Tips

Denim Patching VS. Darning

We all have those favorite jeans that you want to wear every day. But once you have rounded the arc from the perfectly worn in denim to threadbare city, what now? You can’t exactly keep wearing them with your booty peeking out. But if you don’t want to part with them quite yet, you can always get them patched or darned. Wait, there are two options? At Silhouette we just offer denim patching. We will use a scrap piece of denim on the underside to “fill in” the hole, and then machine stitch over it, following the natural grain line of the jeans until the fabric is sturdy once again. This option is relatively inexpensive. We charge $10 for a…

Continue Reading...

Mending

You are smarter than a moth

It’s cold again, which means sweater weather! And holding your breath as you take your sweaters out of storage after a hot summer, praying that they survived the wrath of hungry moth larvae. Instead of crossing your fingers, use this guide to be proactive and never find holes in your favorite sweaters again!  We’ve found that the best way to fight moths is to outsmart them with these prevention methods: vacuum, launder, and store properly! If you do it right, the moths will never find your sweaters in the first place! Here’s how to keep your wools, silks, furs and feathers safe and hidden from the gnarly little creatures. Rule number one is keeping your closet clean. Clothing moths hibernate…

Continue Reading...

Alterations

Blazers: The Price of Short Arms

While it would be amazing if we could all afford made-to-measure or bespoke suit jackets, that is just not realistic. This is a guide for what to look for while shopping for a blazer with alterations in mind. If you’ll inevitably need the sleeves shortened, please pay attention to the button placket, more specifically, whether or not there are cut buttonholes. This is key.   The sleeves of blazers and jackets can be sewn a TON of different ways. The construction ranges between super basic and easy for alterations, to complicated or impossible. Depending on the “style” of sleeve finish, the prices will vary for shortening. Here are five styles with pricing for hemming. And we can’t stress enough, if you…

Continue Reading...

Press

Sew…Silhouette now has a blog!

I know that we are a little late to the blog scene by over a decade, but after being in business for seven years and in the alteration world for ten, I realize my team and I have a lot of knowledge in this industry that just needs to be shared. We work in a dying art. Literally people are surprised when they meet us for the first time and we are not all grandmas. As sewing knowledge is no longer being passed down through generations, we have discovered a huge disconnect between people and their clothing. This ranges from never even thinking about how your clothes are made: by whom or where, to having no idea how to do…

Continue Reading...