ stories. Moreover, they were often musicians too, playing a violin or another instrument at youth dance evenings. Tailors also substantially contributed to Lithuania’s national revival: many of them had purchased and distributed banned press.