Tailors and Alterations Editing and Proofreading Services

A customer brings in a jacket that is too big and wants it taken in. Some of that is possible and some of it is not, because a jacket's shoulders cannot be moved without rebuilding it, and the amount of cloth in the seams is finite and was decided by somebody in a factory. Explaining that at a fitting, to somebody who has just bought the jacket, is a craft in itself.

We edit what tailors and alteration businesses produce — fitting records and what was agreed, what-is-and-is-not-possible guidance for customers, alteration option and price documentation, timescale, fitting and collection information, bridal and formalwear alteration documentation, made-to-measure and pattern documentation, terms of business and liability for customer-supplied garments, repair, invisible mending and its limits, uncollected garment terms, and customer guidance on what to buy for alterability. Our editors work on the fitting record and the limits it has to state.

The fitting record is where alterations either meet expectations or disappoint, and its failure is a note of measurements. A record saying "take in 4 cm each side, shorten sleeves 3 cm" describes the work and not the outcome, and the customer's expectation was about the outcome. We write these so what is possible is separated from what is not, with the reason in physical terms — the shoulder seam that cannot move, the seam allowance that runs out, the pattern that will not match after a certain point, the hem that has no cloth to lower; so the outcome is described rather than the operation, since "this will fit through the waist and it will still look loose across the back, because that is the shoulders and I cannot change them" is what the customer needs; so the compromises are named at the fitting, given that a garment altered to fit one measurement often distorts another and the customer should choose which matters; so the stages are stated with the number of fittings and when each happens, particularly for bridal work where the timeline is fixed by a date nobody can move; so the risk to a customer's own garment is stated where the fabric is delicate, previously altered or of unknown fibre; so the point of no return is named, because once cloth is cut the decision is permanent and customers do not always realise which step that is; and so the price reflects the option chosen with the alternative priced beside it. Records written this way produce garments people are pleased with.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including fitting records, terms and customer correspondence. We are editors rather than tailors or textile specialists, and we offer no view on garments, alterations or their feasibility. What we can do is get the limits stated at the fitting rather than discovered at collection.