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Taking the Time to do Tailoring

January 8th, 2014 at 07:44 pm

Aha! The minute after I wondered 'Where did all the free time go?!' during holiday break, it occured to me! One of the time sinks was: alterations.

Up until about my mid 20s I was continually altering clothes for myself. Work slacks were always too long (I am a towering 5'1") for example. Back then there were fewer petite departments. After age 30 or so I decided enough. It was nice to save some money buying sales clothes but was tired of using my time to take up the hems. Though it was more expensive, I either shopped the petite sections (which became more prevalent) or did without. The alteration chores died.

Well, three gifts to my daughter this year were clothes that I ended up sewing. She is a slim petite. Not perfectly in children's size 14 nor junior or women's extra small size either.

Ack. No problem. That's where (some of) the time went.

PJ bottoms. Cozy flannel and fleece shortened 3 to 4 inches (2 pair).

Winter Vest. She asked for vest to be used for figure skating. I checked 3 good sports stores, and either the women's extra small were sold out or they were too loose for her (the torso needs to be form fitting for figure skating). We went to the sales after Christmas and found one with knit side panels (quilted front/back). This would be a snap to alter, so I simply took a big tuck on each side panel.

Padded Shorts. Another project wzs making padded shorts for figure skating. These are for hips and tailbone. The pads are incredibly overpriced ($35 ~ $40 ea and you need 3) and the commercial shorts were hopelessly too big for her. So I designed a pair over a year ago and sewed it myself.

The original pair were just beat up like crazy, not to mention 4 sizes too small by now!

I made a repeat pair, it took some brain work and time again. (If you want to know, it involved cutting a $4 pair of leggings below the thigh and reusing that material to make pad pockets on the inside of the shorts.)

So do you do alterations routinely?

4 Responses to “Taking the Time to do Tailoring”

  1. ThriftoRama Says:
    1389214423

    You live in a totally different world from me. I'm 5' 9" and most pants are too short. I always have to search for longs...

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    1389216004

    I would alter if needed, since I do know how to sew, but it doesn't seem to be a problem at our house. My girls are thin and tall for their age.

  3. rob62521 Says:
    1389258459

    I am also 5'1 and even some of the pretties are too long, so I hem.

  4. PNW Mom Says:
    1389278408

    I can sew a button and that's it! Frown

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