What a tailor can fix, and what it costs

Alterations are the cheapest way to make clothes fit, and the fastest way to waste money. The difference is knowing which changes are structural and which are cosmetic.

The easy list

These are the alterations a tailor does quickly, at a modest price, with a result that looks factory-original:

• Hems — trousers, skirts, dresses. The most common alteration and the cheapest per unit of improvement.
• Waist taken in — on trousers and skirts, within about two inches. More than that and the pockets start to move.
• Sleeve length from the cuff — shirts and knits, where the cuff can be reattached.
• Cuffs and buttons — replacing, tightening, or moving a button is minutes of work.
• Taking in a side seam — on dresses and shirts, within a small range.

The hard list

These are possible but costly, and the result is less predictable:

• Sleeves from the shoulder — the armhole has to be re-cut and the lining re-set. On a jacket, expect a significant bill.
• Moving a waist seam — on a lined dress or a structured jacket, this can mean reconstructing the interior.
• Taking in a jacket’s chest or shoulders — structural, expensive, and often not worth it on anything but a good suit.
• Re-proportioning a garment’s length — a coat shortened below the knee changes the whole line, and the pockets often end up in the wrong place.

When to return instead

If the garment needs more than two structural changes, return it. A jacket that’s right in the shoulders but wrong in the chest, or a dress that needs both the waist and the length re-cut, is a garment that was cut for someone else. Alterations make a good fit better; they rarely rescue a wrong one.

The other return case: anything where the alteration would cost more than a third of the purchase price. At that point, buy the version that fits.

Building the habit

Find a tailor before you need one. Ask what they charge for a hem and a waist, and whether they do fittings by appointment. A good tailor will tell you when a garment isn’t worth altering — that advice is worth more than the alteration itself.

When you buy online, budget for one hem per pair of trousers. It’s the single highest-return alteration in a wardrobe, and it’s the reason a $60 pair can fit better than a $200 pair that was never adjusted.

How it reads in a scene

Nobody notices an altered garment, which is the point. The trouser that breaks at the right point, the sleeve that ends at the wrist bone, the waist that sits where it should — these are the details that make an outfit read as deliberate at every level.