How much should alterations cost?

Question

today i took in a bridesmaid dress and it needs an inch and a half taken on each side of my torso, it needs to be shortened, and the train needs to be shortened since the bottom of my dress is being shortened. also i took in a pair of pants to be shortened. how much should all of these alterations cost do you think? thanks so much!

Answer 1

That can vary a lot depending on the details. Is it a lined dress? That'll cost more than an unlined one because you have twice as much work. Is it beaded? That can add on a lot more to the cost because beading will have to be removed and sometimes hand sewn back on to look right. Is there boning? That can cause problems and more work. Is there lace or ruffling on the bottom and on the train? If so, that has to be taken off by hand before the dress is shortened then reapplied.

If it's just a simple design to refit and take in with a minimum of work, I'd charge $40 for taking the dress in and shortening it would start at another $40 where there's a train if it's just a plain straight hem I could do by machine. If you wanted a hand-sewn hem, it would start at $60 to shorten it.

If it's a complicated design with lots of detail work and lining, you'd be looking at a starting price of $100 to take it in, and $125 to shorten it. Like I said, a lot depends on the amount of work involved. Taking in a dress by that much and shortening the length including a train can take several hours of work even on a simple design on ordinary fabric.

Now some will do it quickly and charge you less, but beware it being lower quality work. If it's done right, you shouldn't be able to tell anything was done to the dress afterwards. Even turning the seams out and examining them, they should look like they were the initial work, and the dress should lay and fit exactly like the original design.

Answer 2

I hope you got an estimate from your tailor!

Here's my estimate:

dress torso taken in, $15-$20. (I paid $28 for two dresses torsos taken in)

Shortened/hemmed, w/train; that's a lot of material to sew, maybe somewhere around $50 or more, depending on how full the dress and how long the train is. Not sure here, I had a full skirt on my wedding dress and the hemming was $50 about 10 years ago.

Pants to be hemmed: one pair $7-$8. (I paid 14.50 a pair once-Iwill never go back!)

Answer 3

It incredibly relies upon on the tailor and what the transformations are which you will have achieved. every time i'm getting my denims hemmed they generally are 7 money, whether finding on the tailor it may cost everywhere from 5-15.