Is there still a tailor shop in your town that does alterations?

Dear Community,
do you still have something like that where you live—a tailor shop that easily replaces zippers, shortens hems, and patches holes in the knees, etc.?

Oh yes, right here nearby. He also runs a dry cleaner’s; I guess he couldn’t make ends meet on alterations alone. I can do a lot of it myself, but there are some things I have him take care of.

Yes, I still know of an alteration shop, though it’s 30 km away in Berlin. There, a Turkish shopkeeper sells (Turkish) wool in the front of the store, and in the back room, his wife does clothing alterations. However, I only know that it used to exist. I don’t know if they’re still there today. 

Back in the day, it was common to take “good” clothes to a tailor’s shop for alterations. They were high-quality and expensive, and you might not have had a sewing machine yourself or known how to use one. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to sew thick zippers into anoraks back then either.

Best regards, Ina

I used to run an alteration shop myself, but had to close it in 1993 during the major recession because over 40,000 workers were laid off here and in Schweinfurt, and customers stopped coming. I was lucky to come out of it relatively unscathed. Now I only do alterations for my family

Best regards, Inge

I have to take the train for about 50 minutes to get there.
But it’s worth it because I’m very happy with this tailor shop.

Sustainability is all the rage these days, after all. You’d think alteration shops would be in higher demand again, wouldn’t you?

There’s an alteration shop near me that’s been around for 20 years. The owner is a trained tailor and does very meticulous work. And word gets around.
As a result, he’s always busy.
I had two pairs of pants hemmed, and he said he couldn’t get to them until three weeks later.
He even alters wedding dresses.
  My friend, who actually lives 70 km away from me, even had her wedding dress hemmed there two years ago.
And he had to shorten several lengths of fabric to do it. My friend even had to go in for a fitting a few times along the way. He said he wanted to make sure the wedding dress fit perfectly. Despite the extensive work, the price was really reasonable and fair.
  It would have been much more expensive at the seamstress the bridal shop recommended to us. 

 

We have a tailor shop in our town. And we have a Repair Café once a month, where they also sew in new zippers, for example.

  I do all my own clothing alterations and repairs—for myself and my family—so I don’t have any experience with this.

Right now, I have a jacket here that belongs to my son-in-law. The zipper pull has broken off. Let’s see if I can salvage it. 

Where I live, there are just as many alteration shops within a 10–15 km radius, some of which also offer dry cleaning.
However, since I sew and alter everything myself, I’ve never used their services.

Since I had a small bag-making workshop at home for years
and still have all the machines... I can offer this kind of service to friends and acquaintances myself.
Otherwise, things are pretty bleak around here!
I know from a friend that an alterations tailor shop was an extremely lucrative business a few decades ago.
Then clothing got cheaper and cheaper, sometimes at rock-bottom prices
so buying new became cheaper than having things repaired
and the quality didn’t exactly get any better either...
a sad and strange development...



 

I think there’s still an alteration shop here in our little town. But I usually do all that myself, so I don’t know who runs it or how it works.
 

We can take clothes to be altered or repaired at the Mercerie. It’s still called Mercerie after its predecessor, though now it mainly sells wool. They also repair (and sell) sewing machines. The woman shortens pants and dresses, takes them in or lets them out, sews in zippers, and mends them—all very carefully. This service is also very popular. Just recently, I brought her my grandson’s cuddle blanket so she could replace the frayed edge, since I didn’t have the time (or patience) to do it myself!

Not right around the corner, but it’s a 10-minute tram ride to the city center, and there are a few small alteration shops here and there. Most are run by Thai women (I think), and there’s one with German staff.
My mom was always very happy with the work, and the prices were pretty reasonable.

Whether it was shortening a pair of pants for my dad or hemming a curtain, I’ve even done those things myself as a novice and occasional hobby sewist using a sewing machine. So far, everything’s gone well—I was proud of myself :-)

Good morning!
Yes. In Seligenstadt, there’s a skilled tailor in a tiny half-timbered house (which alone is worth the trip). He’s always done my alterations to my satisfaction so far, and the prices are quite reasonable! 😊

We still have an alteration shop here in Burgwedel. It used to be run by a woman from Russia (or Poland or Ukraine, it doesn’t matter), but now it’s run by a rather elderly gentleman from Turkey who was probably once a bespoke men’s tailor. He can take pants in or let them out completely invisibly! Of course, he can replace zippers, too. I hope he’ll be around for a long time to come. I do shorten pants or dresses/skirts myself, though.