Almost every piece of Indian occasion wear needs something doing to it. The kurta is long, the blouse is loose across the back, the lehenga hem is sitting on the floor. None of that is a fault; occasion wear is cut to a size chart and bodies are not.
What is worth knowing before you hand anything over is that this is not ordinary alterations work. Some of it a good general tailor in Toronto can do. Some of it they should not attempt. And one part of it is a decision about timing rather than sewing, which is where most of the money gets lost.
The order of operations, because it is where people lose the return
Start here, because it is the only part of this page that is time-sensitive.
Eligible pieces can be returned within seven days of delivery, unworn and tagged, for store credit, with return postage on you. Altering the garment ends that. Under clause 1.3 of the return policy a customised piece is no longer returnable, and under clause 5.5 alteration, petticoat, fall-and-pico and pre-draping charges are not refunded even on an item that was otherwise eligible.
So the two windows overlap and pull against each other. The sequence that protects you is:
- Open the parcel and try it on the day it arrives. Not the weekend, not when you have time.
- Decide whether you are keeping it — on colour, on weight, on whether the shape suits you at all. That is a different question from whether it fits.
- Then book the alteration.
Reversing steps two and three is the single most common and most expensive mistake in this category. If the piece is wrong for you, an alteration does not rescue it and it has now cost you the credit as well.
There are no direct exchanges either, so a size swap means a return, an inspection, a credit and a fresh order, which realistically runs two to three weeks. If the function is close, altering the piece you have is usually faster than replacing it.
What can be altered, garment by garment
The blouse or choli
The most closely fitted garment in the category and the one that decides whether an outfit reads well. The back, the side seams and the length can all be adjusted. What usually cannot is the armhole: on an embroidered choli the work runs across the yoke, so there is no seam allowance underneath it and the armhole cannot be let out at all. A blouse that binds at the armhole in the fitting room binds all evening.
There is a second point that a tape measure will not catch. A stitched blouse has its darts laid in at manufacture and the point they converge on is fixed. Two people with the same bust measurement can carry that fullness at different heights, and when the dart apex sits above or below where your body actually is, the blouse wrinkles diagonally from the underarm toward the centre front. Taking in the side seams does not remove it, because the fault is vertical rather than horizontal. Moving the darts is real work, and it is worth asking for by name.
The lehenga skirt
A lehenga is three layers, not one: the outer skirt, the lining, and the can-can netting that gives it its shape. Each has to be shortened separately. A shop that takes up only the outer skirt leaves the net showing at the hem, and you will not see it until the garment is hanging.
The waist can usually be brought in at the waistband without touching the hem or the hem embroidery, which is why a lehenga is more forgiving than its price suggests. The hem length should be set against the heel you will actually stand in, clearing the floor by about half an inch. Pieces such as the Champagne Gold Jewel Corset Pleated Lehenga Set at CAD $235 carry dense hem work, and that work is the reason the length comes out of the waist rather than the bottom wherever possible.
The kurta
Here is the one that surprises people. An embroidered kurta is shortened from the shoulder, not the hem, because the border work sits at the hem and cutting there removes the design the piece was bought for. Taking length out at the shoulder or above the yoke is a considerably bigger job than turning up a hem, and it is why a quote for shortening a kurta is not the quote you expected.
Width is the easy direction. Side seams on a salwar set or a mirrorwork kurta set, both $135, have generous allowance and can lose two inches without anybody knowing.
The sharara and the gharara
The flare on a sharara at $135 or a gharara at $165 is cut as a wide panel joined at or below the knee. Taking length off the hem takes the widest part of that sweep with it and narrows the silhouette, which is the opposite of the point. The length has to come out at the waist or at the knee seam instead. Any tailor who offers to simply turn up the bottom of a sharara has not understood the garment.
The anarkali
The most alteration-friendly shape on the rail, because the flare falls from under the bust and the waist is not load-bearing. Length comes out at the shoulder for the same reason it does on a kurta. The Blush Noor Embroidered Anarkali Set at $125 is that construction.
The corset piece
About an inch in either direction and no more. The bone channels are sewn in at a fixed spacing and cannot be relocated, so the front panel stops meeting in the middle if the side seams move far. The full explanation is in the corset buying guide, and it is the reason corset pieces should be bought to the measurement rather than sized up.
The two jobs that are finishes rather than alterations
Fall and pico. On an unstitched saree, pico is the rolled hem along the raw edge and the fall is a strip of fabric stitched inside the lower border to weight the pleats and stop the hem fraying against the floor. In India every tailor does it. In the Greater Toronto Area, a shop that does not regularly work with sarees will either decline the job or pucker the border, and you will not know which until the saree is hanging. Have it done where the saree was bought.
Pre-draping. Converting an unstitched saree into a fixed drape is construction rather than adjustment, and once it is done the garment is customised. Both of these carry charges that are not refunded under clause 5.5, and both make the piece non-returnable. A ready-made drape such as the Taupe Silver Corset Draped Saree Set at $155 or the Midnight Navy Crystal Pre-Draped Saree Set at $125 arrives already in that state. The wider question is in buying a pre-draped saree in Canada.
How long to allow
Alterations take two to three weeks. Add that to one to two business days of processing and four to six business days of standard shipping inside Canada, and the ladder is straightforward.
- Six weeks before the function: room to order, try, alter and still change your mind.
- Four weeks: comfortable, assuming the size is close.
- Three weeks: order, but do not plan on alterations.
- Under two weeks: buy in person from what exists in your size. No shipping speed recovers a wrong fit inside a fortnight.
November and December are the busiest weeks of the Canadian wedding season and the queue is longest then. If your function is in that window, the alteration slot is the thing to book early, not the outfit.
Doing it in Brampton
Alterations are handled in store. The practical advantage of that over a general alterations shop is not price, it is that the person adjusting the garment knows what is under it: where the can-can sits, whether the yoke has allowance, whether the sharara can lose length at the knee.
We are at 2575 Steeles Avenue East, Unit 9, Brampton, Ontario, open eleven to eight seven days a week. Directions and parking are on the store page. The location sits at Brampton's south-eastern edge near the Airport Road corridor, which puts it within easy reach of Mississauga, Etobicoke, Rexdale and North Toronto.
Bring the shoes. Every hem decision on this page depends on the heel height, and a hem set to the wrong one is the most common reason a garment comes back twice.
If you would rather avoid alterations altogether, custom sizing is the other route, with the caveat that a customised piece is non-returnable. That trade is set out in custom-sized Indian clothes in Canada, and the numbers to take first are in the measuring guide and on the size chart.
Questions we are asked
Can a saree blouse be made bigger?
Usually a little, at the side seams and the back, where there is allowance. The armhole on an embroidered blouse generally cannot be let out, because the work runs across the yoke and there is no seam allowance under it. If the armhole is the problem, the size is the problem.
Can a lehenga be shortened?
Yes, but it is three layers and each has to be done separately. Where the hem carries heavy work, the length is better taken out at the waist so the border stays intact.
Does altering a piece affect my return?
Yes. A customised or altered piece is no longer returnable, and the alteration charge is not refunded either. Try the garment on the day it arrives and decide whether you are keeping it before you book anything.
How long do alterations take?
Two to three weeks, and longer through November and December. Count that on top of shipping when you are working backwards from a date.
Can a sharara be shortened at the hem?
It should not be. The flare is cut as a wide panel joined at or below the knee, so removing length from the bottom removes the widest part of the sweep and changes the shape. The length comes out at the waist or the knee seam.
What is fall and pico, and do I need it?
On an unstitched saree, yes, before it can be worn. Pico is the rolled edge; the fall is the inner strip that weights the pleats. It is a specialist finish rather than a hem, and the charge for it is not refundable once done.
Do you alter garments bought elsewhere?
Call the store and describe the piece. What matters is the construction rather than where it came from, and some pieces — a boned corset, a heavily worked yoke — have limits whoever made them.
Where to look next
If you are still choosing, the pieces named here sit in Suit Sets, Sharara, Lehenga and Drapes and Saree, with deeper size runs in Plus Size. For the buying decision rather than the fitting one, buying a lehenga in Canada and buying a saree in Canada cover the two largest categories.
