Where do you go for Alterations? - YouLookFab Forum

Category

General

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Where do you go for Alterations?

fathenry

Veteran

I'm curious what the average cost of alterations is and where you take your clothes?

I've experienced two extremes:

1) take pants to cleaners, asked to have them hemmed down one inch. no measuring or pinning involved. results variable, cost $5.

2) the specialty tailor that has you try on everything with correct shoes, pins and measures. cost is $25 to take down and replace hem on jeans, $20 to hem up a full skirt by three inches, $20 to take in the waist on a pair of jeans.

I'm curious what others do when it comes to tailoring? I'm thinking of worn clothes, not new clothes at the tailor at nordstrom. How many of you ladies can do this kind of tailoring yourself?

General

17 replies

Latest reply was from Maya

Kristine

Veteran

I've been sewing for years so I do alterations myself. I have a machine, but I do all hemming by hand (because it's easier to do an invisible stitch). Hemming is pretty simple, especially if your material isn't not slippery or smooth (like silk, jersey, etc.). I'd be happy to share some basic instructions if you'd like to try.

rute

Veteran

I buy many pieces at "El Corte Ingles" (a big spanish store that has all good labels and designers in one place but also less expensive clothes) and they offer all the alterations needed, their taylors are amazing! I have already asked for complicated alterations and everything came out perfectly!

The other pieces I buy at Zara, Massimo Dutti and I pay a small amount and they hem the pieces.

Dawn

(website)

I bring some stuff home to my mum to get altered. This is generally easy stuff such as shortening straps and a couple of quick repairs on hemlines. My mum is quite good at stuff like this but she lives a five hour bus journey away from me so I don't see her frequently enough to rely on her services.

Some small repairs on coats and other dry clean items get fixed by the dry cleaner for an insignificant charge, often €2/3. Again, this is stuff like tiny repairs.

I prefer to go to a professional seamstress for everything else. I have gone to the same company for nearly five years and they always do a great job, and the only time I have had any issue with their work was when they didn't take in one strap on my grey waistcoat. They took it in within 20 minutes and didn't charge me for the alteration. With these seamstresses- shortening a skirt is €15, small alterations such as turning up blazer sleeves is often less than €10, and larger alterations such as altering waistbands on skirts and other major structural alterations costs between €20 and €50.

I really need to buy my own sewing machine. It would be so handy for smaller repairs and hemming skirts.

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

I can sew, I just prefer not to . My tailor only charges $8 for pant hemming, so I just take it all to her.

Isabel

Veteran

I always build in the cost of tailoring when considering an outfit. My seamstress charges about $8 too, for a hem, only about $5 for putting darts in the waistband. She is incredibly reasonable and very, very good at what she does.

Big cities are more expensive, but $25 for a hem, seems outrageous - my friend pays $12.50 in Boston for that.

I would suggest four things : call a nice local store or boutique and ask who they recommend their clients too. ( I found a fantastic shoe repair person this way. )

Or call a bridal shop and ask if the seamstress does outside work. Many do for reasonable prices since the alterations are not as complicated.

Pinch pennies on things like hems, which are pretty straightforward and pay a little more for the better tailoring on things like princess seams or more than darts in a waist band.

Try to find a men's tailor. They are usually cheaper than a woman's - so if one of your local stores does men's suits, ask who tailors them. Suits and men's pants are always altered. ( Our local JC penney has a man's tailor on site and he is willing to do women's hems and sleeves for a very good price.)

Maya

Veteran

This is a major point of frustration for me as I haven't yet found a competent tailor. I had one woman tell me that it was impossible to add darts to a shirt because I was "too big" on top and "too skinny" on the bottom. As I mentioned before, my hems always mysteriously end up shorter than what we seem to agree on. It makes no difference whether I go to the dry cleaner or the "expert" so I just save my money. I don't know how to sew, nor do I have a sewing machine, and I can't hand sew to save my soul. As I said in previous posts, I am the anti-Martha Stewart. Domestic tasks just do not agree with me.

I have learned by now that things have to fit me off the rack, other than simple hemming. If it requires being taken in or adjusted in any other way, I let it go.

Mellllls

Veteran

Fathenry, where do you live?
In the U.S. I've lived in the suberbs, a big city, and a small city and I've really found that tailoring prices very much vary.

My mom does my hemming and does tucks for my waist. I take any suits and dresses to a tailor (and not one attached to a dry cleaner).

taylor

Veteran

I can do simple alterations at home. It is rare for something off the rack to fit and I am very picky how my clothes fit so I alter all my skirts, and take in some of my pants, but I am awful at hem's on anything so I just don't do them
I have a tailor who is great and charges me 10 dollars to hem a skirt or pair of pants.

My gal isn't attatched to a dry cleaner either:)

bella

(website)

Veteran

I hem my own pants using stitch witchery. I find it super easy. Altering skirts (particularly A-line) seems like a bigger job, so I haven't attempted it at all.
I want to learn invisible stitching by hand. Has anybody seen an online tutorial?

elpgal

Veteran

I am in the DC area and hemming pants costs around $10 here. I usually get it done at the men's tailor in the mall or at the dry-cleaners. They pin the pants themselves.

I have not had much luck with hemming shirts. They charged me $15 and did a pretty shoddy job and blamed it on the material.

fathenry

Veteran

Kristine, thanks so much for the kind offer to teach me how to stitch. I seriously question my skills and ability to do this. I think Bella would like to learn though?

There does seem to be a huge range of prices. Melllls i live in a suburb of Seattle so I have access to more than the dry cleaner but it seems really hard to find a seamstress. I get the feeling that the last tailor I went to was on the high end, but she did do a nice job.

Isabel, thank you for the good ideas, I will take your suggestions!

Maya, that is so frustrating, I can't believe a good tailor would say that to you, I don't think it was YOU that was the problem, if that makes sense!!

shana

Veteran

I have yet to find a tailor that I can really trust. I have tried all of the local places - the dry cleaners charge $15 and I wouldn't trust them to do more than a simple hem. A local formal wear/tuxedo shop charged me $25 to hem jeans (not original hem!) - they did a good job but the pricing seemed a little outrageous. Last summer I had a local tailor hem a knit shirt for me - it was atrocious and the hemline was all uneven and she had the nerve to charge me $20 for it (yeah, I'm a wimp, I should have refused to pay especially since I asked several times if she felt comfortable with the material).

Anyway, I have some bigger items & jobs that I have been holding onto for literally years because I cannot find the right person to do it. I can't sew for the life of me and though I have contemplated trying to learn, frankly, I have zero interest!

Jenava

(website)

Veteran

I go to a little old Italian lady in Seattle. Her prices are obscenely low. I don't think she's raised them in 20 years! She does a great job most of the time, but she is quite slow since she gets a lot of business. She mostly does men's suits, so an odd waist band is pretty simple for her. This might be why she doesn't charge much. (-:

Kari

Veteran

My mom very kindly used to do this for me, but denim was too hard - it would pop the thread on her sewing machine and would therefore come out looking funky (not her fault at all, just because of the weight of the fabric.) So I started taking jeans to the second variety of tailors on your list.

Since I know you're in Seattle, I go to a little shop on Main Street in downtown Bellevue - Soho Alterations & Tailoring - and their prices are pretty reasonable. The last time I had denim hemmed, it was $10 to have a "straight" hem and $15 for an "original" hem.

(Of course, now that I'm typing this, their website seems to be down - I hope they are still in business.)

fathenry

Veteran

Thanks Kari, Bellevue is easy for me so I may give them a try. Thanks everyone!

Ele

(website)

I do it all myself- from simple jobs like hemming to more involved things like removing waistbands to take in waists, or hemming something that had a lined vent, whatever. It was even easier when I was at school because I had access to industrial machines 24/7. My new home machine is pretty good though- it can even handle denim!

These days, the only thing I won't attempt myself is knits, you do need a specialty machine for that. If I need knits altered, I'll send them to my Mum's tailor back home, who works out of her basement. (Obviously happens very rarely- I'm not in the habit of mailing things trans-Atlantic for alterations!)

Maya

Veteran

Farhenry, that tailor hemmed my pants too short and charged $20 for it at a discount! I let it go because she fixed an otherwise unwearable shirt for mr but I never went back. I thought the whole point of adding darts was for people who are big in one place and skinny in another!