Altering the Shoulders on a Jacket

A customer brought me two jackets to take in at the shoulders. Both of these jackets had shoulder pads, too, which she wanted removed. You don’t see those much anymore! The other jacket can be found in the post entitled, A Finely Tailored Jacket. Both were custom made in England for my customer and they were…

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How To Take in a Dress with Piping

This formal dress has piping that goes all along the very top edge. (Piping is cord that has been covered with fabric to make a nice decorative feature on a garment.) This dress has to be taken in at the bust area, which means I need to alter the piping when I take in the…

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How To Fix Boning Issues

I’d like to address how to fix a few problems with the boning in your wedding dress, formal dress, corset , tops or really anything that has boning! Recently, a customer tried on a dress that just didn’t seem like it fit correctly in the bust. I knew right away that it had an issue…

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French Seams

I want to teach you how to alter a garment that has French Seams in it. But, first, I’d like to talk about what they are and how they are made. The French Seam is a seam that is encased within itself so that no raw edges can be seen. You’ve probably seen French Seams on many…

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