How much to hem a dress?

[busybodyk]

I brought a maxi dress to my cleaners to get it hemmed. They charged me $18 (not including cleaning). WTF! I was expecting to pay around $10 max. How much do they charge in your area? How much is reasonable?

[captainmel]

As someone who does alterations that seems pretty reasonable. To me it would depend on the fabric and how much volume there was at the bottom of the skirt.

[smile]

My usual tailor's prices went up this year for hems. I'm fairly sure last year I paid $10-12/dress for hems, but this year she charged me $15/dress. That price was for simple single layer jersey maxi dresses. I went to 3 different tailors in the area to price compare, and they all said $15/dress. 

[qtjess1110]

It sounds about right.

[mrspost08]

I pay $10-12 at my cleaners.

[Deleted]

My lady charges $16-$18 per hem.

[treedimensional]

Yeah that's what they charge here. When I posted that I was unwilling to buy too-long maxis a couple months ago, most responses seemed to indicate that I was a tightwad and I should get over it, because it's only 'a few bucks' to have them hemmed. So now I see it is actually *more than a few bucks* everywhere.
It's frustrating because midi skirts and dresses are never long enough to suit me, but maxis are dragging the floor.

[Laura Palmer]

I've paid $10, but I def got what I paid for.
I now go to a place that only does alterations and they charge $20 for something like that, but they do a great job.

[auntie]

$20-ish seems fair for a casual dress made of a standard woven or knit material. I'd expect to pay more if it was lined or made a material that is challenging to work with or if it was very full or required special handling like a hi-lo or tulip wrap front.

How long do you expect it to take the seamstress to remove the old hem, mark it and re-do it?

[callmehales]

this is when i'm glad to be tall.

[mrsg123]

Sounds right. I agree it is pricey though.

[captainmel]

I'll also say that if it is a jersey fabric it probably has to be hemmed with a cover stitch machine to maintain the original look. Cover stitch machines are expensive and hard to maintain and they're pretty specialized.

[orval]

I can't stomach paying that much on top of the dress. Since I don't wear maxi's all the time, I use that iron on hem tape. Works just fine and lasts for a bunch of washes. I also to natariu's advice and just cut the jersey ones off. You can't tell at all they are not hemmed.
If it was something I was going to wear weekly, I might suck it up and pay.

[FormerCityGirl]

One of my tailors charges $15-$20 in a LCOL area. The one in the MCOL area charges $25-$30. The dry cleaners have ruined every item I've ever sent them just to be cleaned. I'm not going to chance basic things like hems with them even if they are cheaper.