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Old 03-18-2018, 10:03 PM
 
Location: Retired in Malibu/La Quinta/Flagstaff
1,604 posts, read 1,935,588 times
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My Mom sewed most of our family's clothes. She taught me how to sew at a young age and I inherited her sewing machine when she died. So, yes, I can hem my pants, sew on a button, patch my jeans, etc. I even knitted a sweater on a bet.
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Old 03-19-2018, 12:35 AM
 
Location: Vallejo
21,706 posts, read 24,935,308 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerania View Post
I know how to hem a skirt, but I have no one to mark them for me. Pressing fabric and sewing it is OK for casual garments, but "better" clothing should be marked while you're wearing it. Though pants are a bit easier in that respect, dress and suit pants should be measured.
You can always pin them.

I get them done for two reasons. One I can't sew for a damn so my stitching is ugly. The bigger reason is I'm stocky and carrying some extra weight and have a short inseam. 36" pants aren't cut with people with 30" inseams in mind. The taper point ends up being below the knee and you get some really baggy pants.
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Old 03-19-2018, 07:35 AM
 
Location: Boonies of N. Alabama
3,881 posts, read 4,102,066 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk View Post
That doesn't seem to make sense to me. If it has to be altered at all, why would it not be immediate?

I'd never buy a suit or a dress shirt without alteration.
When we purchased suits for my husband, frequently they needed altering and we had them altered. Why on earth should I buy a dress or outfit that needs altering when I can find ones that fit me perfectly fine without altering?
If my weight changes, then I alter... that's why it wouldn't be immediate.

The OP asked if we hemmed our pants/skirts or took them to a tailor. I answered. I really didn't think I'd have to JUSTIFY my answer to people.

I'm sorry if that doesn't make sense to you and you can't wrap your head around it.
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Old 03-19-2018, 09:00 AM
 
1,299 posts, read 818,741 times
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I learned how to sew from my mom, who sewed for extra money when us kids were at home. I sewed a lot of my daughter's clothing when she was a baby/toddler, 20+ years ago. My daughter has never been interested in learning, so she doesn't have a clue how to sew, either by hand or by machine.

I still have a machine, and I hem easy stuff like my work scrubs. I'm big around the middle and short, so I have to sew the legs in width as well as length or they look ridiculously flared. We use the tailor down the street for things I don't want to do, like hems on my husband's jeans - she does them in a day and charges $6. And she replaces zippers 100X better than I could.
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Old 03-19-2018, 03:33 PM
 
Location: Where the sun likes to shine!!
20,549 posts, read 30,328,395 times
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I do my own hemming and buttons. Those are no big deal for pants and at times shorts I will line them up with a pair that fits, pin them, and put them on to make sure they will be right.

I have never hemmed a waist in any way. I have a few dresses that I wish had a higher neck line as a good portion of me is exposed. Since it is gathered material I don't know how to fix that. I will most likely take that to a seamstress.
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Old 03-20-2018, 04:35 PM
 
Location: The analog world
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I take my clothes to a tailor for hemming and taking in/letting out. I have very rudimentary sewing skills, and I guarantee you that the tailor does a much better job than I ever could. It's worth the money to me.
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Old 03-20-2018, 09:42 PM
 
Location: AZ
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I take them to a tailor. But lately I'm thinking about doing it myself -- because I think I can do better
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Old 03-20-2018, 10:32 PM
 
Location: EPWV
19,422 posts, read 9,457,548 times
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My Mom was a great seamstress and cook but even then she took some of our clothes to a neighbor lady for sewing. I don't know, maybe her machine wasn't working at the time.

I took Home Ec and shop class but they were only for a semester. Still I must have learned something and then some from my Mom, of course.

I used to have really good close up vision. Getting older with astigmatism and dry eyes isn't helping. It's a pain at times. I make sure to do any of that stuff in the day time hours with blinds up. I manage to put buttons back on unless they're unique buttons. Sometimes look in sewing section of one of our Walmarts. One has that but the other Walmart doesn't carry much in the sewing realm. I've hemmed up some pants as well. I'm better with the knit but not so good with the heavier fabrics. I've taken one or two jackets to get the zippers fixed and maybe one or two of my really nice outfits to the tailers because I also wanted them taken in a bit as well. I might have done a so-so job hemming them and would have tried if that's all I wanted done. Only taken a few items for dry cleaning. Most of the time do our own washing/drying and ironing. Do some light stitching with socks, elastic bands in the underwear, but hey, sometimes a blow out means it's just time to get another pair, [of socks]. The heel area really does tend to wear out. I rarely get holes in the toe region.
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Old 03-20-2018, 10:37 PM
 
9,446 posts, read 6,546,650 times
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I hem my own, but I am a skilled seamstress. I've seen women wearing pants that look pretty tacky because they are hemmed so poorly. Our dry cleaner has a lady who does high quality alterations.
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Old 03-23-2018, 05:25 PM
 
Location: not where you are
8,748 posts, read 9,438,040 times
Reputation: 8302
Growing up us girls were often forced to take home-ec class, I only liked it when we made cookies, otherwise I couldn't stand the class, but the sewing skills, years later, did and do come in handy. I'm self taught on my more advanced sewing, but, I definitely put that early training to use and do all most of my own alterations. To think there was a time back in the 80's I used to take my jeans to the dry cleaners to be laundered.

I do admit, there have been the rare mishap when not paying attention and unfortunately I couldn't add the material back to lengthen the pants in such occasion. Fortunately any mishap hasn't ever been with an item that cost all that much.
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