When you’ve gone out and spent your hard earned money on a new outfit, you shouldn’t have to pay someone to make clothing alterations to get that perfect fit — you can easily do it yourself! With a few basic tips and tricks, a few sewing essentials, you can learn how to alter clothes so that they fit you perfectly. You’ll no longer have to spend time and money finding someone to alter your new jacket or skirt.
We were joined in the studio by the talented Mary Beth Temple recently, and she spent the day teaching us how to easily make clothing alterations. Mary Beth is well-known for her crochet tutorials and arm knitting tutorials, but what most people don’t know is that she used to work in the entertainment industry and did alterations of clothing/costumes for plays on Broadway and television.
For this video tutorial series, Mary Beth showed us how to alter a skirt and jacket. She spent some time explaining how to find a good piece of clothing to start with, and then what to look for to ensure a great fit when we are finished. We learned that we must consider not only the basic construction of the garment, but also the material used. Some of the fun clothing alterations Mary Beth taught us were: hemming and altering sleeves, tips for pinning while altering, how to hem a skirt, and more! With just a few simple lessons we were able to take a blazer and skirt that didn’t fit perfectly and create a tailored outfit that fit perfectly.
You’ll be able to see all the lessons, tips and tricks in our Clothing Alterations Playlist on the AllFreeSewing YouTube channel. Be sure to leave any questions or comments you might have, we’d love to see them.
Skirt Alterations:
Jacket Alterations:
And now for the DAILY GIVEAWAY! Today’s prize is fun gift pack courtesy of Fairfield.
To enter the daily giveaway, leave a comment below telling us:
What piece of clothing do you want to learn how to tailor?
Official Rules for Daily Contest
- There is a maximum of one entry per person. The entry will be based upon a comment left on this blog post. Duplicate comments will be deleted and are not tallied.
- Winner will be selected at random from the comments on this blog post below.
- You have until tonight, September 29th, 2015 at 11:59p EST to leave your comment on this post. Comments posted after that will not be counted.
- Contest open to anyone 18+ in US and/or Canada.
Enter daily for your chance to win the National Sewing Month 2015 Grand Prize Giveaway.
- Designer Showdown: Kate Spade and Vera Bradley - August 14, 2022
- 41 Swinging ’60s Sewing Patterns - August 12, 2022
- Fashion by the Decade: 53 Vintage Sewing Patterns - August 10, 2022
