Tailoring & Alterations Course
LOVE thrifting but nothing fits right?
Tired of trying on clothes from your closet that don’t fit right?
Is shopping for clothing annoying because nothing fits right?
Learn to tailor your clothes to fit you in this 6 week course. Each week, you'll learn a key skill in garment alteration in the lesson with live demo and expert instruction, and then you practice those skills yourself on real garments with the teachers there to help you.
Give the clothes in your closet a new life!
Prerequisite: Sewing 101 or equivalent skills
In 6 weeks, you'll learn how to keep a garment balanced, blend from seam to seam, work with intersecting seams, add darts to garments with no darts, hems, armholes and so much more. We will work with woven fabrics and knit fabrics too.
We provide all the tools, machines, thread, and cutting space you'll need, and Anastasia will be there to help and guide you every step of the way. All you need to bring are practice garments (thrift them - you can get every piece needed for the class for a total of $5! See below.).
We have a standard curriculum of fundamental alterations everyone needs to learn, but if you have a particular skill you'd like to cover, just let us know and we can probably cover that too. Below are some common alterations we can go over in class, but the sky's the limit in sewing!
- Taking in a seam (making it smaller)
- Letting out a seam (making it bigger)
- Adding regular darts
- Adding fisheye darts
- Bias facing
- Hemming jeans with original hem
- Hemming knits 3 ways
- Blind hem
- Rolled hem
- Single folded hem
- Hemming pants, skirts, dresses, etc
- Hemming a lining
- Lengthening by adding ruffle or trim
- Making a skirt waist bigger by lowering the waist
- Making a shirt bigger by adding fabric
- Shortening sleeves
- Tailoring a dress
- Tailoring a jacket
- Taking in pants
- Taking in waistbands
- Cropping a top, shirt, sweater, or jacket
- Changing necklines
- Taking in shoulders
- Changing the waist size
- Taking up the shoulder in a garment
- Altering sweaters
- Adjusting lengths
- Slimming pants
- Changing sleeves
- New elastic in a casing
What Garments to Bring
Bring in practice garments that you do not like. Your class time is best spent practicing skills. That's hard to do when you're fretting about not messing up your favorite jacket or your mother's wedding dress. It's a whole lot easier to cut into a "2008 Podark Insurance Annual BBQ" hoodie you paid 33 cents for, and you'll learn more from it. Trust us, even if the goal is to alter one particular item, the fastest way to get there is to practice on something else first. Feel free to bring in garments to get advice on how to alter them though.
We also ask that you do not bring heavy pants like jeans, corduroys, or leather. The same techniques you'll learn apply to all pants, but it's easier to learn on light to medium weight fabrics first.
If you want to plan ahead, you'll find what you need to bring in each week below. Generally, you want things that are too big or long, but if you have a specific item you'd like to make bigger, bring it in and ask us about it.
- Week 1: 2 T-shirts or other knit (stretch) items to hem (shorten), and 2 wovens (non-stretch) to hem (e.g. shirts, pants, skirts, dresses)
- Week 2: 2 button-up shirts that are bigger than you. These are ideal for practicing taking things in.
- Week 3: 2 more button-up shirts that are bigger than you. They're also great for practicing really fitting curves.
- Week 4: 2 shirts, skirts, dresses, or jackets with with intersecting seams.
- Week 5: 2 of anything with sleeves, preferably without lining. You're going to learn to make armholes work for you.
- Week 6: 2 Light to midweight pants
Where to Get Practice Garments
Some people like to raid their partners' closet for things they want to destroy. If that works for you, more power to you I guess. For everyone else, we recommend you buy your practice garments from thrift shops, and not the curated ones. There's no need to spend more than $10 for anything you bring in.
The thriftiest places to go are any of the Village Discount Outlets on Sundays or Family Thrifts on Tuesdays. They put their clothes on sale 3 for $1. If that doesn't work for you, a really convenient option is the new Goodwill 2 blocks from the studio.
Class Setup
Class will meet for 3 hours each week for 6 weeks at 2041 W Carroll Ave, Chicago, IL (near the United Center and the Damen green line station). There's ample free street parking.
Our classes are limited in size (and frequently sell out!). Each person has a station with a sewing machine reserved for them, so no refunds are offered on classes. If you miss a class, video tutorials will be provided that you can work through in your own time. If you know you'll be missing a class in advance, contact us and we'll see if there's a seat available in a nearby session you could attend.
