Tailoring Classes: The Secret to Great Fitting Clothes

Have you ever flipped through an entertainment magazine while standing in line at the grocery store and wondered how your favorite celebrity looks so darn good all the time? While designer clothes and a stylist may be part of the answer, the real secret is this: tailored clothing. Tailored clothes are clothes made to match your measurements, so they fit better and look better.

Benefits of Tailoring

If you're used to buying your clothes at the mall and wearing them as-is, have ever been frustrated that a garment you made from a pattern still doesn't fit just right, or have struggled with picking out patterns that will produce flattering garments, tailored clothes will open up a whole new world for you. Clothes that truly fit will make you look better: taller, slimmer and more evenly proportioned. It may be hard to believe, but it's completely true.

Before you make a beeline towards the nearest alterations place, you can actually learn to tailor clothes yourself with online tailoring classes. Properly fitting clothes aren't reserved for the rich and famous; in fact, you don't even need to leave your house. With a few sewing lessons you can achieve great fit (and have all your friends asking if you joined a gym). You'll be looking at your wardrobe from a new perspective in no time.

Who Should Tailor

While everyone can benefit from tailored clothes, some body types will find it to be more of a necessity than others.

If you've recently lost a lot of weight, tailoring your clothes might be non-negotiable. It can be tempting to celebrate a new figure with a brand new wardrobe, but with the time and money you would spend shopping or sewing new clothes, you would be better off channeling that energy into making the clothes you already have fit your new body. Reworking your current wardrobe will help you breathe new life into old favorites and hang on to quality pieces you don't want to let go of.

If you are petite and tired of drowning in blouses or tripping over pant legs that are miles too long, tailoring your clothes will make you wonder how you ever got dressed in the morning before you discovered the secret to great fitting clothes. Clothing stores with petite lines are few are far between, and even if you go the route of sewing your own clothes you are bound for disappointment: commercial patterns are sized for a woman who is 5'5" (that is to say, not petite). Tailoring your clothes will resolve fit issues across the board.

Plus size women will also benefit from tailored clothing. Tailored clothes will play up the parts of your figure you want to emphasize and skim over problem areas.

Tailoring Ready-to-Wear

Anyone can reap the benefits of tailored clothing. Clothes are mass-produced, but people aren't. That's why you might find yourself putting back an otherwise amazing skirt because the waist is too big in one size and too small in the next size down. You'll learn what can easily be altered, including hems and waistbands. Nothing in your closet will be safe, and a trip to the mall will be even more fun when know what can take something from "okay" to "amazing." If you like to dig around in thrift or vintage stores, knowing which fit issues you can easily fix means you can find twice as many treasures.

Tailoring Wardrobe Basics

If your style is already more custom than ready-to-wear, or if you are ready to advance your sewing skills to garment construction, consider starting from scratch with your own wardrobe basics by taking tailoring classes online.

Any list of wardrobe essentials is likely to include a crisp button-down shirt. They can be dressed up or down, easily transition through the seasons and (theoretically) work on a variety of figures, so they provide any number of outfit possibilities. In fact, if "business dress" is part of your career path, you might feel like you live in button-down shirts Monday-Friday. Buying one with sleeves the right length that doesn't also gap at the bust and is available in the color you want might seem a really good dream. You'll end up with a perfectly fitted shirt, in just the right color, and enough confidence in your sewing skills to make a dozen more.

After you have a great fitting shirt, pants should be next on your list. Many people struggle to find a great fitting pair of pants off the rank. And you'll never have to go to the mall again.

Anyone who isn't sized like a fit model (pretty much everyone!) can benefit from tailored clothing. You can learn how to tailor your own items, whether you made it yourself or bought it at the mall, with sewing classes. Save the money you would spend on alterations and make another fabulous addition for your wardrobe. Tailored clothes will make you feel instantly pulled together and in love with your closet. Take your designs to a new level.

credits to: craftsy.com