What a tailor can fix when you’re petite (and what to skip)

At 4′11″, almost nothing fits me top to bottom straight off the rack. The length is long, or the sleeves are long, or the waist is right and everything else is roomy. Petite sizing helps, but it doesn’t cover every piece I fall for.

So a tailor is the quiet trick behind a lot of petite outfits. The thing is, not every fix is worth it. Some alterations are quick and simple, some take real work, and a few just aren’t possible. Here’s the list I keep in my head.

The easy fixes

These are the ones to say yes to without thinking twice:

• Hems. Pants, skirts and dresses with a plain hem. On jeans, ask to keep the original hem so the bottom still looks worn in.
• Sleeves. Shortened at the cuff. A plain cuff is simple. A buttoned placket, like on a shirt, is more work, because the cuff has to come off and go back on.
• Waist. Taken in at the back seam, up to about a size. Past that, the pockets and side seams start to look off.
• Straps. Shortened a little, which lifts a whole dress or tank into place.
• Side seams. Taken in a touch through the body of a top or dress, when the shoulders already fit.

Why they’re easy: nothing gets rebuilt. The tailor shortens or pinches an edge that’s already there, so these are quick and usually the least expensive thing on the menu. They’re also the fixes most likely to look like nothing happened, which is the whole point.

Worth it for keepers

These take more work, so save them for pieces you know you’ll wear a lot:

• A jacket body shortened. The hem and the lining both get redone, and the pockets have to stay clear.
• A lined dress hemmed. Two layers, two hems. Double the work of a plain one.
• A bodice taken in. The top of a dress reshaped through its seams, which gets fiddly around darts and a zipper.
• Buttons moved. Simple on paper, but it shifts the whole front, so the collar and hem have to still line up.
• A flare re-hemmed. Totally doable, but the widest part of the leg is at the bottom, so you lose a little flare with every inch.

Ask for a quote first. Then decide whether the piece is worth it. A good tailor will tell you when a fix isn’t worth doing, and that’s worth listening to.

What to skip

Some things a tailor can’t fix well, no matter how good they are. These are the spots to get right before you buy.

• Shoulders. Everything hangs from them. If the seam sits past your shoulder, the sleeve has to come off, the shoulder gets recut and the sleeve goes back on. It’s a big job, and it’s hard to get right.
• Rise. Moving where pants sit means recutting the crotch, and the pockets and fly live right there. Hemming fixes length. It does nothing for rise.
• Torso length. On a dress with a waist seam, or a jumpsuit, the waist lands where it lands. Moving it means taking the whole thing apart in the middle.
• Letting out. A tailor can only let out what’s folded into the seam allowance, and most pieces have very little. If it’s tight, size up.

If a piece misses on one of these, let it go. A great hem on the wrong shoulders is still the wrong shoulders.

Check these before you buy

Here’s the short version to run through in a dressing room, or on a listing:

• The shoulder seams sit at the edge of your shoulders.
• The rise puts the waistband where you want it.
• Any waist seam lands at your waist.

In a dressing room, lift your arms and sit down. Those two moves tell you fast whether the shoulders and rise are yours.

If those three are right, almost everything else is a hem. Keep your measurements handy: save your numbers in your fit card, and see where a length lands before you buy.

What to tell your tailor

A little prep makes the fitting go fast:

• Bring the shoes. Hems change with heels.
• Wash it first if it’s cotton, so any shrinking happens before the hem goes in.
• Pin at home if you can, standing tall in front of a mirror. Or at least know where you want things to land.
• Say where it should land. “Just touching the top of my shoe,” not “a little shorter.”
• Ask for the original hem on jeans.
• Ask whether it can be let down later. Some hems can keep the extra folded inside.
• Try it on before you leave. Shoes and all.

Happy tailoring, friends!