My first tailoring experience

Here's a little story about my first experience getting some clothes tailored.

I've recently lost some extra chubbiness 'round my midsection, so most of my pants and skirts no longer fit. In fact, I bought them a little big in the first place, so they're extra big now.

I've been wondering how to deal with rectifying this situation. I bought two belts, which helps for those pants with belt loops, but then some of my pants and all my skirts don't have belt loops, so I just look like I'm swimming in my clothes when I wear them. I decided I needed to get them tailored.

I wondered if I could possibly do it myself... I mean, Kate's been doing sewing, right? I could, you know, get a sewing machine and learn the intricacies of tailoring. Heck, I've done some seam ripping in my middle school days. I asked Kate if she thought it'd be a futile endeavor to try to tailor my own stuff, and she told me the truth - bring them to a professional. The cost of the equipment and learning how to do it correctly would be far greater than just paying a pro to do it. ::Nodding:: Kate, when you're right, you're right.

But then I ask myself... how do I know who's a good tailor? I ain't never done this! I just decided to bring it to the nearest place. It's across from the Corner Pub. I went in and brought a cheap pair of pants and a cheap skirt, both work-worthy, but items I could go without in my wardrobe. I wanted to see how they did and how much it cost. (I also brought in my wedding dress, finally, to get cleaned and 'preserved.')

Anyway, the guy was super nice, bordering on a little creepy. He kept talking about how "Mama'll do a good job" and "Ooo, this'll keep Mama busy" and such. I assumed his mama would be doing the tailoring, then. All he did was have me put the pants on and he pinned them, and the same with the skirt. I figured they'd perhaps, you know, take my measurements and use that to tailor the clothes; but just a little pinning and such was all.

Long story short, Jay and I go to pick up my clothes earlier today. He said that the skirt was a lot more work for Mama than he thought - ooo, I kept Mama busy all day! There's just a zipper and no seams! Ooo, Mama was very busy with that skirt! Okey dokey. Not my fault. I think he was trying to say that I should have been charged more, but since it was my first time, he gave me a deal. Ooo, that Mama!

So I bring the pants and the skirt home. I decide to try on the pants first. Pulled them on -- ooo, Mama did a nice job -- zip 'em and buckle 'em -- ooo, Mama mia! -- and then I turn around.

Can you say "bubble butt"? All they did was take in the fabric at the butt seam, but when they did that, there was still all this extra fabric in the butt area, which they didn't do anything with! So the waistline's nice and snug, fits great, but man! I don't have the "badonkadonk" to fill that out! So a $10 disappointment.

I put the skirt on, and I gotta say, Mama did a nice job! I got it hemmed and taken in, and it was lined, which meant more work for Mama. But it fits very nice now! Jay said that Mama probably did the skirt first, got pissed that it was a lot of work, and then just hastily and sloppily tailored the bubble-butt pants.

Anyway, it was a great learning experience. The whole dry cleaning and tailoring thing was scary to me, because it's one of those things where I think everyone else is in on all this knowledge, and I know nothing about it, so I get intimidated. I guess the next step is to try to find a professional tailor who will do a professional job, who will probably charge more, but it'll be worth it to have a wardrobe that actually fits. The longer I live, the more I realize that unfortunately, I have to spend more than $20 to get a nice outfit. I've been tricked all these years by shopping at Goodwill... ::shaking fist at charity::