How to Alter a Blouse

Series Summary

Sewing is an ancient craft that still has remarkable relevance in today's modern world. The art of stitching and assembling pieces of fabric together either by hand or with the use of a modern sewing machine is still a valuable skill and can be used for industry and home or arts means. Industrial sewing is usually done with the use of machines, but for seamstresses, alteration givers and most casual sewers, an old-fashioned needle and thread is still incredibly useful and more often than not the desired use since it enables far more details. In this free video series on sewing, a self-taught seamstress discusses several ways to tailor and alter clothing. Find out how to hem a pair of pants after deciding on the proper hem length, and learn to alter a pair of jeans for the perfect fit. Find out where to take in or let out a pair of dress slacks, and even get tips on measuring the body to get a clothing size. Tailoring clothes is a great way to make use of ill-fitting garments instead of replacing them with new items of clothing.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Debrah, and I'm at Deluxe, a local resale boutique, in Eugene, Oregon, and today, I'm going to show you how to alter the sides of a blouse, so what I do, is put it on inside out, and then you pinch along where you need the excess taken in, and what you do, is you put pins along the side seams, and then what I do too, is you can take a piece of chalk of a different color, and you can mark over that line of the pins, and what you do, is straighten out that line, so it looks nice and integrated with the curve of the natural blouse, and just sew the side seam, starting a half inch over the original seams, so you're gently coming out, into your new area that you have marked, taking the pins out of course, as you go along, and then when you end it, you make sure that you go over the last half inch, of your original seam, too, so that it blends in nicely, with the original line, of the blouse, and when you're pinning, you want to make sure that you get both sides even, so what I do, is after I pin them, I lay the two over each other, and then you can just feel, line the seams up, and you can feel where the pins are, on the other side, and if you need to take some out to make adjustments, to make these two lines even, you can do that before you start stitching. When sewing this new seam, of course you're going to have to clip the excess off, and depending on the fabric, it could unravel, so you can either use a surger, when you are doing your new seam, and it already binds the edges. If you don't have a surger, you can just use a zig zag stitch on your sewing machine, a wide zig zag stitch, to go over those edges, so it doesn't unravel during wear and washing, and that's how you can alter a blouse."