But I Smile Anyway…

Linda’s SoCS prompt this week…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “so/sow/sew.” Use one, use ’em all, use ’em any way you’d like. Bonus points if you start and end with any of them. Enjoy!

So, let me tell you a little tale about what happened to me last week.

If you read one of my posts last weekend, you’ll know that I went to a very glamorous wedding. I love to get dressed up, and I am blessed with a Mother in Law who buys me beautiful outfits when she goes to India. This time, however, the outfit she bought, though lovely, wasn’t as ‘posh’ as I had hoped it would be, for a function of this nature.

I popped into the local Indian clothes shop, where there is a beautician too, to get my threading done (didn’t want to scare other guests with the monster caterpillars currently running loose across my forehead!). The couple who own this shop are family friends, and also have children who have been in classes I have taught, so I like to think we have a pretty good relationship. I always pop in there and spend time chatting to them (Chatting? Me? Never!) They also have a 2-year-old daughter who is likely to be my nursery student in a year or so.

There, I spotted a gorgeous outfit, Royal blue, with a fabric panel, it was different to the outfits I usually wore. It was also made for someone that was around 6ft tall, so needed some alterations.

It wasn’t too much sewing required, but I don’t have a sewing machine, or the skills, to transform clothes that way, so they happily got that sorted out for me, ready to pick up a couple of days later. £105 lighter, I walked away from the shop. £100 for the outfit and £5 for the threading.

The outfit looked absolutely fabulous! I felt like a princess on the day, with my long swishy dress!

Partway through the extremely lavish reception at The Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane in London (see, told you I needed something posh to wear!), one of Hubby Dearest’s cousins pointed out a loose thread on the fabric panel of my dress. I tucked it away, covered the offending area with my scarf, and continued enjoying the party.

Around an hour later, I looked down and noticed another thread, on the other side, and saw that the fabric had actually started to fray at a seam! Eek! Not the best situation when you are at a party and your outfit threatens to fall apart! I rescued it with my scarf (again!) and hoped for the best.

Getting home, later on, I examined the outfit carefully, and it appeared that there was a fault in the fabric. It definitely wasn’t too tight on me, and I hadn’t caught it anywhere. But it was not wearable anymore.

I needed to take it back. But how was I going to ask for my money back at a shop where these people were acquaintances? It was almost embarrassing! What if they got funny with me? What if they refused, or said it was my fault? I was close to just swallowing the whole thing, then the thought of £100 wasted made me think again.

The other day I went in, almost apologetic, and showed them what had happened.

Thankfully they also agreed that the fit had never been the problem, in fact, it may have been loose on me (phew!) and that there was indeed a fault in the design… and offered to swap it for another outfit.

But I didn’t want or need another outfit. I wanted my £100 back. I was as polite as I could be, and they went and got the card machine to process the refund. As they faffed around (new machine, they apparently were unsure how to process it…) I waited patiently and played with their littlest daughter. Time wasn’t an issue for me. I wasn’t about to say “Oh don’t worry! Keep my £100, I have plenty!” because I don’t!

After around ten minutes, they managed to find all the things they needed to work out how to process the refund, and it was done with no hard feelings.

So I managed to get a beautiful outfit for a wedding, wear it, then end up returning it (legitimately!) without offending anyone, because I was a chatty, polite person!

See, you reap what you sow!