Every family has the shelf: outfits stitched in India years ago, loved, outgrown, kept. Bodies change and clothes do not, but a surprising amount of that shelf can come back into rotation for the cost of an alteration.
Letting out works when there is seam allowance, and Indian tailors traditionally leave generous margins, often two to four centimetres at the side seams. A kameez can usually give a size; a blouse can give a little; a lehenga waist can be rebanded entirely. Taking in is even easier: anything up to about two sizes large alters cleanly.
Length is the quiet fix. Hemlines date an outfit as much as fit does, and re-hemming a kameez or straight pants is one of the cheapest jobs a tailor does.
Fabric that has weakened at the seams will tear beside any new stitching. Heavy embellishment across the letting-out line makes alteration cost more than the piece is worth. And a garment more than about ten percent tight at any measurement is a restitch, not an alteration. Those pieces have two good ends: fabric for a new garment, or the Pre-Loved rack, where someone with the naap it was stitched for is looking for exactly it.
The shelf exists because outfits were stitched to measurements taken once, years ago, or guessed over a phone call to a masterji. Send exact, current numbers instead. Scan yourself with your phone camera, keep your naap saved, and every future order, stitched here or in India, starts from the body you have now.
Sell what no longer fits Tailors by city How the camera scan works
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