A bespoke Jolly Dicey garment is made from a pattern that is created and drafted by us, for you, to your measurements, by hand, with a ruler and a set square.  A bespoke garment will then be made up in calico, and fitted to you, and we then alter the pattern until we have the correct fit, to flatter your unique figure.  

When we are satisfied with the fit, we make the garment individually, for you.  We hand finish where necessary, we finish seams beautifully, if something isn't perfect we unpick it and redo it until it is.  

The resultant garment is a British made couture piece,  a unique investment that will last for years.

We have over fifty years experience in dress and costume making between us, and thousands of pounds worth of specialised equipment.  The £100 a day we charge for our services buys this experience, that specialist equipment, and light, heat, and power to run it.  

And because this is what we do, we pride ourselves on attention to detail, customer service, professionalism, and meeting deadlines.

All this takes time.  A simple day dress will take two to three days, an outfit in the region of a week.  An elaborate historical costume or a tailored garment can take two weeks.  

We supervise the process from start to finish, taking pride in each aspect of the work.  We aren't  just dressmakers, we aren't just designers, we aren't just pattern-cutters, we aren't just couturiers, we aren't just tailors, we are all of those things.  

Yes, you CAN buy a dress for £12 on the High Street.  You can also get a bridesmaids dress on EBay for about the same amount.  We've seen them.  To be frank it's a miracle that some of those dresses make it though the wedding without falling to bits.  

But think for a second what the manufacturer has to do to achieve that keen price.  The design is drafted on a CAD machine, and graded up and down using a standard formula.  Which means it won't fit if you are a non standard size and shape, like most of us.  There are economies of scale, which means the one design is repeated many thousands of times.  The design is made up overseas with the cheapest possible fabrics, by workers who earn pence per hour.  

For more info on how High Street brands achieve such affordable garments check out War on Want, and the No Sweat Campaign.

Even if we wanted to, we can't compete with those wages.  We do this for a living, and we have the same bills to pay as you do, we buy our food in the same supermarkets.

It is also true that there ARE costumers and crafters who are cheaper than we are.  We've seen their work too.   A lot of quality work is produced by hobbyists, working primarily to cover the cost of materials, but there can be issues of reliability and professionalism.  Otherwise, If a garment is cheap, you will be getting what you pay for.

So please don't ask us to duplicate another designers work, line for line, for tenth of what the original would cost.  If it took Vivienne Westwood's team 100 hours to design and produce the frock, we can't do it in any less.