I can't find a good tailor. Any advice?

[AmirF27]

I have tried multiple tailors so far. They've all ranged from bad to mediocre. I live in a small town in a small country. Finding a good tailor has been a real challenge for me. I tried looking in other cities but I'm now afraid to try new tailors.

The first tailor I tried is actually considered the best tailor in the area, so I took him a shirt to give him another chance as there might have been some misunderstanding the first time around and I'm tired of looking for tailors and getting clothes ruined. I took him a cheap shirt this time. Among the alterations required is shortening the sleeves quite a bit. In order for the shirt not to look off at the sleeve placket I asked him if the sleeves can be shortened from the shoulders, and he said the shirt would look and feel off at the shoulders then (he was right as I have tried shortening a shirt's sleeves at the shoulders at another tailor and it did look and feel off, even a bit uncomfortable at the shoulders). But when I got home I looked up how to shorten shirt sleeves, and I was surprised to know that the sleeve placket can be moved. He didn't even suggest this. I'm guessing he either has never done it or doesn't even know it's possible. He said I'd have to simply accept that it would look a bit off. Not very professional when there is another option. I find it really weird how a tailor doesn't know this stuff, it shows a lack of skill.

Any advice on what I can do? It's truly frustrating not being able to find a good tailor. I'm considering the following options:

• Keep looking for a tailor and expand my search to other cities. This could take a long time and I'd basically be losing money on ruined clothes.
• Buy a sewing machine and learn how to tailor my own clothes.
• Show the tailor I went to the videos I saw of sleeves being shortened with the plackets being moved. Maybe I can take him one of the ruined shirts, agree that we will do an experiment with this with an already ruined shirt. And pay him for it of course. If he does it well then I might have found a good tailor as he can do all other alterations.
• Go exclusively MTM. I tried Tailor Store, but twice the fit was not perfect. They offered to keep making shirts until the fit is perfect. I ordered my third shirt from them yesterday. This might be a good option but what about other clothing items like trousers, jackets, sweaters... etc? I'm also planning to lose some weight, so maybe I'd need a tailor anyway as even MTM clothes would need adjustment then.

Anyone in the same position? What would you do if you were me?

 

[maxalex]

In Africa once I tried to train a local tailor to create the look I wanted in some sport jackets made of local batik; it was way too much work for both of us, and the end result was terrible despite his best efforts. Retraining your local tailor, even for basic alterations, will likely not work out. He knows what he knows, and you’re not his master.

Yet I also wonder why you are needing to alter the sleeve length of your shirts, which as you appear to realize is a fairly involved (and thus expensive) modification. Shirts don’t cost that much and don’t last forever; why not just buy some new ones that fit better? So your solution there, as you indicate, is MTM. I like Proper Cloth which I feel has the best website and a beautiful range of exclusive Italian fabrics.

For trouser and jacket alterations, it sounds like you may need to look farther afield, in a larger town. Perhaps if you post your location you will get some recommendations.

 

[AmirF27]

In Africa once I tried to train a local tailor to create the look I wanted in some sport jackets made of local batik; it was way too much work for both of us, and the end result was terrible despite his best efforts. Retraining your local tailor, even for basic alterations, will likely not work out. He knows what he knows, and you’re not his master.

Yet I also wonder why you are needing to alter the sleeve length of your shirts, which as you appear to realize is a fairly involved (and thus expensive) modification. Shirts don’t cost that much and don’t last forever; why not just buy some new ones that fit better? So your solution there, as you indicate, is MTM. I like Proper Cloth which I feel has the best website and a beautiful range of exclusive Italian fabrics.

For trouser and jacket alterations, it sounds like you may need to look farther afield, in a larger town. Perhaps if you post your location you will get some recommendations.

I live in Israel so not sure if anyone here is familiar with the area enough to know good tailors. I'm actually convinced that I will never be able to find a decent tailor in my country, especially after asking some people who also care about their appearance for recommendations for good tailors. They simply said, "They don't exist in this country."

The reason I need to shorten shirt sleeves is because I'm on the shorter side so the sleeves are always a bit too long with off the rack shirts. From what I've been reading shortening shirt sleeves is not that hard of a job, even with moving the sleeve placket. Once I get a sewing machine I'm going to practice with the pile of ruined shirts I have at home, but until I'm good at it I will need to wear something. MTM seems to be my best bet for now. What about other clothing items though, like sweaters and jackets (pants are fairly easy to alter so I should be able to learn this quickly)? Are there any MTM websites for those? I intend to eventually learn how to alter those as well, but I will need another solution in the meantime as those will take more time to learn. Learning how to do alterations has always been an interest to me anyway, so it's a win-win really. I'm willing to put in the effort to learn it well.

 

[maxalex]

It seems hard to believe there are no tailors in Israel. When I lived in NY virtually every alterations tailor in the city was Jewish although as the older guys retired or died they were often replaced by Koreans. Who takes care of the tailored clothes worn by Israeli politicians I see on TV?

Beyond that, surely there are women’s tailors who do wedding gowns; often they can do basic men’s alterations, and quite well.

As for DIY, it’s not hard to learn basic stuff like trouser cuff changes, but some jobs require great skill with a needle and thread (not a sewing machine) as well as knowledge of drape and how patterns fit together. Obviously these things can be learned, but usually from a lifetime of experience and apprenticing, not as a hobbyist. Most of the alterations tailors I know started as children.

 

[AmirF27]

It seems hard to believe there are no tailors in Israel. When I lived in NY virtually every alterations tailor in the city was Jewish although as the older guys retired or died they were often replaced by Koreans. Who takes care of the tailored clothes worn by Israeli politicians I see on TV?

Beyond that, surely there are women’s tailors who do wedding gowns; often they can do basic men’s alterations, and quite well.

As for DIY, it’s not hard to learn basic stuff like trouser cuff changes, but some jobs require great skill with a needle and thread (not a sewing machine) as well as knowledge of drape and how patterns fit together. Obviously these things can be learned, but usually from a lifetime of experience and apprenticing, not as a hobbyist. Most of the alterations tailors I know started as children.

There are a lot of tailors in Israel, but from my own experience and from asking around people who know about style and fit, none of them are good. It's unfortunate, but so far seems to be true. Plus, I've already lost a few shirts due to poor jobs by tailors. And every time I ask them to do something, they start coming up with excuses why it won't work. For example, moving the shirt sleeve placket up in order not to ruin the look of the shirt. The tailor simply told me, "Do I teach you how to do your job? It won't work this way." I then told him, "My intention is not to teach you anything, but I didn't get this shirt for free and I don't want the look to be ruined." I then asked another tailor if she can shorten the sleeves this way and she basically said no, with a lot of excuses why it wouldn't work of course, when I've seen plenty of videos of it being done and read articles on how it's done. I can of course continue looking for tailors, but this would be a fruitless pursuit in my case as all evidence suggests good tailors simply do not exist in this country. Also I'm not a rich person and can't afford many more ruined shirts until I find a good tailor, plus the farther I look from my town the harder it becomes for me as I would need to take public transports of 3-5 hours and a lot of days off from work and I'm not sure it would be worth it. I don't know who alters clothes of those you see on TV, but I'm almost sure it's not Israeli tailors. Plus, the fit is often not too great either way.

As for learning how how to tailor, if they've been doing it for years, why are they still so bad at it then? It really doesn't sound that hard to make alterations. I believe I can learn it. What makes you think it might be impossible for a normal person? It's not like I have many other options. No matter how bad I would be at first, I honestly don't believe I will be worse than the tailors I've tried after a while of learning. What are the alterations that require a needle and thread? Can't I send those to online tailors perhaps?

 

[AmirF27]

Well yes they do charge quite a bit for all those alterations, and always end up ruining the shirts. I already have three unbearable shirts, and a few poorly tailored, like the sleeves thing where they just cut through the placket and ruin the look of the shirt. I can't afford to lose any more money.

If you'd recommend Natty Shirts I'll try them. What about other clothing items though? I would think if someone can't even do shirt alterations, he most certainly can't do jacket or sweater alterations. Any good MTM websites for those

 

[jaxenro]

Like I said your tailor probably doesn’t do shirt alterations but probably does jacket ones. Try getting a cheap jacket in your size from a used charity store or eBay and let him try it. I did that with a couple of locals until I found one I liked

 

[AmirF27]

Like I said your tailor probably doesn’t do shirt alterations but probably does jacket ones. Try getting a cheap jacket in your size from a used charity store or eBay and let him try it. I did that with a couple of locals until I found one I liked

It's not just that he's not a very good tailor, I also felt that he doesn't communicate well with his customers. When I took the shirt to him, he just saw it on me and claimed he knows what he needs to do. I asked him to pin it up first so I can see how it will look after the alterations. He completely refused to do this. He said something along the lines of, "No no, no need to pin it. You can't tell how it will look after alterations even if you pin it." This is not how a tailor should work and most importantly not how a tailor should treat his customers. It's so unprofessional. And the other tailors I've seen aren't much better.

He claims he can do jacket alterations but if he doesn't want to even try to communicate well with me, then I don't want to be his customer. That's only half the problem though, the more important thing is that he's not a very good tailor. Otherwise he wouldn't have ruined a shirt and a pair of jeans, and poorly altered the other pair. I don't trust him to be good with jacket alterations of he managed to mess up the simplest of alterations, which is hemming pant legs.

I want to try going fully MTM with everything I buy. I have managed to find online stores for almost everything but sweaters. Learning how to alter my own clothes is going to take a long time and some alterations might be impossible to learn. Sadly MTM seems to be my only option, at least until I learn how to do alterations. Not being able to find a good tailor is causing me a lot of frustration. I need to find other solutions, I can't possibly keep looking and losing money, especially since I've been looking for close to 6 months now.

 

[jaxenro]

Don’t you have any suit stores within house tailors? If not go to a good suit store and ask them who they recommend for tailoring

 

[AmirF27]

Don’t you have any suit stores within house tailors? If not go to a good suit store and ask them who they recommend for tailoring

You might think I'm exaggerating, but men in Israel almost never wear suits. The only time someone may wear a suit is at their wedding, and even then it's not a requirement so some men don't wear a suit even to their own wedding. I think this might be part of the reason for the lack of good tailors here. With that being said, the tailor I mentioned above does sell suits (though they looked really low quality to me). So selling suits doesn't indicate someone is a good tailor, from my own experience. I'm not exaggerating, tailors are really bad here, and this is not just my experience as other guys who care about style from Israel seem to think the same too.

Isn't MTM a viable alternative though?

 

[jaxenro]

Seems you want to do MTM my experience is limited to shirts from what I know you must be really precise in measurements or you still need it tailored

 

[AmirF27]

Seems you want to do MTM my experience is limited to shirts from what I know you must be really precise in measurements or you still need it tailored

Well my take is that even if the measurements are not 100% accurate, it would still be a much better fit than off the rack without tailoring. The good thing is that most online stores I've come across offer a fit guarantee, and if the garment doesn't fit you well they either remake it (in the case of Tailor Store for example) or offer you the option to ship it back to them so they can alter it themselves. I believe it won't be too hard to learn basic alterations like trouser hemming and tapering, shortening and tapering sleeves and taking in shirts. I've been reading a lot about the subject since yesterday and it really isn't that hard, but I believe learning to do jacket and sweater alterations will take a while which is where I feel MTM would help most.