Dress alterations

Where you bought your dress can tell you. I asked my shoo and the said average $150-450 which I feel is reasonable and for Chicago low. Depends on lots but extra beading, etc May shoot price up.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! 😊

It depends a lot on where you take it for alterations, what you’re getting done, and where you are. I’m having a lot done to my dress and paid about $2k for alterations.

View Quoted Comment I just need the top taken in and it hemmed

It definitely depends but I would say forsure shop around. Take it in to a few alterations places and just tell them what your looking to get done and ask roughly how much they'd charge. I have 4 layers on my dress and needed it hemmed, shoulders brought up, bra cups added, bustle points (3), and taken in to fit properly and a local shop owner in my town charged me $300 when David's bridal quoted me over $700 for the same things.

Overall, I spent about $350 on alterations, including a tip! I had the dress taken in, straps shortened, bustle loop added, and dress hemmed. My dress was heavily patterned with lace, so the hem was likely the most work-intensive part as she kept the pattern of the dress! From online research, I saw this was a fairly average price and I was very happy with the results.

Talk to the dress shops where you have purchased your dress or plan to visit to try on dresses. Either they will have an in-house alterations team or preferred seamstresses that they like to work with and should be able to give a ballpark estimate!

View Quoted Comment I doubt that would be more than a couple hundred dollars at most!

I'm from Wisconsin and I spent about $570 including tip.

She had to take my dress in 2 sizes in the waist and 3 sizes in the arms. She had to add 8 bustles. My dress also has 4 layers so she had to hem all 4 of the layers about 3 inches.

My dress also has a lot of lace and bead work. She didn't charge extra for the lace, but she did charge a little bit for the bead work since she has to go back in and individual sew the crystals back to my bodice!

I probably could have done it cheaper elsewhere but the moment I met her I knew I wanted her to alter my dress and so I was willing to pay a little bet extra!

Alterations at the bridal salon where I bought my dress are $400-$600.