the Cost of Alterations and Mending

The price is for hemming of one pair of dress slacks. Other services available include altering the fit and cut of shirts, pants, suits, and jackets, as well as measuring for custom tailored clothing made on-site. They are not, as appears to be usual these days, associated with a dry-cleaning shop. Prices vary based on how complicated a procedure needs to take place and the minimum cost for their work is $5 per garment.

Custom clothing varies in price depending on the quality of the material and the complication in the garment. Custom shirts start at $60 for basic broad cloth and go to over $300 for fine silks.

Although they offer "while you wait service," the shop was so busy when I stopped by that I decided not to risk it. I let the tailor measure my inseam and outseam and left my slacks after paying up front for the service. I returned at the end of the day to pick them up to find them not only tidily hemmed, but pressed as well. Before I left, the tailor handed me a business card and told me to call if there were any problems with the fit.

When I got home to try them on I noticed that one leg was slightly longer than the other, but after trying them on found that they fit perfectly, breaking evenly over the tops of my shoes.

Since then I've had shirts taken in, a suit altered, and have placed an order for several custom shirts. I couldn't be more pleased with the service.

It's impossible to express how much a difference good tailor can make in the fit of a garment. You'll never need to worry about shoulder seams being too low or shirts that billow out in the body. Considering something off the rack will, for most people, never quite fit perfectly, the small price of most alterations is negligible in comparison to the value of perfectly fitting clothing.

But how do you find a good tailor, the trade having almost vanished from much of the country? Dry cleaners sometimes do minor alterations, and some tailors are associated with department stores, but the better tailors are able to survive in their own shop rather than as a loss-leader in someone else's shop. Like any other trade, a shop busy with customers early and late in the day is a sign of a skilled tailor with reasonable prices, and a signal that they won't be going out of business any time soon.