Learning, Sharing, and Teaching > Do it Yourself Discussion!
tailoring dress shirts, hemming pants?
practik:
Just dropped money on a good tailor, which got me wondering what it would take for me to learn to tailor my own clothes? Would be like shortening sleeves, adding body darts to dress shirts, and hemming jeans and dress pants. I assume take a class, get a sewing machine, practice, but anyone have experience with this? I do surgery on people so... was thinking some skills could translate haha
TheWifeHalf:
Learn how to run a sewing machine, buy some clothes from Goodwill to practice on.
Start with sleeve, pants hems. Darts will be a little trickier, but certainly achievable. For the darts, you can find instructions online
Start with a bigger stitch so mistakes are easily ripped out, then not so big when you know what you're doing.
I've been sewing since I was 7, I'm almost 60, and worked at an alterations shop for a couple of years. Oh, and before that I was a vet tech and saw dogs and cats being sewn up. Clothes are much easier and not as messy.
(When you get a sewing machine, go over some lines on a paper, with no thread, just needle holes to learn and to get familiar with it.)
geekette:
Most "learn to sew" classes would start with something easy like a pillowcase or pajama pants, not tailoring. I'm fairly new to sewing, myself (I've done a lot of "home dec" stuff, but not much clothing). Hemming pants is fairly straightforward, and can be done by hand (or even <gasp> with hem tape). Look on youtube for hemming jeans (there's a trick to keeping the original hem, I believe). Adding body darts seems like it would be easy, but placement? Not so sure; maybe you could copy something a tailor has done (hand or machine baste first). I don't think I'd attempt shortening sleeves if you're talking a dress shirt with cuffs.
There are cheap, frustrating plastic junk sewing machines, and fancy expensive ones. Some think the older stuff is better for beginners (as long as it works) I have 2 vintage machines, a 25 year old Kenmore, and a cast iron tank of a '30's Singer that will sew anything (as long as you just want a straight stitch!)
Starting with thrift store clothes is a great idea!
deborah:
Darts are easy, but their placement can be tricky. All these things are much easier than what stores do in their beginner's class. Take one, and move on from there.
Anon in Alaska:
Sewing machines can be expensive. Unless you buy a used one, you might end up spending enough money that it would be cheaper to just pay someone to hem the pants.
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