Time to give your clothes a nip and tuck
Fed up with High Street fashion that doesn’t quite fit? These nifty tailoring tricks will transform your wardrobe
DREAM of longer legs, a flatter tummy or a nippedin waist? It could be as simple as digging out your needle and thread (or tracking down a jolly good tailor!). It’s a secret women on the Continent have known for years. With an inch more or less of fabric in the right places, legs can look longer, tummies svelter and waists more emphasised. In France or Italy, for example, having a seamstress on standby is de rigueur among stylish women. By taking up a hem, fixing a waistband, or imitating a designer item, they turn High Street into high-end.
British women, meanwhile, are often guilty of wearing clothes that just don’t sit properly. Yes, the label says the correct size, but they don’t hang as the designer intended.
Industry expert and seamstress Tilly Batchelor, owner of the label Tilly Von Tiki, says: ‘The problem comes from High Street brands creating basic patterns from the average size — essentially, trying to please the most people within one outfit.
‘If you fall between sizes, like many of us do, you’ll often find your clothes don’t fit properly. If you’re short, waists tend to be too low and trousers too long. If you’re tall, you’ll find the opposite.’
Knowing how to alter garments, or working with a seamstress, however, opens up all sorts of possibilities. It also saves you money in the long run. The reason some clothes are adored while plenty are shelved is often nothing to do with fashion or cost — and all about the fit. So, why not make all your clothes as flattering as a designer piece?
Here, our size 12 model wears ill-fitting clothes from a range of brands, and Tilly reveals the tricks of transformative tailoring . . .
GAPING BUST AND AWKWARD SLEEVES
Shirt, mintvelvet.co.uk PROBLEM: On this shirt, the buttons around the bust are in the wrong place and the sleeves are the wrong length. These issues are so common — yet so easily fixed.
Our model has fairly long arms and the sleeve sits above her wrist, which looks odd. Better to bring up the sleeves to just below the elbow and make them a statement.
As for the misplaced buttons, which make the shirt gape at the bust, the best place for a button is directly in the middle of your cleavage. If you have one above and one below, the shirt will billow out, whatever your size. SOLUTION: Unpick the stitches securing the shirt’s cuffs and remove them. Snip a little length off each sleeve, then sew the cuffs back on. Whether sewing by hand or machine, use a straight stitch as small as you can, so it looks tidy.
Don’t try to move buttons, as then you have to make new button holes, which is complicated. Just buy a clear plastic popper and sew it between the two that gape.
TOO-LONG TROUSERS WITH LUMPY POCKETS
Trousers, jaeger.com PROBLEM: Trousers — especially fashionable cigarette pants — are often too long, making legs appear shorter. When buying, it’s better to ensure the waist and hips fit, as length can easily be shortened.
Trousers also often have pockets that are practically useless, yet messy, spoiling a tailored look. SOLUTION: If pockets gape, stitch them up. Pin them in place first so you get a straight line.
You can also cut out the inner flap, so it doesn’t bunch and cause wrinkles. Turn the trousers inside out and trim off the pocket, leaving a few centimetres’ fabric beyond your stitches to prevent fraying.
Meanwhile, if trousers are too long, unpick the hem and create a new, deeper one. Use an ‘invisible stitch’: you can find demonstrations online, but essentially, you only put the needle through a tiny portion of the outer layer of fabric, so your stitches can’t be seen on the outside of your trousers.
Match your thread colour to the fabric and pull each stitch tight, but not enough to cause the fabric to pucker. Do one leg, then lay the trousers flat and do the other the same. If making them a lot shorter, trim off some of the excess fabric.
Pressing the hem into shape with a hot iron before stitching will help it stay up better. If your trousers
have a slit at the bottom, keep this in the new version. cut the slit a bit further up than you plan to hem and finish it as it was originally.
UNFLATTERING, FRUMPY SKIRT
Skirt, jigsaw-online.com; shirt, Gerard Darel at johnlewis.com PROBLEM: While perfect on the hips, this skirt is far too big on the waist, making even a model look frumpy. Yet in a smaller size, it would be too tight on the hips and the slit would be too high up.
There is usually 2in difference between dress sizes, and most of us fall into that illfitting hinterland. if it’s a choice between waist and hips, go for a good fit on the hips and modify the skirt’s waist. SOLUTION: This skirt has a seam at the back, which makes it easy to adjust the size. first, take a photo of how the zip is sewn in, so you can get it the same when you resew. They are tricky at first — but practice makes perfect.
Take your time: unpick the zip and cut out an even amount of fabric from either side of it, using a tape measure to get it even.
Taper the cut you make back to the original seam — so you end up cutting out a narrow, V-shaped piece from either side. Then resew, according to your photo.
DRESS THAT’S BAGGY AT THE WAIST
Shift dress, Bruce Oldfield at John Lewis (in-store) PROBLEM: When shopping for a dress, the secret is to ensure the bust and neckline fit well. The rest you can modify. in this case, it’s too big on the hips and waist.
SOLUTION: shift dresses are easy to alter as they’re made of two pieces of material held together by two long seams down the sides. here, the pattern makes it trickier — try starting with plain fabric if you’re a beginner.
A seamstress would unpick the lining and seams and cut out the excess fabric, before sewing the dress back together.
But there is an easier way if you are doing it yourself. first, put on the dress inside out. Pull in the excess fabric at both sides in two places: under the arm and at the hip. in between these two points, place pins at frequent intervals in a long, narrow, crescent shape — the widest part of the crescent, where you’ll cut away most fabric, should be at your waist.
carefully take off the dress and sew by hand down the inner edge of the crescent, to create a new seam. cut away the excess crescent, turn the dress the right way round, and it will fit like a glove.
BLOUSE SLIPPING OFF AT THE SHOULDERS
Stripey shirt, zara.com PROBLEM: Wide shoulders on shirts look ungainly. ideally, the fabric ought to sit on the round part of your shoulder — otherwise, it makes you look broader.
SOLUTION: Measure the difference between where the shirt seam sits and the top of the round part of your shoulder. Unpick the sleeve seam at the top and part of the way round the armhole. cut the section out of the shoulder, tapering the cut so it meets neatly with the original seam under the arm.
hand or machine stitch the seam back together. sewing machines are easy to use nowadays — for a beginner, try a Brother or singer.