WOW! I really appreciate your expertise on this... I've done alterations before but when it's formal dresses, it's nice to have another perspective for the best, and hopefully easiest way to approach them.😍. I've been binging your videos. Love them 💖! Thanks so much! Can't wait to see what you save next time!🌄🌹🌷💕🥰
Wow! What an incredible compliment you just gave me! This is what makes all the time and effort trying to make useful videos worth it!!! I appreciate your taking the time to comment and truly hope that my perspective helps you to make the best decisions for your alterations and sewing! 🥰
It’s so satisfying to watch someone who actually knows what she’s doing. My father was a tailor and my mother was a seamstress so I learned the proper way to sew and alter clothes. I can tell that you were properly trained. I had so much fun watching your video. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. Now let me go binge watch your channel.
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! My grandfather was a master tailor, but he died when I was very young. I like to think it’s in the genes, somehow!!! ;) Happy binge-watching! ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks so much for this. I wear a petite, and due to the lack of items available, sometimes end up having to get a regular size, which invariably is too long in the bodice. The shoulders need to be taken up to make it fit with my body, and to make sure the neckline isn't too low. I do wish buyers would notice that there is a large segment of women who NEED petite sizes.
I hope this was helpful for you. Thanks for watching and commenting. It was once a problem that tall people never had pants long enough from the ready-to-wear market. Now it seems that everything is rather long. I hope that the petite market will get more of what they need also! Just watch the armholes to make sure they don't get too small with this alteration, as well as the neckline can ride too high (if it's a higher neckline to begin with). These are problems that can happen when the shoulder is taken up, so just be aware. Thank you for your comment and I hope you'll get your bodices to fit better ;)
Here's what I wrote before finishing this video and finding your fix the sleeve video. I subscribed! Plus size apple figures don't fit into ready to wear either. I buy crew neck t-shirts in a plus size 2x at Kohls. Ix is way too small. Because I don't have the bust size they must make them for, the shoulder needs to be raised and narrowed and the sleeve seam needs to be narrowed for modesty. Until I try to alter a pattern and make tshirts again, I sew a wider underarm seam for now and end it a couple of inches into the body. Better, but probably needs to continue to the hem as it causes bunching under the arm. The much younger size 12 me fit into most everything ready to wear except many brands of slacks as the rise they cut doesn't fit everyone. I am grateful for fitting videos. Someone showed using binder clips to pinch out fabric to see how various changes would work. Then she sewed a large basting stitch to check the fit.
That was THE BEST alteration/sewing demonstration I've ever seen in my life! Instructions were clear and detailed. You left nothing to the imagination. I subscribed to your channel and look forward to finally sewing with confidence. Thank you.
I simply can't "HEART" your comment enough! Thank you so much not only for the encouragement, but gifting me with the knowledge that my video helped you! I hope that I will continue to put out videos that will help those who just simply need to know how. Many blessings to you and please stop by again!!
This is currently outside the scope of any sewing I do now, but it was fascinating to see the technical aspect of the construction, tear down, alter, and reconstruction, and the difference it made in the fit of the garment. Thank you for showing and explaining it so clearly. You made it seem like even I could tackle an alteration like this! Well done!
Oh I'm so happy you found my video helpful!!! Good luck with your project! Let me know if you have any questions; I can try to provide helpful answers! :)
Great tutorial! And it really is a simple fix. I've been sewing for the public for many many years, I am 70 years old. Your instructions will help give confidence to the younger crowd who are learning clothing alterations. Good work
I used to do this and it was the taking apart that took so long. You did an excellent job of showing the detail. It’s great to learn again. Back then, a dry cleaner was charging $40 an hour to do these types of alterations! I enjoyed your channel. 💗
Thank you for your video. I'm narrow shouldered so I usually need to alter the shoulders but was never quite happy with the results. Your video helped a lot.
Thank you for this video. Raising the shoulder seam, with this exact type of sleeve, is what I need to do today, for a dress that I want to wear to a wedding. Thx again.👏👏👏
So happy to hear this video will be useful to you (hopefully!!!) Good luck with your alteration and thank you for taking the time to watch and comment!
Oh My! You are so patient! Deep gratitude for you here for sharing your skills. Blessings of Benevolence and Abundance. Thank you once again. Love and Light to All here. 🙏
I just found your video and enjoyed you expertise in which you applied to this project. I have been sewing for years making my own garments and have the sewing machine and the babylock evolution serger. Thank you❤😊
I stumbled across your channel whilst looking for tips in shortening dress sleeves. I wanted to say a huge thank you, I really enjoyed your video and you explained everything so clearly. I find them demonstrations so helpful in getting me to fully understand the techniques. I also loved how you gave a selection of the different ways of doing it and why you specifically chose that particular method. Although I’m only doing this to a dance costume, I wanted to try and make sure I could do a good job of altering it for my daughter’s friend. 🌷🌸🌷
I appreciate your comment. Thank you for taking the time to leave it. It's always my endeavor to offer content that will help people be more confident in doing alterations. I hope it has done this for you. Good luck with your dance costume...I hope it goes splendidly for you!
Excellent video! I think I'd rather make the whole dress from start to finish rather than tackle that huge alteration, which is why I make my own clothes.
I certainly do understand! That was my mantra many years ago. Building clothes from the ground up was the only way I would sew. But then I started working with a couple ladies at a store front shop, and alterations became not so daunteding. My own clothes...I make them from scratch, however! ;) Better to avoid the problems to begin with rather than to go back and fix them. ;) Thank you for watching and dropping a comment
I just got here and I'm already in love with the channel. I NEED a good alterations channel. Because it's time to stop having ill fitting clothes that only need minor edits!!! I know how to sew and have a reliable machine.
That's awesome! I'm so glad to have you here :) Hopefully there are some vids here that can help you out. I'm always open for suggested topics, too, and as they come through the studio, I will feature those alterations as I'm able. Thanks for your comment!!!
Thank you for this video. I'm new to alterations and needed to take up the shoulders in couple of woven fabric dresses for a client. I did exactly what you did, and I'm so happy! Even the fiddling with the neckline binding. That is exactly how one of the dresses was, so it was very reassuring to see how you do it. I appreciate that you share your knowledge and experience!
Thank you so much for letting me know that you encountered the same exact situation, especially regarding the neck binding. Sometimes I’m not sure if showing too much detail is overwhelming for a viewer, or if it’s helpful. Your comment clears it up for me. I’m so very happy my video helped you with your alteration!!!! Thanks for watching and commenting ❤️
Exactly what I needed! Was not sure how raising the shoulder would work, but now I'm sure this is how I can give my jacket a better fit. Thank you so much! ♥
This was amazingly detailed. I'm trying to watch more sewing tutorials so I can get up the confidence to cut into my own clothes (that really need work done on them!) and I love your style of videos and teaching
WOW no kidding???!!! I have been trying to get this video edited and released for over a month now. Life just kept getting in the way, you know? But I'm glad it was delayed if it somehow helped it to come across your feed just now. It makes me so happy to hear that something from one of my videos actually helps someone out. I thank you for taking the time to comment and let me know this!!
Glad it was helpful! Depending on the styles of your dresses, sometimes taking a dart from the armhole toward the bust can help, without having to go to the shoulder seam. On the dress featured in this video, I couldn't do that because the dart would have been quite large and because of the shaping of the dress, the armhole opening would have pitched forward, showing more of the side bra area. It was very strange, and I would rather have done it that way. But, for this dress, this was the only option we had! Good luck with your sleeveless dresses. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
Thank you for the video. I have several tops that fall off my shoulders that I have "fixed'" but not to my liking.. I guess I'll get busy and fix right. Thanks for your help.
When I do more complex alterations, I take photos as I work on the project. It helps my memory if there are days I don’t work on the project. I also make handwritten notes.
That's a great idea and one I also utilize. I'm so glad for modern phones where a quick pic can be easily referenced, zoomed in on, and then deleted when no longer needed! Great tip!! Thanks for watching!
Hello - I stumbled across your video desperately looking for instructions how to take up the shoulder seam. I am 82 yrs, done some sewing, but bought a dress for my grand daughter’s wedding coming up soon. How I wish I was able to come to you to do this alterations. My dress has mesh inlay with appliqué work on the full bodice to neck. Went to one place but she was not willing to lift up the shoulder due to the appliqué work. Other places are fully booked! So now I am left with no choice but to tackle this challenge myself. You are extremely good at your work and very detail in your instructions - I hope I will get it right….wish I could send you a picture of my dress - so you could further instruct me how to deal with the Appliqué part at the shoulder seam.
Thank you for leaving a comment. Please look at the video description and there you will find a link to my personal business site. You can email me from there…. Or at least start a conversation with me so I can get my email to you ;)
Thanks so very much. I've been going to study sewing casually for several years and, watching this lesson on lifting the shoulders and slightly gathering the sleeves has been extremely helpful. My question now is if you would be adjusting the darts on the bodice of the garment as well? Happy sewing!
In the case of this dress, nothing needed to be changed regarding darting issues. Now if you had a dress and there were bust darts that got raised too much during this process, the pattern rule is: if the point of the dart is somewhere within the 3” radius of the bust circle(aka: the radius around bust apex), it’s within proper guidelines. Oftentimes though we think it looks too high and want it lowered. It’s possible it could be angled downward but all depends on if fabric is cut away either within the dart or on the side seam, where there’s usually a triangular type of shaping change that happens at the base of the dart. If there’s enough in the side seams to recreate the dart in a new location, that could be done, too. This is probably way more answer than you wanted but I tried to include what I thought was the most complete explanation! Hope it helped somewhat! Thanks for watching!!!!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I found your video quite informative and helpful. Is it possible to make a similar shoulder adjustment to a sleeved garment without gathering the sleeve cap?
Yes you can! You would need to redraw the armhole to its original size after you take up the shoulder, and you’d remove the entire sleeve. You can make a template of your original armhole before you take up the shoulder, after you remove the sleeve. Then after you take up the shoulder, use your template by matching it to the new shoulder seam and side seam (it’ll be a little lower on the side seam than the original hole), and draw the new armhole, and cut it out. Now your old sleeve will fit perfect in! Good luck and thank you for watching!
Hi there. Your videos are so clear and informative. Well done. As I am very slow in doing alterations, I just wondered if you have a pricing strategy as I like to take the same care as you and get it as near to original construction as I can. But the time it takes never seems to match how much I can charge.
This is such a common problem, especially in petites or even just small busts. I'm a tiny petite with aa bust so I have some experience.. 😂 But it's seen on average sizes too especially I t shirts, constantly pulling them down, thinking that they're too small when really the shirt is just going for where it wants to be. It's literally pulling the excess up, almost exactly what to pin out. It's pretty easy. Putting the neck back together is the challenge sometimes. Reverse engineering the garment is fun.
I agree with you, reverse engineering the garment is fun ;) There can be a few easons why a garment will bunch or pull up. On my client in this video, she is actually tall, and quite large busted. The proportions of the ready-made dress were just 'off' for her body type. I would rather have put darts going from the armholes toward the bust, but it would have revealed too much skin in front of her armhole (you wouldn't think so, but it would have!). Taking up the shoulder was actually a surprise fix for me, because I didn't think it was going to work...but it did! Thank you for watching and leaving your comment!!!
Welcome to my channel, subbie from Alaska!! Always fun to know where people are from. Thanks for dropping a comment and I hope you find my content helpful to you!
Thank you for this great video. I will try this technique to bring up a too deep neckline on a bias cut dress since I have plenty of armhole depth to work with and the diagonal chest seam ends lower than my natural waist. However I have a sway back and I'm not sure how to improve the bunching I get above my back waist. Any tips? I would love it if you could address this issue in a dedicated video as everything I have seen is about pattern adjustments, not garment alterations.
Hi there! Thank you for stopping by and watching my video. Let me try to address your swayback (which I also have). Are there any seams (princess seams?) on the back? If the entire waistline of the dress is falling lower than it should, is there any way you can let out seams around your hip are, to release fabric so that it will freely fall without catching on your hips? If you can achieve that, then you can either add darts in the back (3" to each side of center back), or take in the seams in that area if there are princess seams, just above where the sway back issue is. Not sure if that makes any sense, without having seen your dress. Of course, if there is a waist seem in back then you can raise the skirt portion onto the bodice, thus taking away that extra bodice fabric that is catching up. This is a great idea for a video, and I'll put it in my list of possibilities. I'll keep an eye out if I have this particular problem come through my studio :)
I really like your approach. Deal with a problem as it comes up! I, too, would be interested to know how you charge, and if you are using a Teflon foot on your machine. Thanks so much!
Thanks for watching! You can't always predict the issues that will arise when you deconstruct something that was made by someone else, so you will have problems that come up that need to be problem-solved! Yes, I use a Teflon foot, but mostly because I know it'll work smoothly with all my fabric, and I like the little angles that are on it to visually mark different measurements from the needle. That's just me, though ;) I don't recall what I charged for this. Nor would I want to put it out there publically. Basically, though, I take the amount that I want to be paid for my skilled profession (and yes...people WILL pay for a job they cannot do), and that amount will differ throughout the country and world, depending on the cost of living in your area. Then I try to estimate how long I think the project will take (this, however, only comes through experience and learning my proficiency). Then I charge accordingly by my estimated hours of work and my per hour charge. I like my client to know up front what the cost will be without any "OOOPS, your project took 10 hours instead of only two" mishaps, if I was to charge after the fact by how many hours. Yes, there are projects that seems to make more, because I finish them quicker than I project, and ones that take longer. It evens out in there somewhere! Having explained all that, sometimes I get EXTRA SPECIALTY project...those with a lot of hand work, etc....that I will indeed charge according to how many hours I actually work on it, because these are projects I haven't done before. My client will know up front what the possible charges could be. I hope my lenghty explanation was of some help!
@@SewDarnedFun That was a perfect answer, and I appreciate your honesty. I have been sewing since I was young enough to sit up to the machine with my Mom and I’m 65. I’ve done extensive sewing and quilting, but I’m only recently exploring the business side. My current project is a wedding dress into a Christening dress. I had no choice but to estimate my time in order to give the Mom a price. I’m tracking my sewing steps vs. time spent carefully for future reference.
Good for you!! A good seamstress is in great demand currently (at least in my area). There are those who settle for ‘ok’ alterations and those who want ‘excellent’ alterations. Sounds like you’re very organized and very wise of you to keep track of your time on projects etc. ❤️Love your christening dress project at the moment. What a great idea and use of a wedding dress!
THANK YOU! this is so helpful. I quite like the shape of that finished sleeve and would like to add one to a sleeveless top I have- does it have a name?
thank you for your very informative video. I have to do the same to a dress and take up shoulder seam by two inches, however this then creates the issue of the armhole being smaller and digging into the armpit. How do you stop the armpit issue please
Hi there! I plan to make a video in several week addressing this specific issue. What you will need to do is lower the armhole. You can do this by tracing the front and back of the existing armhole and making a template. You’d have to make sure the garment is lying absolutely flat and not skewing the shape. If you are taking the shoulders in 1” on front and 1” on back, then you will position your templates 1” below the old armhole (added up it will actually equal the 2” you took in). Then trace around the templates, blending the shape into the old armhole about half way up or so. I hope that helps a bit! I have a video that does include lowering the armhole on a summer dress that I am making. Here’s the link… maybe it might help a bit! Start watching at about the 10:40 mark and it will show on a paper pattern the same steps you can do on an actual dress. But I’m using a French curve ruler rather than a template. ruclips.net/video/VfLQNnAmHtg/видео.htmlsi=eFoiVRXi6F7JDjMs I hope this helps you! 💕
So impressed with these camera shots ...how did you do that !! just wonderful to see everything your doing !! great tutorial, do you always use a teflon foot ?
Wow! Thanks for the compliment on my camera shots! LOL! Definately not professional here on the video-front. Those were probably with my iphone, to tell you the truth! Thanks for watching, and I just usually leave my teflon foot on, unless I need to use my zipper, or buttonhole foot. I find it just sews smoothly over everything, but defintely not necessary!! Thanks for watching! :)
Thank you for the video! Can I ask how you would approach this if the dress had a collar? Would you in pick it from the shoulder seam area and then re attach it? Or would a bit need to be cut off? 🤔 I'm a bit stuck! Thank you
Hi there! That's a great question. I'm not sure there's a clear answer when I don't know what sort of collar, and if the shoulder seam needs to be taken up the entire way (from the neck to the shoulder tip), or just slanted down from the neck area. I will assume the entire shoulder seam is taken up. You are right in that is seems you'd need to take out all, or at least part, of the collar. If you can pick it out only from shoulder seam, across the back, and to the other shoulder seam...leaving the center front in place...that might be optimal. You might be able to create a center back seam in the collar that would shrink the collar the amount needed so that it will fit back into the neck area nicely. Does that help at all? Thanks for watching and asking your question :)
I had my dress altered for my daughter’s wedding. She did this same alteration. Unfortunately, because I am quite busty, the seam under the bust ended up too high by at least an inch. I thought it looked okay, until we got back the wedding photos. 😢 Since then, when I’ve altered my own, I usually take a tuck or add a dart either at center back, or to either side of the center back. Do you have another solution?
Well if it makes you feel any better, the patternmaking rules for bust darts is that they need to end somewhere inside the bust circle, which by definition is a 2" circle at the apex of the bust. The dart can end higher or lower and still be considered correct. But, then we come to the issue if whether or not you like where it falls. I wonder if maybe the dart can just be angled down so that the point of it is lower. I also wonder if the fitting issue you are describing is the same (or not) that I cover in this video. Taking a tuck in the back (if I understand correctly) wouldn't solve the issue that I had with this particular dress. Keep in mind, also, that taking up the shoulders would be secondary to first seeing if make the existing dart larger would work. In my case, for whatever reason, a larger bust dart did not solve the problem. I hope this makes sense!! Thanks for watching!
Thank you! I don't know what other people charge. I'm sure it's different depending on the cost of living where you are at. I can gauge that it probably takes a couple hours to do this, so I will pay myself what I want to get paid hourly times how long I think it will take to do. Pay yourself well! Alterations is a 'skilled trade' and people are willing to pay the expertise and time that you put into a quality alteration!!!
Thank you for this video! I love how thorough your presentation is. I noticed you are using a non stick foot. Is this your normal procedure for working on special fabrics?
AH! You are so observant!!! Actually I use a Teflon foot for everything, other than when I need a zipper foot, or occasionally a 1/4" edge stitching foot. Thanks for watching!
@@jmjcc5 I use it because it has little corners/angles in its shape that I like to use as markers to line up topstitching from seams, or under-stitching, giving me an 1/8" measuring point ;) Also, maybe because I just don't find it necessary to change my foot all the time. With the Teflon, it'll work great on any fabric, and I have those nice little 'line-up' points on the foot for topstitching ;)
What would you do if you did that shoulder adjustment but then it was too tight in the armpit. How would you adjust a pattern to fix that or even fix it on the clothing itself??
*Currently I have a garment in queue that is awaiting this fix/alteration*. If you're making a garment from scratch, then you would simply lower the armhole shape, after changing or sloping the shoulder seam the amount needed. On a garment that is already made (like on the garment that's currently waiting on me!) we will need to reshape the lower part of the armhole to make that now-small armhole the size it needs to be to accommodate the sleeve. You can make a template of the original shape of the armhole before any shoulder alterations, and then AFTER you do the shoulder alteration, just lower your armhole template down from the armpit until the entire potential armhole area reaches the circumference of the original armhole. I hope this is clear! Let me know if you need more clarification!
I noticed that you’re not using the knife on the seam ripper, but instead pulling the thread until it breaks. Are you aware that there usually is a blade in the inner corner of it? At least there is in Sweden. This might make your ripping a bit easier. Also great for buttonholes and such!
Hi there! Great observation :) Yes, I am aware there is a blade. I prefer to slide the thread out of the fabric so I don't have a bunch of little tiny bits of thread that I have to pull out of the fabric and clean up. Just makes it a bit easier on me for the clean-up, that's all. Thanks for your concern that I might not know there's a blade! Thanks for watching!
I am working on a dress that fits the circumference of the bust and but is too wide in the shoulders and the armskye is huge almost twice what it should be. It has a princess seam in the armskye so I am thinking to increase the depth of the dart from the bust to the armskye front and back and then gather the sleeve. If i take it up at the shoulder the bust point will be too high. I might have to do the back a little differently to avoid a bulge there.
Wow, that's an interesting problem to have. It sounds like your approach is a good one. If you have to take the back vertical princess seam dart far down enough in order to avoid a bulge, then the circumference of the garment might be less than you want around the bust. You *could* perhaps, then, let out a little on the side seams (if there's any extra) to make up for what is taken in on those back princess seams. I'd love to hear how this all turns out for you. A rather complicated issue, and your problem solving seems to me to be heading in the right direction. Good luck!
This dress was done last year, and I have no clue what I charged!! There may have also been other alterations I did on this dress. But I do base my charges on my estimated time to do the project, and how much my time is worth (and believe me, when people hire you for a skill that they do not have, they ARE willing to pay). Hope that helped a little! Thank you so much for watching!
Thank you for taking the time to respond. It does. I’ve been sewing and quilting for years and realizing now that I have some skills! I want to try sewing clothes for me. 🐞
When would this be a good alteration? I'm not a very experienced sewer so I didn't fully grasp it. I'm trying to learn to alter clothes to fit my body because I have gotten sick and tired of ill fitting clothes. I'm tall with an hour glass shape and thus a full bust. And it is so difficult to find clothes that fit appropriately over the bust and my waist at the same time. All I'm looking for is a good fit.
I understand how frustrating it can be to try and find clothes that fit well. This particular alteration can work if the shoulder seam stands up from the shoulder, indicating that the angle of the shoulder seam is wrong for the body, or when the bustline of the garment falls too low. However in this video, it was a rather strange alteration to do for the problem we were addressing. This gal was very big busted and the armhole was gaping. Normally when this issue happens, we need to put in a dart coming from the armhole out toward the bust (because the body is changing shape much more drastically than the cloth). BUT....if we took that dart in THIS dress, it would have created more skin showing because the cut of the armhole would have created it. Hard to explain without seeing it. So it just so happened that if we took it up at the shoulder, it did indeed alleviate the big gape that was at the armhole. So perhaps the problem indeed was a wrong shoulder angle of the dress (?). At any rate, it solved the problem, so we went with it. I don't know if that helps you any, but hopefully it will to some extent. Thanks for watching and commenting :)
Thank you for watching! If you are having trouble with patterns, before you cut everything out you might be able to just angle your shoulder seem down a bit. I usually have to do this on my own me-made clothing. I draw the shoulder seam (on both front and back pattern pieces) from the neck edge as the pattern has it, then slant the seam so that it's 1/4" lower when it hits the tip of the shoulder. I then have to lower the armhole by 1/4" because I've just made the armhole smaller when I angled the shoulder seam. HHmmm....and idea for a future video, I think! Thanks for leaving a comment :)
I usually use a 3.5 stitch length, but can’t recall what I used on this dress. With mesh fabrics, sometimes I reduce it to 3. The size needle is most likely an 80/12. I don’t use special thread. It’s the cheapest I can find….. a box with MANY colors on small spools (so I can keep a wide array of colors in my studio for every project!). Thanks for asking :)
I'm taking up the shoulders on a mother of the brides dress.Is there an rule on how high to go below the neck. This dress was very similar to the dress you were showing us. Hers had to be taken up a total of two inches. To me it seemed high but she was ok with it. Just wondering if there is a rule of how high of low below there neck to go.
I’m not quite sure I understand what you mean when you say ‘below the neck’. But no matter, you should only do any alteration to the point that the problem you’re trying to fix is eliminated. Make sure her armholes aren’t too tight and that the bust line falls in an acceptable place. Please comment again if this doesn’t answer your question! I’d really like to help if I can ❤️
Hi there! Thanks for watching! It’s hard to talk specifics regarding price, as the cost of living in different parts of the U. S., as well as around the world, are quite different. Probably you can gauge what someone charges per hour for their skill, and figure it could take a couple hours to do this, depending on their proficiency. So this might help you figure out what you would charge, or what you might pay someone else to do it. :)
The alteration fitting should have been done after removing the sleeves and neck Facing. Besides the back of the shoulder may not need alteration also.
When a person comes for a fitting, I am able to pin excess fabric out and know what needs to be changed. The dress fit perfectly, as you can see from the photo inserted into this video, from the process I used. Thank you for watching and your input. :)
If you look at the 7:00 minute mark, I make a quick mention of what I 'could' do, but went the more professional route. If you have a sleeveless dress, this would be a good quick way to do it. If there is a sleeve, you will still have to pluck it out at the shoulder seam, take up the shoulder, then figure out if you want to add gather, pleat, etc. to the top of the shoulder, or take the entire sleeve out and take it in on the underarm, then reshape the sleeve to reset it. The quickest way of course, would be to add gathers or a nice pleat at the top of the sleeve head. Hope this helps a bit! Thanks for watching :)
I'm 5' tall and love to wear pretty dresses however I can almost never find one that fits perfectly. Therefore I've had to pay extra to have the dress altered hence ending up paying nearly 50% more than the initial price of the dress. The alterations are mostly at the shoulder by a good 2"-3" being taken off for a good fit. This type of alteration is the most expensive compared to having the hemline taken up, or down. It is for this reason that sadly I haven't bought a dress in the last 4/5 years and have instead gone over to wearing trousers instead!! 😿💔🙈
I’m so sorry this is your situation. Might be time for you to learn how to do your own sewing and learning a bit of pattern making so you can alter your patterns to fit your body!!!! ;) Or… just do your own alterations. You’ll find out why it costs what it does!
Just curious what your thought process is. If the original shoulder seam wasn't done as a French seam, and it would have been easier to replicate the original type of seam, less time consuming and less costly for my client, would the French seam have any benefit? I can see doing it this way if one doesn't have a serger, and certainly a French seam is nice for longevity. If you can provide some insight for me, I'm open to it and would love to hear it. Thank you for watching!
Thanks you for watching and for your input! I will assess the ad issue on this video...you're the first person to say anything so I'll certainly check into it! Thanks for letting me know. Happy Sewing!!!
WOW! I really appreciate your expertise on this... I've done alterations before but when it's formal dresses, it's nice to have another perspective for the best, and hopefully easiest way to approach them.😍. I've been binging your videos. Love them 💖! Thanks so much! Can't wait to see what you save next time!🌄🌹🌷💕🥰
Wow! What an incredible compliment you just gave me! This is what makes all the time and effort trying to make useful videos worth it!!! I appreciate your taking the time to comment and truly hope that my perspective helps you to make the best decisions for your alterations and sewing! 🥰
Your instruction is very clear and camera showed exactly what you were explaining. Alteration in a tight space is so tricky. Thank you. Pretty fabric.
Thank you very much for your compliments, and for taking the time to comment. Yes, alterations in a tight space IS very tricky ;)
It’s so satisfying to watch someone who actually knows what she’s doing. My father was a tailor and my mother was a seamstress so I learned the proper way to sew and alter clothes. I can tell that you were properly trained. I had so much fun watching your video. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. Now let me go binge watch your channel.
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! My grandfather was a master tailor, but he died when I was very young. I like to think it’s in the genes, somehow!!! ;) Happy binge-watching! ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks so much for this. I wear a petite, and due to the lack of items available, sometimes end up having to get a regular size, which invariably is too long in the bodice. The shoulders need to be taken up to make it fit with my body, and to make sure the neckline isn't too low. I do wish buyers would notice that there is a large segment of women who NEED petite sizes.
I hope this was helpful for you. Thanks for watching and commenting. It was once a problem that tall people never had pants long enough from the ready-to-wear market. Now it seems that everything is rather long. I hope that the petite market will get more of what they need also! Just watch the armholes to make sure they don't get too small with this alteration, as well as the neckline can ride too high (if it's a higher neckline to begin with). These are problems that can happen when the shoulder is taken up, so just be aware. Thank you for your comment and I hope you'll get your bodices to fit better ;)
Same here! It took me way too long to figure out why blouses always looked so sloppy on me.
Nice to be able to sew and either make your own or alter bought ones to fit!!!!
Here's what I wrote before finishing this video and finding your fix the sleeve video. I subscribed!
Plus size apple figures don't fit into ready to wear either. I buy crew neck t-shirts in a plus size 2x at Kohls. Ix is way too small. Because I don't have the bust size they must make them for, the shoulder needs to be raised and narrowed and the sleeve seam needs to be narrowed for modesty. Until I try to alter a pattern and make tshirts again, I sew a wider underarm seam for now and end it a couple of inches into the body. Better, but probably needs to continue to the hem as it causes bunching under the arm. The much younger size 12 me fit into most everything ready to wear except many brands of slacks as the rise they cut doesn't fit everyone.
I am grateful for fitting videos. Someone showed using binder clips to pinch out fabric to see how various changes would work. Then she sewed a large basting stitch to check the fit.
That was THE BEST alteration/sewing demonstration I've ever seen in my life! Instructions were clear and detailed. You left nothing to the imagination. I subscribed to your channel and look forward to finally sewing with confidence. Thank you.
I simply can't "HEART" your comment enough! Thank you so much not only for the encouragement, but gifting me with the knowledge that my video helped you! I hope that I will continue to put out videos that will help those who just simply need to know how. Many blessings to you and please stop by again!!
This is currently outside the scope of any sewing I do now, but it was fascinating to see the technical aspect of the construction, tear down, alter, and reconstruction, and the difference it made in the fit of the garment. Thank you for showing and explaining it so clearly. You made it seem like even I could tackle an alteration like this! Well done!
Thank you for watching and for the great compliment! You never know...maybe some day you will tackle a project like this!
This petite girl is very excited! This is gonna help me so much. Thank you.
I'm so glad you found this video! Good luck and thank you for watching and commenting ;)
This was the perfect video i was searching for 😭 I was having this specific problem and was going crazy. Thank you so much!!!!
Oh I'm so happy you found my video helpful!!! Good luck with your project! Let me know if you have any questions; I can try to provide helpful answers! :)
I love to watch your program, I really learn alot even though I have been sewing over 50 years, I love it. THANK YOU
Wonderful! So glad you keep watching. More videos are in the planning, but it just takes so much time to get them done! Thanks for watching! ❤️
Great tutorial! And it really is a simple fix. I've been sewing for the public for many many years, I am 70 years old. Your instructions will help give confidence to the younger crowd who are learning clothing alterations. Good work
Thank you so much! I appreciate the compliment and encouragement 💕
I used to do this and it was the taking apart that took so long. You did an excellent job of showing the detail. It’s great to learn again. Back then, a dry cleaner was charging $40 an hour to do these types of alterations! I enjoyed your channel. 💗
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! Glad to have you here!
Thank you for your video. I'm narrow shouldered so I usually need to alter the shoulders but was never quite happy with the results. Your video helped a lot.
You're so welcome! I hope it was helpful to you! Thanks for watching and commenting. :)
Thank you for explaining which thread of serging to remove. I don't have a serger, so all those threads are always confusing for me to figure out.
You’re welcome! Glad you gleaned some useful info from this video ❤️ Thank you so much for leaving me a comment 🙂
Thank you for this video. Raising the shoulder seam, with this exact type of sleeve, is what I need to do today, for a dress that I want to wear to a wedding. Thx again.👏👏👏
So happy to hear this video will be useful to you (hopefully!!!) Good luck with your alteration and thank you for taking the time to watch and comment!
Thank you for this, I can now follow your video to take my shoulder seams in
So glad that this will be helpful to you! I hope you have great success in your shoulder seam project. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Oh My! You are so patient! Deep gratitude for you here for sharing your skills. Blessings of Benevolence and Abundance. Thank you once again. Love and Light to All here. 🙏
You are so very welcome! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
That's really a tough fabric to work with. Well done.
Thank you 😊and thanks for watching!
I just found your video and enjoyed you expertise in which you applied to this project. I have been sewing for years making my own garments and have the sewing machine and the babylock evolution serger. Thank you❤😊
I’m so glad you found my channel!! Thanks for taking the time to comment. Please enjoy the videos….. more to come! ❤️
I stumbled across your channel whilst looking for tips in shortening dress sleeves. I wanted to say a huge thank you, I really enjoyed your video and you explained everything so clearly. I find them demonstrations so helpful in getting me to fully understand the techniques. I also loved how you gave a selection of the different ways of doing it and why you specifically chose that particular method. Although I’m only doing this to a dance costume, I wanted to try and make sure I could do a good job of altering it for my daughter’s friend. 🌷🌸🌷
I appreciate your comment. Thank you for taking the time to leave it. It's always my endeavor to offer content that will help people be more confident in doing alterations. I hope it has done this for you. Good luck with your dance costume...I hope it goes splendidly for you!
Excellent video! I think I'd rather make the whole dress from start to finish rather than tackle that huge alteration, which is why I make my own clothes.
I certainly do understand! That was my mantra many years ago. Building clothes from the ground up was the only way I would sew. But then I started working with a couple ladies at a store front shop, and alterations became not so daunteding. My own clothes...I make them from scratch, however! ;) Better to avoid the problems to begin with rather than to go back and fix them. ;) Thank you for watching and dropping a comment
I enjoy both sewing fron scratch and alterations so great when it is finished and ur coustomer is satasfied even though alterations takes time
@@angele8638 So very true!! Alterations can be time consuming, but it's satisfying to have a pleased customer!
I just got here and I'm already in love with the channel. I NEED a good alterations channel. Because it's time to stop having ill fitting clothes that only need minor edits!!! I know how to sew and have a reliable machine.
That's awesome! I'm so glad to have you here :) Hopefully there are some vids here that can help you out. I'm always open for suggested topics, too, and as they come through the studio, I will feature those alterations as I'm able. Thanks for your comment!!!
Thank you for this video. I'm new to alterations and needed to take up the shoulders in couple of woven fabric dresses for a client. I did exactly what you did, and I'm so happy! Even the fiddling with the neckline binding. That is exactly how one of the dresses was, so it was very reassuring to see how you do it. I appreciate that you share your knowledge and experience!
Thank you so much for letting me know that you encountered the same exact situation, especially regarding the neck binding. Sometimes I’m not sure if showing too much detail is overwhelming for a viewer, or if it’s helpful. Your comment clears it up for me. I’m so very happy my video helped you with your alteration!!!! Thanks for watching and commenting ❤️
Exactly what I needed! Was not sure how raising the shoulder would work, but now I'm sure this is how I can give my jacket a better fit. Thank you so much! ♥
I hope it works out well for you! Thank you for watching and leaving a comment!
This was amazingly detailed. I'm trying to watch more sewing tutorials so I can get up the confidence to cut into my own clothes (that really need work done on them!) and I love your style of videos and teaching
Oh I'm so glad you found my channel! Thanks for watching...I hope you get some information that you can use from some of my vids!!!
Thank you so much - I’ve literally had this exact alteration in to do today. Your advice on gathering the sleeve head was perfect timing. X
WOW no kidding???!!! I have been trying to get this video edited and released for over a month now. Life just kept getting in the way, you know? But I'm glad it was delayed if it somehow helped it to come across your feed just now. It makes me so happy to hear that something from one of my videos actually helps someone out. I thank you for taking the time to comment and let me know this!!
This is a common problem for me. Thank you so much for sharing your tips. I will definitely benefit from this video for years to come.
I’m very glad it will be helpful for you! Thank you for watching!
Thank you 🙏 I need to adjust a lot of my clothes as I’ve lost a lot of weight 😅
You’re welcome 😊
Wonderful video. Great close up photographry to see the details.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for commenting!!
That was a great video. Your voice is clear and nice to listen to and you explain so that it's slow and easy to follow.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting. I''m so glad it was helpful to you!
Hi from Texas. Thank you for sharing. I learned a lot.
Hi Connie! Thanks so much for watching! Glad you got something out of this video :)
What a great video! So many sleeveless dresses I have are to big under the arms. Thanks
Glad it was helpful! Depending on the styles of your dresses, sometimes taking a dart from the armhole toward the bust can help, without having to go to the shoulder seam. On the dress featured in this video, I couldn't do that because the dart would have been quite large and because of the shaping of the dress, the armhole opening would have pitched forward, showing more of the side bra area. It was very strange, and I would rather have done it that way. But, for this dress, this was the only option we had! Good luck with your sleeveless dresses. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
Thanks for clearly explaining this shoulder fix it's really helpful
You're very welcome. I hope it is helpful to you. Thanks for your comment :)
you are so amazing .you are the only one who made me really undestand how to do it properly in the simplest explanation thank u!
Thank you ever so much for taking the time to leave this comment! It makes my heart so happy that this video helped you!!!
Great camera angles. Thanks for sharing your expertise, much appreciated.
You’re welcome! Thank you for watching. I hope this content is helpful. :)
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I learnt a lot from this demonstration. Thank you😍
You are so welcome! I'm glad you found this helpful!!
Thank you for the video. I have several tops that fall off my shoulders that I have "fixed'" but not to my liking.. I guess I'll get busy and fix right. Thanks for your help.
Thanks for watching and commenting! You’re very welcome 😊
Brilliant you are utterly so informed knowledgeable and a great teacher thank you so much.
What an incredible compliment. Thank you so very much. I hope this video was informative for you! Thanks for leaving a comment! ❤️
A friend gave me a bunch of dresses. I think I can now make the necessary adjustments.
That's great! I hope you're able to make the alterations you need with great success! Thanks for watching!
When I do more complex alterations, I take photos as I work on the project. It helps my memory if there are days I don’t work on the project. I also make handwritten notes.
That's a great idea and one I also utilize. I'm so glad for modern phones where a quick pic can be easily referenced, zoomed in on, and then deleted when no longer needed! Great tip!! Thanks for watching!
Hello - I stumbled across your video desperately looking for instructions how to take up the shoulder seam. I am 82 yrs, done some sewing, but bought a dress for my grand daughter’s wedding coming up soon. How I wish I was able to come to you to do this alterations. My dress has mesh inlay with appliqué work on the full bodice to neck. Went to one place but she was not willing to lift up the shoulder due to the appliqué work. Other places are fully booked! So now I am left with no choice but to tackle this challenge myself. You are extremely good at your work and very detail in your instructions - I hope I will get it right….wish I could send you a picture of my dress - so you could further instruct me how to deal with the Appliqué part at the shoulder seam.
Thank you for leaving a comment. Please look at the video description and there you will find a link to my personal business site. You can email me from there…. Or at least start a conversation with me so I can get my email to you ;)
Gathering the sleeve top. Genius. Thank you.
You are so welcome! Thanks for watching!
Thanks so very much. I've been going to study sewing casually for several years and, watching this lesson on lifting the shoulders and slightly gathering the sleeves has been extremely helpful. My question now is if you would be adjusting the darts on the bodice of the garment as well? Happy sewing!
In the case of this dress, nothing needed to be changed regarding darting issues. Now if you had a dress and there were bust darts that got raised too much during this process, the pattern rule is: if the point of the dart is somewhere within the 3” radius of the bust circle(aka: the radius around bust apex), it’s within proper guidelines. Oftentimes though we think it looks too high and want it lowered. It’s possible it could be angled downward but all depends on if fabric is cut away either within the dart or on the side seam, where there’s usually a triangular type of shaping change that happens at the base of the dart. If there’s enough in the side seams to recreate the dart in a new location, that could be done, too. This is probably way more answer than you wanted but I tried to include what I thought was the most complete explanation! Hope it helped somewhat! Thanks for watching!!!!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I found your video quite informative and helpful. Is it possible to make a similar shoulder adjustment to a sleeved garment without gathering the sleeve cap?
Yes you can! You would need to redraw the armhole to its original size after you take up the shoulder, and you’d remove the entire sleeve. You can make a template of your original armhole before you take up the shoulder, after you remove the sleeve. Then after you take up the shoulder, use your template by matching it to the new shoulder seam and side seam (it’ll be a little lower on the side seam than the original hole), and draw the new armhole, and cut it out. Now your old sleeve will fit perfect in! Good luck and thank you for watching!
Wow! Beautiful video and 10/10 for your patience.❤
Thank you! 😊 So kind of you to leave this comment! Thanks for watching! 💕
Thank you for sharing this video, I learned a lot.
You are very welcome. I'm glad it was helpful!!!
Hi there. Your videos are so clear and informative. Well done. As I am very slow in doing alterations, I just wondered if you have a pricing strategy as I like to take the same care as you and get it as near to original construction as I can. But the time it takes never seems to match how much I can charge.
Hi! Thank you for watching my videos
Wonderful video. So informative. Thank you.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Thank you..i surely learn a lot..i love alterations.
You're welcome 😊Thank you for taking the time to comment
This is such a common problem, especially in petites or even just small busts. I'm a tiny petite with aa bust so I have some experience.. 😂 But it's seen on average sizes too especially I t shirts, constantly pulling them down, thinking that they're too small when really the shirt is just going for where it wants to be. It's literally pulling the excess up, almost exactly what to pin out. It's pretty easy. Putting the neck back together is the challenge sometimes. Reverse engineering the garment is fun.
I agree with you, reverse engineering the garment is fun ;) There can be a few easons why a garment will bunch or pull up. On my client in this video, she is actually tall, and quite large busted. The proportions of the ready-made dress were just 'off' for her body type. I would rather have put darts going from the armholes toward the bust, but it would have revealed too much skin in front of her armhole (you wouldn't think so, but it would have!). Taking up the shoulder was actually a surprise fix for me, because I didn't think it was going to work...but it did! Thank you for watching and leaving your comment!!!
Love this! Thank you from a new subbie from Alaska 🙋🏻♀️🏔️💕🪡
Welcome to my channel, subbie from Alaska!! Always fun to know where people are from. Thanks for dropping a comment and I hope you find my content helpful to you!
Thank you for this great video.
I will try this technique to bring up a too deep neckline on a bias cut dress since I have plenty of armhole depth to work with and the diagonal chest seam ends lower than my natural waist.
However I have a sway back and I'm not sure how to improve the bunching I get above my back waist. Any tips? I would love it if you could address this issue in a dedicated video as everything I have seen is about pattern adjustments, not garment alterations.
On an unrelated note, I love your hair!
Hi there! Thank you for stopping by and watching my video. Let me try to address your swayback (which I also have). Are there any seams (princess seams?) on the back? If the entire waistline of the dress is falling lower than it should, is there any way you can let out seams around your hip are, to release fabric so that it will freely fall without catching on your hips? If you can achieve that, then you can either add darts in the back (3" to each side of center back), or take in the seams in that area if there are princess seams, just above where the sway back issue is. Not sure if that makes any sense, without having seen your dress. Of course, if there is a waist seem in back then you can raise the skirt portion onto the bodice, thus taking away that extra bodice fabric that is catching up. This is a great idea for a video, and I'll put it in my list of possibilities. I'll keep an eye out if I have this particular problem come through my studio :)
Aw! That's so sweet :) Thank you!!
Great shoulder adjustment tutorial 👍🌺🌿🌻🍀🌷
Thank you so much for watching! I hope it was helpful in some way :)
I really like your approach. Deal with a problem as it comes up! I, too, would be interested to know how you charge, and if you are using a Teflon foot on your machine. Thanks so much!
Thanks for watching! You can't always predict the issues that will arise when you deconstruct something that was made by someone else, so you will have problems that come up that need to be problem-solved! Yes, I use a Teflon foot, but mostly because I know it'll work smoothly with all my fabric, and I like the little angles that are on it to visually mark different measurements from the needle. That's just me, though ;) I don't recall what I charged for this. Nor would I want to put it out there publically. Basically, though, I take the amount that I want to be paid for my skilled profession (and yes...people WILL pay for a job they cannot do), and that amount will differ throughout the country and world, depending on the cost of living in your area. Then I try to estimate how long I think the project will take (this, however, only comes through experience and learning my proficiency). Then I charge accordingly by my estimated hours of work and my per hour charge. I like my client to know up front what the cost will be without any "OOOPS, your project took 10 hours instead of only two" mishaps, if I was to charge after the fact by how many hours. Yes, there are projects that seems to make more, because I finish them quicker than I project, and ones that take longer. It evens out in there somewhere! Having explained all that, sometimes I get EXTRA SPECIALTY project...those with a lot of hand work, etc....that I will indeed charge according to how many hours I actually work on it, because these are projects I haven't done before. My client will know up front what the possible charges could be. I hope my lenghty explanation was of some help!
@@SewDarnedFun That was a perfect answer, and I appreciate your honesty. I have been sewing since I was young enough to sit up to the machine with my Mom and I’m 65. I’ve done extensive sewing and quilting, but I’m only recently exploring the business side. My current project is a wedding dress into a Christening dress. I had no choice but to estimate my time in order to give the Mom a price. I’m tracking my sewing steps vs. time spent carefully for future reference.
Good for you!! A good seamstress is in great demand currently (at least in my area). There are those who settle for ‘ok’ alterations and those who want ‘excellent’ alterations. Sounds like you’re very organized and very wise of you to keep track of your time on projects etc. ❤️Love your christening dress project at the moment. What a great idea and use of a wedding dress!
OMG!! I love your explanation. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching and commenting! I appreciate your viewership!!!!
I'm subscribed and really loving your content. Very clear instructions, great camera work too. Many thanks.
Thank you for watching, subscribing, and commenting! I’m glad my content is useful to you :)
THANK YOU! this is so helpful. I quite like the shape of that finished sleeve and would like to add one to a sleeveless top I have- does it have a name?
Glad it was helpful. As far as I know it's just a gathered cap sleeve :) Thank you for leaving a comment!
thank you for your very informative video. I have to do the same to a dress and take up shoulder seam by two inches, however this then creates the issue of the armhole being smaller and digging into the armpit. How do you stop the armpit issue please
Hi there! I plan to make a video in several week addressing this specific issue. What you will need to do is lower the armhole. You can do this by tracing the front and back of the existing armhole and making a template. You’d have to make sure the garment is lying absolutely flat and not skewing the shape. If you are taking the shoulders in 1” on front and 1” on back, then you will position your templates 1” below the old armhole (added up it will actually equal the 2” you took in). Then trace around the templates, blending the shape into the old armhole about half way up or so. I hope that helps a bit! I have a video that does include lowering the armhole on a summer dress that I am making. Here’s the link… maybe it might help a bit! Start watching at about the 10:40 mark and it will show on a paper pattern the same steps you can do on an actual dress. But I’m using a French curve ruler rather than a template. ruclips.net/video/VfLQNnAmHtg/видео.htmlsi=eFoiVRXi6F7JDjMs I hope this helps you! 💕
Greetings from Mexico. Nice work and video.
Hello Mexico! 😉 I’m glad you found me! Thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment!
So impressed with these camera shots ...how did you do that !! just wonderful to see everything your doing !! great tutorial, do you always use a teflon foot ?
Wow! Thanks for the compliment on my camera shots! LOL! Definately not professional here on the video-front. Those were probably with my iphone, to tell you the truth! Thanks for watching, and I just usually leave my teflon foot on, unless I need to use my zipper, or buttonhole foot. I find it just sews smoothly over everything, but defintely not necessary!! Thanks for watching! :)
Terrific work. Spot on.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you for the video! Can I ask how you would approach this if the dress had a collar? Would you in pick it from the shoulder seam area and then re attach it? Or would a bit need to be cut off? 🤔 I'm a bit stuck! Thank you
Hi there! That's a great question. I'm not sure there's a clear answer when I don't know what sort of collar, and if the shoulder seam needs to be taken up the entire way (from the neck to the shoulder tip), or just slanted down from the neck area. I will assume the entire shoulder seam is taken up. You are right in that is seems you'd need to take out all, or at least part, of the collar. If you can pick it out only from shoulder seam, across the back, and to the other shoulder seam...leaving the center front in place...that might be optimal. You might be able to create a center back seam in the collar that would shrink the collar the amount needed so that it will fit back into the neck area nicely. Does that help at all? Thanks for watching and asking your question :)
@SewDarnedFun thank you very much I will try that!
I had my dress altered for my daughter’s wedding. She did this same alteration. Unfortunately, because I am quite busty, the seam under the bust ended up too high by at least an inch. I thought it looked okay, until we got back the wedding photos. 😢 Since then, when I’ve altered my own, I usually take a tuck or add a dart either at center back, or to either side of the center back.
Do you have another solution?
Well if it makes you feel any better, the patternmaking rules for bust darts is that they need to end somewhere inside the bust circle, which by definition is a 2" circle at the apex of the bust. The dart can end higher or lower and still be considered correct. But, then we come to the issue if whether or not you like where it falls. I wonder if maybe the dart can just be angled down so that the point of it is lower. I also wonder if the fitting issue you are describing is the same (or not) that I cover in this video. Taking a tuck in the back (if I understand correctly) wouldn't solve the issue that I had with this particular dress. Keep in mind, also, that taking up the shoulders would be secondary to first seeing if make the existing dart larger would work. In my case, for whatever reason, a larger bust dart did not solve the problem. I hope this makes sense!! Thanks for watching!
This was so helpful, thank you!
I'm so glad! Thanks for taking the time to comment ☺️
Awesome tutorial. How much does someone charge for an alteration like this?
Thank you! I don't know what other people charge. I'm sure it's different depending on the cost of living where you are at. I can gauge that it probably takes a couple hours to do this, so I will pay myself what I want to get paid hourly times how long I think it will take to do. Pay yourself well! Alterations is a 'skilled trade' and people are willing to pay the expertise and time that you put into a quality alteration!!!
Thank you for this video! I love how thorough your presentation is. I noticed you are using a non stick foot. Is this your normal procedure for working on special fabrics?
AH! You are so observant!!! Actually I use a Teflon foot for everything, other than when I need a zipper foot, or occasionally a 1/4" edge stitching foot. Thanks for watching!
@@SewDarnedFun I’m curious as to why you prefer the non stick foot. I do have one but I haven’t employed it’s use yet. Thank you again for your reply.
@@jmjcc5 I use it because it has little corners/angles in its shape that I like to use as markers to line up topstitching from seams, or under-stitching, giving me an 1/8" measuring point ;) Also, maybe because I just don't find it necessary to change my foot all the time. With the Teflon, it'll work great on any fabric, and I have those nice little 'line-up' points on the foot for topstitching ;)
Well done! Thank you. Very helpful.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and commenting!
What would you do if you did that shoulder adjustment but then it was too tight in the armpit. How would you adjust a pattern to fix that or even fix it on the clothing itself??
*Currently I have a garment in queue that is awaiting this fix/alteration*. If you're making a garment from scratch, then you would simply lower the armhole shape, after changing or sloping the shoulder seam the amount needed. On a garment that is already made (like on the garment that's currently waiting on me!) we will need to reshape the lower part of the armhole to make that now-small armhole the size it needs to be to accommodate the sleeve. You can make a template of the original shape of the armhole before any shoulder alterations, and then AFTER you do the shoulder alteration, just lower your armhole template down from the armpit until the entire potential armhole area reaches the circumference of the original armhole. I hope this is clear! Let me know if you need more clarification!
Would love to see a video on this
Thank you so much for your great tutorials!
You're very welcome! So glad that you are watching! :)
Extremely useful
Tks so much
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for leaving a comment!
Quality work!
Thank you! ❤️
Great instructions!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!!!
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching!
I noticed that you’re not using the knife on the seam ripper, but instead pulling the thread until it breaks. Are you aware that there usually is a blade in the inner corner of it? At least there is in Sweden. This might make your ripping a bit easier. Also great for buttonholes and such!
Hi there! Great observation :) Yes, I am aware there is a blade. I prefer to slide the thread out of the fabric so I don't have a bunch of little tiny bits of thread that I have to pull out of the fabric and clean up. Just makes it a bit easier on me for the clean-up, that's all. Thanks for your concern that I might not know there's a blade! Thanks for watching!
Beautiful
Thank you! ❤️
Very helpful , thanks.
You’re welcome!
Thanks. I learned a lot from u
I am working on a dress that fits the circumference of the bust and but is too wide in the shoulders and the armskye is huge almost twice what it should be. It has a princess seam in the armskye so I am thinking to increase the depth of the dart from the bust to the armskye front and back and then gather the sleeve. If i take it up at the shoulder the bust point will be too high. I might have to do the back a little differently to avoid a bulge there.
Wow, that's an interesting problem to have. It sounds like your approach is a good one. If you have to take the back vertical princess seam dart far down enough in order to avoid a bulge, then the circumference of the garment might be less than you want around the bust. You *could* perhaps, then, let out a little on the side seams (if there's any extra) to make up for what is taken in on those back princess seams. I'd love to hear how this all turns out for you. A rather complicated issue, and your problem solving seems to me to be heading in the right direction. Good luck!
What did you charge for that alteration if I may ask. Thanks for your tutorial. 🐞
This dress was done last year, and I have no clue what I charged!! There may have also been other alterations I did on this dress. But I do base my charges on my estimated time to do the project, and how much my time is worth (and believe me, when people hire you for a skill that they do not have, they ARE willing to pay). Hope that helped a little! Thank you so much for watching!
Thank you for taking the time to respond. It does. I’ve been sewing and quilting for years and realizing now that I have some skills! I want to try sewing clothes for me. 🐞
Very impressive
Thank you!
When would this be a good alteration? I'm not a very experienced sewer so I didn't fully grasp it. I'm trying to learn to alter clothes to fit my body because I have gotten sick and tired of ill fitting clothes. I'm tall with an hour glass shape and thus a full bust. And it is so difficult to find clothes that fit appropriately over the bust and my waist at the same time. All I'm looking for is a good fit.
I understand how frustrating it can be to try and find clothes that fit well. This particular alteration can work if the shoulder seam stands up from the shoulder, indicating that the angle of the shoulder seam is wrong for the body, or when the bustline of the garment falls too low. However in this video, it was a rather strange alteration to do for the problem we were addressing. This gal was very big busted and the armhole was gaping. Normally when this issue happens, we need to put in a dart coming from the armhole out toward the bust (because the body is changing shape much more drastically than the cloth). BUT....if we took that dart in THIS dress, it would have created more skin showing because the cut of the armhole would have created it. Hard to explain without seeing it. So it just so happened that if we took it up at the shoulder, it did indeed alleviate the big gape that was at the armhole. So perhaps the problem indeed was a wrong shoulder angle of the dress (?). At any rate, it solved the problem, so we went with it. I don't know if that helps you any, but hopefully it will to some extent. Thanks for watching and commenting :)
This was a very informative video. Thank you so much! I have this problem with all the patterns I try. 😢
Thank you for watching! If you are having trouble with patterns, before you cut everything out you might be able to just angle your shoulder seem down a bit. I usually have to do this on my own me-made clothing. I draw the shoulder seam (on both front and back pattern pieces) from the neck edge as the pattern has it, then slant the seam so that it's 1/4" lower when it hits the tip of the shoulder. I then have to lower the armhole by 1/4" because I've just made the armhole smaller when I angled the shoulder seam. HHmmm....and idea for a future video, I think! Thanks for leaving a comment :)
@@SewDarnedFun thank you! I’ll try it in the future!
Yes, see if it works! I know it helps my garments not to stick up on the corner of my shoulders ;)
What size needle and type of thread? Do you do a 3 in length?
I usually use a 3.5 stitch length, but can’t recall what I used on this dress. With mesh fabrics, sometimes I reduce it to 3. The size needle is most likely an 80/12. I don’t use special thread. It’s the cheapest I can find….. a box with MANY colors on small spools (so I can keep a wide array of colors in my studio for every project!). Thanks for asking :)
Thank you so so much
Well explain uk
You are most welcome. Thank you for watching and commenting
Thank you so much Kerrie 😊
You are so welcome!
Just perfect 👍!
Glad you think so! Thanks so much ❤️
Hello, I make a lot of my clothes and because I’m short I always have to lift dresses at the shoulder and I’ve never seen a tutorial for it before.
I hope this helped! Thanks for watching! 😊
I'm taking up the shoulders on a mother of the brides dress.Is there an rule on how high to go below the neck. This dress was very similar to the dress you were showing us. Hers had to be taken up a total of two inches. To me it seemed high but she was ok with it. Just wondering if there is a rule of how high of low below there neck to go.
I’m not quite sure I understand what you mean when you say ‘below the neck’. But no matter, you should only do any alteration to the point that the problem you’re trying to fix is eliminated. Make sure her armholes aren’t too tight and that the bust line falls in an acceptable place. Please comment again if this doesn’t answer your question! I’d really like to help if I can ❤️
Thank you for your input. It was just me thinking it brought it up to high to her neck. She seem ok with it.
I enjoy watching and learning from you☺☺
Sounds like you did a good job! Bravo!! I'm glad you enjoy watching...such a kind compliment!
Lovely video!❤
Thank you so much! I hope it was helpful to you!!!
How much would doing that alteration cost
Hi there! Thanks for watching! It’s hard to talk specifics regarding price, as the cost of living in different parts of the U. S., as well as around the world, are quite different. Probably you can gauge what someone charges per hour for their skill, and figure it could take a couple hours to do this, depending on their proficiency. So this might help you figure out what you would charge, or what you might pay someone else to do it. :)
Thank you
You’re very welcome. I hope it’s helpful to you.
The alteration fitting should have been done after removing the sleeves and neck Facing. Besides the back of the shoulder may not need alteration also.
When a person comes for a fitting, I am able to pin excess fabric out and know what needs to be changed. The dress fit perfectly, as you can see from the photo inserted into this video, from the process I used. Thank you for watching and your input. :)
What brand of iron do you use?
I use a 'Hi-Steam' mini boiler iron. Thanks for asking. :)
Thank u for sharing....❤😊
Thanks for watching 😊
Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Thank you so much
Glad it was helpful to you. Thanks for watching!
How do you take it up at the shoulders without taking it all out? (The easy way)
If you look at the 7:00 minute mark, I make a quick mention of what I 'could' do, but went the more professional route. If you have a sleeveless dress, this would be a good quick way to do it. If there is a sleeve, you will still have to pluck it out at the shoulder seam, take up the shoulder, then figure out if you want to add gather, pleat, etc. to the top of the shoulder, or take the entire sleeve out and take it in on the underarm, then reshape the sleeve to reset it. The quickest way of course, would be to add gathers or a nice pleat at the top of the sleeve head. Hope this helps a bit! Thanks for watching :)
@@SewDarnedFun Thank you so much!
I'm 5' tall and love to wear pretty dresses however I can almost never find one that fits perfectly. Therefore I've had to pay extra to have the dress altered hence ending up paying nearly 50% more than the initial price of the dress. The alterations are mostly at the shoulder by a good 2"-3" being taken off for a good fit. This type of alteration is the most expensive compared to having the hemline taken up, or down. It is for this reason that sadly I haven't bought a dress in the last 4/5 years and have instead gone over to wearing trousers instead!! 😿💔🙈
I’m so sorry this is your situation. Might be time for you to learn how to do your own sewing and learning a bit of pattern making so you can alter your patterns to fit your body!!!! ;) Or… just do your own alterations. You’ll find out why it costs what it does!
Thank you for this!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching :)
Please more...
Hi Connie! I will try to put out more, as time allows!!!!
I would have done a French seam
Just curious what your thought process is. If the original shoulder seam wasn't done as a French seam, and it would have been easier to replicate the original type of seam, less time consuming and less costly for my client, would the French seam have any benefit? I can see doing it this way if one doesn't have a serger, and certainly a French seam is nice for longevity. If you can provide some insight for me, I'm open to it and would love to hear it. Thank you for watching!
Great instruction, but way too many ad interruptions.
Thanks you for watching and for your input! I will assess the ad issue on this video...you're the first person to say anything so I'll certainly check into it! Thanks for letting me know. Happy Sewing!!!