My mom has been telling me for years to shop in the petite department. Sometimes I listen to her, but often I find myself in stores that don’t have petite clothes. J. Crew does – but only online. The Gap doesn’t (and I am liking more and more of their stuff lately) and even in major department stores the petite department doesn’t have the same great stuff as the regular ladies.
Now I could rail about how department store buyers must think that anyone under 5’5″ wants to dress like a Midwestern Grandmother but I won’t. Instead I will just continue to buy my clothes in the regular department and have them drag on the ground.
Luckily rolled up jeans are a trend now, so I can get away with being a short girl in long pants for a little while longer but the day will come soon when I need to cut them down to size. There are tailors on every corner in New York (in fact there is one on the ground floor of my building) and I have on occasion taken clothes to be altered. I know that fashion magazines say that is how you make your wardrobe work for you (and how people look richer even in cheap clothes – when they are tailored to fit) and I am okay with that every once in a while, but I find it hard to justify paying $10 to hem $20 pants (I am a sale shopper).
So I need to do it myself. I own a sewing machine – somewhere – and an iron. Frankly, I can hand stitch and that is probably easier. I just need to sit down and do it. Then maybe one day I can wear flats with non-rolled up hems.
I bought a pair of pants over my Christmas break specifically with the intention of having them hemmed. My problem? I know you’re supposed to pick ONE shoe height to hem to, and I can’t commit!
I have that problem too – the shopaholic part of me wants to say if you find a pair you love buy two and have a flats pair and a heels pair but that really isn’t practical
OK. I feel exactly the same as you about the tailor thing (though I’m 5’9″ and I still have stuff dragging on the ground. WTH, fashion industry?). I am also a bargain shopper, and particularly love thrift stores for vintage pieces.
But. But! After years of saying, “I’m just going to sit down and hem (repair, cuff, let out) the stupid thing,” I finally gathered up all my unwearables, and took them to the tailor to have everything done. I had pieces in there that I paid like $5 for, so the upgrades cost me three times what I originally paid, ugh. Four days and $150 later, I had a whole new wardrobe. I actually felt like crying when I picked up the ten or so favorite things I’d worn almost never because they didn’t fit right.
It was such a revelation to me that I can’t recommend it enough. Just bite the bullet. It will take you like an hour instead of eight hours.
As for the “which hem height” problem, have them hemmed for heels and then consider hem gems to pull them up when you want to wear flats.
http://www.hemgems.com/
Good luck whatever you decide. Here’s to clothes that fit.
I think I will bite the bullet and go to the tailor. After all, I made 2013 a year that I would buy no new clothes (one of my 5 from Camp Mighty) so I may as well spend that cash on getting the clothes I already own to fit!
Yes yes yes, go to the tailor and get them hemmed. If you are a bargain shopper, even better. Think about it this way: you paid $10 for the pants, plus $10 for the hem, so you paid $20 which is still a total bargain for a pair of pants you love. I actually have a real problem with paying $70 for pants that then need to be hemmed — for that much, shouldn’t they fit perfectly?
And Ann Taylor LOFT (wait! don’t roll your eyes yet!) has a good petites section and they are getting trendier by the day, so try them out.
I actually *know* how to hem my own pants, plus am a huge bargain/thrift shopper, but it has always been the heel-length issue that stops me. Those hemgems are a great idea!!
I love to sew. It’s one of my absolute favorite things to do. But tailoring is a whole ‘nother thing. It’s the difference between a Sunday drive in the country and a 9-day traffic jam in Beijing. Do yourself, and sewing, a favor. Hire a tailor, and then break out the machine for something you’ll enjoy both the process and product of.
Incidentally, I guard the fact that I love to sew like it’s some deep, shameful secret because the minute you mention it, everyone asks you to hem their pants.
My mom always says “Never let a man know you sew, because then all of a sudden their buttons fall off and their pants grow 4 inches”