Tailoring Your Own Clothes

Tailoring your own clothes

So a little while back, I reblogged a post about tailoring your own clothes. The gist of it was this (IIRC):

Someone was wondering why even people on TV with non-mainstream-TV-approved body shapes always look so good in their clothes.

The long and short of it is: their bodies aren’t better than yours. They just have people tailoring every single piece of clothing they wear to flatter their figures.

Off-the-rack clothes aren’t made to look good on most people’s bodies. The advice in the post was buy clothes that fit the largest part of you, even if they’re too big elsewhere, and have them altered to fit.

That post hit me like a lightning bolt. I have a curvy figure. I’m not plus-sized, but I’ve got a small waist and large hips. Which is great in certain types of clothes (dresses, mainly), but means that if I don’t wear fitted t-shirts or blouses–if they fall straight–I just look sort of… boxy. I need clothes that go in at the waist.

My grandma was an amazing seamstress, so when I needed clothes fixed, she was around to tailor them. When she got into her 90s and her eyesight was too diminished for her to sew, we started going to a woman in our neighborhood who’d lost her husband and had started doing alterations to bring in some extra income. OF COURSE I looked good back then. I had a tailor.

Then I moved away from my parents without really knowing How To Adult and would go to Target to get clothes and just get depressed by them and never realized how much of an advantage having people who could tailor my clothes (and, you know, parents to pay for having them tailored…) had been.

So. I have a 1970s Singer Fashion Mate sewing machine that is designed to weather the apocalypse–I got it at Goodwill for $20.

And I have begun researching how to tailor your own clothes. If anyone else was wondering about that after that last post, here are some helpful links I’ve discovered.

When and Why to Get it Tailored - This article is (annoyingly) set up as a slideshow, and focuses on getting a professional to do your alterations rather than doing them yourself, but it’s got some good advice nonetheless, such as:

Basic alterations that can make a huge difference, such as adding lingerie loops to keep bra straps in place (SERIOUSLY MY FAVORITE DRESSES FROM HIGH SCHOOL ALL HAD THESE AND WHY DID THEY DISAPPEAR IN EVERYTHING I WEAR NOW?), adding snaps between the buttons on button-down shirts for larger-busted women (you know how sometimes they gap? there’s help for that), etc.

Average prices (at least on the East Coast) for basic alterations: replacing a zipper will run you about $20, while tailoring pants or a skirt to fit your hips and butt will be about $35.

If you want to get a garment made of special materials (leather, fur, beaded/embroidered silk) altered, go to someone who specializes in working with that material.

What NOT to try to alter.

How to find a tailor.

Having that perfect dress that you love so much duplicated and how much that will cost.

Learning Alterations - Great step-by-step tutorials on basic alterations like how to take in the waist of jeans (essential if you have a smaller waist and larger hips, because it’ll stop them from riding down every time you bend over or sit down).

Tailoring Ready-to-Wear - A full-on online course from Craftsy (costs $24.99) with videos and individual lessons on everything from hemming pants to lengthening them to altering shoulders and armholes to adding hidden zippers.

Plus-Sized Fitting and Design - Another online course (this one’s $34.99) that looks like it focuses both on alterations and on actually making clothes that are flattering to plus-sized forms.

Alterations and Tailoring 101 - Not a how-to post, but this one has a lot of useful information and ideas, such as identifying which garments to alter.

Alterations Needed blog - A whole blog on this stuff, with a lot of detailed how-tos. It focuses on fixing things to fit if you’re shorter than average/petite, but contains a lot of great advice for anyone (like an entry on why button-down shirts often bulge in back and how to fix it).

Pinch and Pin your Shirt - Super-quick video tutorial (aimed at gentlemen), but useful for anyone who wears button-down shirts on how to fix a baggy shirt.

If I find other helpful tutorials, I’ll add them. If you know of any, please let me know!

12/1/22

9:21 : AUGH. didnt practice last night and i got like barely any of my work done im gonna start crying. i did get some stuff done and im glad about that but i didnt get a lot done. i am putting way too much pressure on myself. i just got my *REDACTED* work done so thats good. i have some more to do but i think i can get it done. i have rehearsal today as well as my private lesson so im excited for that. imma be practicing all lunch because i need too and spending the 5 minute breaks doing a little homework and looking at my grades. next class is gonna be annoying and long but its kinda fun bc my friends r near me. then after that i have band YAYYYYYY!!!!!! i gotta ask my teacher about the ensemble that im doing with my friends whooop!! ill update around lunch. :)

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i-have-so-much-love

1 year ago

im not crying u are

So…how was ur day ?

The ring might’ve switched owners :D

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i-have-so-much-love

2 years ago

11/30/22

3:36 : i think my laptop hates me??? so annoyed rn. it keeps deleting my posts and im starting to get mad. i wrote a whole post earlier but nooo of course it didnt save. whatever. basically i had an awesome time in *REDACTED* and it was so super fun. AUGH. i didnt have school yesterday and the day before so that was awesome. i got to work on my music all day and just relax and honestly im so glad i got it bc being around all those kids man it DRAINEDDDD me (it was still awesome tho). anyway at school today and OH MY GOD MY GRADES ARE SO BAD!!!!! im gonna be working my absolute butt off. i know what i have to do so HOPEFULLY i can get it done. also my teeth hurt but thats probably bc i keep FRIGGIN forgetting to brush my teeth. so glad that school is almost over. i have rehearsal today and i gotta practice a SHIRT ton today bc i have my lesson tmr and i havent practiced for a whole WEEK AAAAAAAAH! i missed my bf so much man u have no clue. uh but yeah. idk what else to say so i might update later before 8. if not sorry lol. imma be studying my music and working on it and practicing and doing my work all night. i got this :).

1/9/23

yay happy new year. oopsies i havent updated in forever lol. anyway. i feel insanelt bad about not practicong over winter break so imma be practicing alot tryna do better. im gonan bake a cake as asoon as i get home. my bf is coming over too so yayy :))).

so i didnt bake a cake slay. it was so nice being with him. i love him so much. im glad i got to spend time with him. i dont have a lot of homeworrk so yay. anyway i think this is it 4 2day

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i-have-so-much-love

2 years ago

10:22 : apparenly i messed up :(. my post that i scheduled didnt frickin save but wtv lol. yesterday was pretty cool bc my mom came with me to band (being deadnamed wasnt fun but whatever) and i was laughing at her hahahah. i also had my sax lesson yesterday and my teacher basically layed into me real hard :( about how i need to actually apply myself and practice like (as he said) "as long as it takes for you to get it" (3 hours lol). i feel like he actually knocked some sense into me.

2:38 : so to finish my rant from earlier, since dr wits knocked some sense into me, i went home relazed for like an hour and then i practiced my saxophone even more (1 more hour). it was an okay night. i ate some good food and just felt generally content. i have chosen a solo (for solo & ensemble) and i really really like it. im excited to learn it. also i am in chemistry and i hate it. im dying. this teacher doesnt even teach us bruh, but im so smart i figure it all out suuuuupppeerrrr fast :) . i have so much stuff to do but i can get it done, imma use my planner and do everything that i need to do :) .

im really trying here bro

i uh. am not doing great. and i wanna use this blog to like. try to cope better. my coping skills rnt exactly uhhhhhhhhhh healthy... or legal. so im gonna try to like post positive things etc and all that. also a little bit of venting. ill put tw’s at beginning & in tags i promise. but yeah. so lets start off this new uh. season of my life. season one.

1. i am taking T (illegally, mind you, but still happy about it :3)

2. i am getting better grips on hw

3. schools almost over (today & ending the whole year so yay)

4. my grandmas coming home soon