They say that when the student is ready, the master will appear. For many months now, I have been creating my costumes on my own, by guessing how to make patterns, cutting textiles, and doing the sewing all by hand. I did buy a beginner’s sewing machine before, but at the end of the day I just conclude that my own fingers are still more reliable. I found it easier to control by hand those annoying fabric like spandex and charmuse.

But hand-sewing, making mistakes in patternmaking and cutting, and re-doing things are undoubtedly time-consuming. At some point, they can also be frustrating.

Then…Master Cutter/Tailor Mr. Rodel appeared.

This is me with my first try at using a professional high-speed sewing machine (Juki). I sewed this cheerleading costume as my cosplay of the Korean pop singer Goo Hara from the band Kara. She wore this costume in the music video of their song “We’re With You”.

Who is my Master in Dressmaking?

Two days before the silver wedding of my mother, she got a call from a stranger, a tailor looking for interested clients. She then met Mr. Rodel and he re-did my mom’s gown, to which she was so satisfied. There is so much to say about Mr. Rodel. He began cutting and sewing at the age of 12. He worked under the renowned fashion icon Rajo Laurel as a cutter-tailor for six years, wherein he was also promoted as Head of all the cutters-tailors. Rajo has brought Mr. Rodel, his most trusted worker, to many countries already. Now, he has own tailoring shop, where he does all the pattern-making, cutting, and sewing all by himself. He has beaders on the side though to do the time-consuming decorations (beading and finishing). Mr. Rodel focuses on gowns, dresses, and men’s suits.

The Master is Leaving

If I could afford it I would want to commission costumes from him (though his focus isn’t costumes), but Mr. Rodel is now set to leave the country. He has created gowns for princesses in Bahrain, and seeing an opportunity there, has a new shop now waiting for him there.

Learning from the Master

In the remaining weeks that he’ll still be here in the Philippines, we now have a personal one-on-one coaching; I am learning as much as I could from him, not just the hands-on patternmaking, cutting, and sewing, but even wisdom from all his experiences.

I don’t know yet if I would want to become like him, a professional tailor/dressmaker, because I don’t think that I could be as dedicated in terms of creating lots of clothes for clients and beating deadlines and such.

But I am sure that the creation process is calling for me. I want so much to create my own clothes and costumes, to the point that whenever I try to shop for clothes, I do pick them up from the racks, but return them with the usual conclusion in my head– that I think I’d just try to sew similar ones on my own.

Are you also interested in dressmaking? Do you want to create your own clothes and costumes too?