The Complete Tailoring Guide: When, How, and Why to Alter Your Clothes

Tailoring Transforms Good Clothes into Great Clothes

You can buy the most expensive garment on earth. But if it doesn't fit your specific body, it looks mediocre.

Now take a $50 piece tailored to your exact measurements—it looks like a million bucks.

Tailoring is the secret weapon of well-dressed people. It's the difference between "wearing clothes" and "clothes fitting you." And it's shockingly affordable—most alterations cost $15-40.

This guide will teach you what's worth tailoring, what isn't, how much it costs, how to find a good tailor, and how to communicate what you want.

What Tailoring Can and Can't Do

Easy Alterations (Always Worth Doing)

Hemming pants: $10-20. Shortening pant legs to proper length. One of the most common and important alterations.

Hemming sleeves: $15-25. Shortening shirt or jacket sleeves. Especially important for jackets.

Taking in waist: $20-35. Making pants or shirts slimmer at the waist. Works if you need to remove up to 2-3 inches.

Taking in sides: $20-35. Slimming the torso of shirts, jackets, or pants. Creates a more tailored silhouette.

Tapering pants: $20-30. Slimming the leg opening from knee to ankle. Common request for modern fit.

Shortening straps/adjusting buckles: $10-15. Bags, belts, watch straps.

Moderate Alterations (Sometimes Worth It)

Shortening jacket: $40-70. Raising the hem of a jacket or coat. Tricky because it affects pocket placement and proportions.

Slimming sleeves: $30-50. Making sleeves less billowy. Common for dress shirts and jackets.

Adjusting rise: $40-60. Changing the crotch-to-waist measurement on pants. Complex, affects overall fit.

Adding/moving buttons: $10-20. Adjusting button placement for better fit or replacing cheap buttons with quality ones.

Replacing zippers: $25-50. Broken zipper on jacket or pants. Can save an otherwise perfect piece.

Difficult/Expensive Alterations (Rarely Worth It)

Adjusting shoulders: $75-150. Reconstructs entire jacket. Only worth it for very expensive or sentimental pieces.

Letting out (making larger): $30-60. Only possible if fabric has extra seam allowance (1+ inch). Most modern garments don't.

Shortening from shoulder: $60-100. Entire sleeve needs reconstruction. Expensive.

Complete reconstruction: $100-300+. Basically rebuilding the garment. Almost never worth it—buy something that fits better.

What Tailoring Can't Fix

• Bad fabric: Tailoring won't make cheap fabric look premium.
• Poor construction: Can't fix weak seams or bad stitching throughout.
• Wrong proportions: A shirt cut for someone 6 inches taller won't look right even tailored.
• Shoulder fit on structured garments: If shoulders don't fit, the whole piece doesn't work. Move on.

What's Worth Tailoring (and What's Not)

Always Tailor These:

• Dress pants: $100+ pants should always be hemmed to proper length. Non-negotiable.
• Suits and blazers: Off-the-rack suits need sleeves hemmed and often waist/sides taken in. Factor $60-120 into suit budget.
• Quality denim: $150+ jeans should be hemmed to your preferred length. Tapering optional but common.
• Dress shirts (if wearing regularly): Slim the torso, shorten sleeves. Transforms fit completely.
• Outerwear you love but doesn't quite fit: $200+ jacket with long sleeves? Get them shortened.

Sometimes Worth Tailoring:

• Mid-range pants ($50-100): Hemming yes, other alterations depends on how much you wear them.
• Casual shirts: If you wear them weekly and they're good quality, take in the sides.
• Vintage/secondhand finds: Great piece that almost fits? $30 in alterations can make it perfect.

Not Worth Tailoring:

• Cheap fast fashion: Don't spend $30 tailoring a $20 H&M shirt. Buy something better.
• Trendy pieces: If you'll only wear it for one season, skip tailoring.
• T-shirts and casual basics: Buy the right size. Tailoring tees rarely makes sense.
• Anything that needs major work: If alterations cost more than 50% of garment price, reconsider.

How Much Does Tailoring Cost?

Prices vary by location (NYC/LA more expensive than smaller cities) and tailor skill level. Here are typical ranges:

Pants Alterations

• Hem (no cuff): $10-18
• Hem (with cuff): $15-22
• Hem (with original hem preserved): $20-30
• Taper legs: $20-30
• Take in waist: $20-35
• Replace zipper: $25-40

Shirt Alterations

• Shorten sleeves: $15-25
• Take in sides: $20-30
• Slim sleeves: $25-35
• Adjust collar: $15-25
• Replace buttons: $10-20

Jacket/Blazer Alterations

• Shorten sleeves: $25-40
• Take in sides: $35-60
• Shorten jacket length: $45-75
• Slim sleeves: $35-55
• Adjust shoulders: $75-150 (avoid if possible)

Specialty Alterations

• Dress hemming: $20-50
• Coat hemming: $40-80
• Leather jacket alterations: $50-100+
• Full suit tailoring package: $80-150

Pro tip: Many tailors offer package deals. Full suit alteration (sleeves, hem pants, take in waist/sides) often cheaper than individual pieces.

How to Find a Good Tailor

Where to Look

• Local dry cleaners: Many offer alterations. Cheap but quality varies wildly. Good for simple hems.
• Dedicated tailors: Search "tailor near me" or "alterations near me." Often better craftsmanship.
• Department stores: Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's offer in-house tailoring. Reliable but pricier.
• Recommendations: Ask well-dressed friends, check local Reddit/Facebook groups, read Google reviews.

How to Evaluate a Tailor

Start with something small: Test them with a simple hem before trusting them with your $800 suit.

Check their work:

• Stitches even and straight?
• Thread color matches fabric?
• Hem clean with no puckering?
• Garment hangs correctly?

Communication matters: Good tailors ask questions, offer suggestions, explain what's possible. Bad ones just nod and take measurements.

Pricing should make sense: Suspiciously cheap = questionable quality. Overly expensive = you're paying for location, not skill. Compare with averages above.

Turnaround time: 1-2 weeks for standard alterations. Rush jobs cost extra (and sometimes sacrifice quality).

How to Communicate with Your Tailor

Bring Reference

Instead of saying "make it slimmer," show photos of how you want it to fit. Visual reference eliminates guesswork.

Bring a similar garment that fits perfectly. "Make this fit like this one."

Be Specific

Vague: "This doesn't fit right."

Specific: "The sleeves are 1 inch too long, and I'd like the waist taken in 2 inches."

Vague: "Can you make these pants better?"

Specific: "Hem to no break, taper from knee to 7-inch leg opening."

Stand Naturally

When trying on garments for alterations, stand the way you normally stand. Don't puff your chest or suck in your stomach. Tailor needs to see real fit.

Wear Appropriate Shoes

Hemming pants? Wear the shoes you'll wear with them. Heel height affects break and length. Don't get pants hemmed while wearing sneakers if you'll wear them with boots.

Ask Questions

• "Is this alteration possible?"
• "How much will this cost?"
• "What would you recommend?"
• "Can you show me with pins where you'll take it in?"

Good tailors appreciate informed customers. Bad tailors get defensive. That tells you everything.

Common Tailoring Requests Explained

Pants Hemming: How Much Break?

• Full break: Fabric pools and creases at shoes. Traditional, formal, dated look.
• Half break: Slight fold/crease where pants meet shoes. Classic, safe choice.
• No break: Pants just kiss the top of shoes. Modern, clean look. Most popular.
• Cropped/high-water: Pants end above shoes, show ankle. Fashion-forward, casual.

Our recommendation: No break for most situations. Clean, modern, works with all shoes.

Pants Tapering: What Leg Opening?

• Wide (8-9 inches): Relaxed, comfortable, retro vibe
• Straight (7-7.5 inches): Balanced, classic, versatile
• Slim (6-6.5 inches): Modern, tailored, sleek
• Skinny (5.5-6 inches): Very fitted, trend-driven, less versatile

Our recommendation: 6.5-7.5 inches for timeless fit that works for most people.

Shirt Sides: How Slim?

Take in sides until there's 2-3 inches of pinchable fabric at your waist. Less = too tight (pulling, restricted movement). More = billowy, sloppy.

You should be able to sit, reach, and move comfortably. If it pulls when you sit, it's too tight.

Jacket Sleeves: What Length?

Suit jacket: Sleeves should end at your wrist bone, showing 1/4 to 1/2 inch of shirt cuff.

Casual jacket: Sleeves can end at wrist bone (no shirt showing) or slightly shorter for modern look.

Test by extending arms forward. Sleeves can ride up to mid-forearm—that's normal.

DIY Alterations (What You Can Do at Home)

Safe to DIY:

• Basic hemming: Straight-leg pants, t-shirts. If you can sew a straight line, you can hem.
• Replacing buttons: Easy, cheap, high impact. Swap cheap plastic buttons for horn or metal.
• Fixing small holes: Needle and thread, YouTube tutorial, 10 minutes. Saves garments.
• Shortening drawstrings: Cut, seal ends (lighter or liquid stitch), done.

Best Left to Pros:

• Anything involving zippers
• Taking in or letting out (requires precise pinning and sewing)
• Hemming dress pants (needs invisible hem or proper cuff)
• Any jacket alterations
• Tapering (easy to mess up leg silhouette)

The rule: If you're not confident, pay the $20. Fixing a bad DIY job costs more than doing it right the first time.

The 1ABEL Approach to Tailoring

At 1ABEL, we design pieces with minimal tailoring needs:

• Relaxed, oversized fits: Forgiving across body types. Dropped shoulders eliminate shoulder fit issues.
• Thoughtful proportions: Lengths designed to work for most heights (5'7"-6'2"). Taller/shorter? Simple hem fixes it.
• Pre-shrunk fabrics: Minimal shrinkage after washing. What you buy is what you get.
• Quality construction: If you do tailor, our garments handle alterations well. Heavyweight fabrics, reinforced seams, generous seam allowance.

That said, everybody's different. If you're 6'5" or 5'4", hemming our pieces to your exact length makes sense. A $15 hem transforms good fit into perfect fit.

Final Tailoring Principles

1. Fit matters more than fabric. Tailored $100 piece beats untailored $500 piece.
2. Shoulders must fit first. Can't tailor shoulders affordably. Start there.
3. Simple alterations are cheap. $15-30 can transform a garment. Do it.
4. Build a tailor relationship. Find someone good, use them repeatedly, they'll prioritize you.
5. Factor tailoring into budget. Buying a $300 suit? Plan for $80-120 in alterations.
6. Don't tailor cheap clothes. $30 alteration on $40 shirt = bad math. Buy better.
7. Bring photos. Show don't tell. Visual reference eliminates miscommunication.
8. Test with small jobs first. Build trust before handing over your favorite jacket.

Tailoring is your secret weapon. Use it.