What to Ask For at a Seamstress/Tailor

Over the past few years of alterations work I’ve done, I’ve found myself having similar conversations with my clients as well as my social media audiences. A lot of the conversations I have are explaining the different terminology to my clients so that I can confirm I understand what they’re asking me to do so I wanted to create this post with some of the most common terminology so that you can understand what we mean (or that you can use this terminology with your seamstress or tailor)!

Hemming (Pants and Dresses) - Shortening. Usually applies to a dress or slacks that are too long and the bottom of the garment needs to be shorter; not as common when talking about shortening a top

Taking In - Making sure the garment will fit tighter when finished

Tapering - Similar to Taking In however this term is applied to sleeves and pant legs. Tapering is gradually getting skinnier as you move along the sleeve or pant leg going towards the cuff or hem

Letting Out - Moving the seam(s) of a garment so that the garment fits looser when finished. Not always possible to achieve the desired fit as letting out depends largely on the amount of seam allowance available in a garment. For example, most knit garments (like t-shirts) can’t be let out because there usually isn’t any seam allowance to move out to.

Shortening (Straps and Tops) - For straps: Making the straps shorter/tighter in order to pull up where the bodice will lay; really helps with low cut (and sometimes looser) bodices and tops.
For Tops: “Hemming” for the bottom hem of a top in order to make it shorter. This is how you transform a top that’s too-long.

Replacing (Buttons, Zippers, Hooks & Eyes, Snaps, etc.) - Lost one of these notions needed to keep your garment together? Depending on the notion you lost, you may need to purchase a full set of the notion (I.e. it can be extremely difficult to match buttons so if there are multiple on the garment and you don’t have a spare handy, you may have to buy a set of however many total buttons there are to make sure they all match!)

Relining - Replacing the second, inner layer of a garment that lays directly onto your skin. Usually a thin, slippery fabric meant to provide some separation from the outer shell of a garment to provide a clean inside or create a second layer for added coverage on sheer garments

Mending - Repairing an issue (like a tear or hole). This can be done by darning (fixing knit garments), adding patches or embroidery to cover the hole, or sewing it up using basic stitches

One more side note! There are 3 main areas that we focus on when Taking In and Letting Out and mentioning these areas will be extremely beneficial. Being able to recognize and communicate where your garments are ill-fitting can help you achieve the best fit possible! They are: the Bust (Women)/Chest (Men); the Waist; and the Hips. Helping your seamstress/tailor identify just where you want/need the adjustments can help immensely, especially knowing where you commonly need adjustments!

I hope that sharing these terms with you will help you when you show up to the seamstress/tailor for your next appointment! If this came in handy make sure to subscribe to my email list and follow me on Pinterest to keep up to date on my blog posts!