It’s almost the weekend, and you’ve decided you’re going to wear your favorite faux leather jacket out for dinner. But when you try it on and it no longer fits, it can be a little more than devastating.
Now you need to find out if you can keep your pleather jacket and if it’s worth getting it altered.
In most cases, when it comes to a favorite clothing item, it always is, and your faux leather is no exception.
Whether it’s a faux leather jacket, accessories, trousers or shoes, your faux leather garment can be tailored. Some seamstresses and tailors specialize in fake and real leather, though most tailors will be able to make your alterations for you. Alternatively, you can tailor your faux leather clothing yourself.
Unlike real leather, faux leather comes in a variety of colors and patterns. Faux leather is much less expensive, takes less maintenance than real leather, and is an excellent alternative for all fashionistas, especially our animal-loving vegan friends.
So when that favorite pleather garment doesn’t fit anymore, you have to ask yourself the big question. Can your faux leather be tailored?
Read on, and I’ll give teach you how to get your imitation leather altered.
Table of Contents
How Can I Tailor My Faux Leather Garment?
With a few things to keep in mind and some minimal effort, you can indeed have your synthetic leather clothing custom-made to measure.
- You’ll need a faux-friendly needle in your sewing machine that will get through the thicker material of the fake leather.
- You can alter the fit of the faux item so long as you are tailoring from the seam.
- Find a nearby tailor and alterations store that will measure and alter your garment for you. You’ll have to pay a higher price for faux leather than you would with other softer materials like cotton or linen due to the extra care that needs to be taken with pleather.
Can You Shrink Faux Leather
Just like wool, hemp, and cotton, faux leather will shrink in the heat. It sounds like a nice easy way to shrink an oversized faux leather jacket is to pop it in the clothes dryer. You might get lucky but you might also melt your item.
- Wet (or wash) your faux leather with warm water.
Put it in a delicate washing bag or a dryer-friendly bag while still wet and ensure the bag is sealed.
- Tip: You can use a pillowcase if you don’t have the above dryer-friendly bags.
- Put your faux item in the dryer for an hour and try it on when it’s finished. If your clothing item is still too big then repeat from step one.
Another option if you know that your faux leather will melt in the dryer is to lay it out and dry in the sun or use a high heat hairdryer. The heat causes the fibers in the material to tighten and shrink.
Can You Hem Faux Leather
If you’re altering your garments, there are a few things you will need to consider before making these changes.
Change your sewing foot.
Some faux leathers have a sticky surface, so you will need either a Teflon foot or a roller foot. These will reduce the pleather from sticking to the foot and getting caught too easily. They produce a smoother surface.
You might be able to get away with using scotch tape on the bottom of the foot you’re already using.
Change your needle.
Did you know that you can buy needles designed specifically for leather and faux leather? Leader leather point, size 12 – 16 needles depending on the weight of the material. Or alternatively, you can use denim needles. Always use a new needle for the best possible results.
Use clips instead of pins.
Holes in faux leather are obvious. Use small binding clips instead of pins so that you’re not leaving a trail of holes in your leather.
Use longer stitch lengths.
Even with the scotch tape and new sewing foots mentioned in step 2, the material may sometimes still stick to the foot. Using a longer stitch setting will allow for a more even stitch in your pleather. Try to keep steady and even movements too.
Sew on the underside of the fabric.
You may want to test this first to make sure your underside stitching is just as nice as your topstitch.
You may also want to consider using a thicker thread for an admirable-looking topstitch.
How Much Does It Cost For Faux Leather Alterations
Is the thought of altering your faux garments not cutting it for you? You can, like many things in this world, pay a professional to do it for you. Many, but not all, of the tailoring and alteration shops that you ask to fix your faux leather, will be able to do this for you.
When altering faux leather, seamsters will generally treat imitation leather similarly to real leather in terms of pricing.
Just like everything else, the cost will depend on what it is you’re needing to be altered.
- Prices could range from $10 for fixing buttons to $100+ for replacing a broken zipper.
- The way the original faux leather clothing item is made may come into consideration when having your garment altered.
- You may be required to take your clothing item in to get a face-to-face quote rather an online quote.
- Depending on how drastic the sizing and measurement changes are, the seamstress or tailor might help with some other suggestions.
Can you really put a price on saving an old favorite clothing item that you can’t bring yourself to put in the charity box?
Because of the plastic found in pleather, the material can tear easily, making these alterations a little trickier than others. Greater care is needed when altering real and faux leather, so you will find prices raised slightly.
When fishing around for a tailor, ask for plenty of reviews, and don’t go with someone you don’t trust or haven’t heard of doing pleather before. Depending on the area you live in, you may have a local leather expert at hand who will help.
Keeping Your Faux Leather Clean
We use a couple of different options to keep our favorite faux leather items clean and in ample condition.
There’s no need for high maintenance conditioning like real leather needs, but you can in fact, use leather conditioning on your pleather goods. Real and fake leather have similar textures, so the conditioning will work on both.
The plastics found in the synthetic material that the faux leather is made from, crack over time when exposed to UVB rays. The UVB rays dry the material out and can leave your pleather feeling brittle and noticeably cracked. When looked after adequately, you can reduce the likelihood of the quality deteriorating sooner.
- Hand wash with gentle washing detergent and warm water.
- Pop it on a delicate cold wash in the washing machine with a low spin cycle. To avoid having your pleather ruined by other garments, put it in on its own or use a washing machine-friendly bag.
- Hang dry in the shade to avoid shrinking it in the sun or the dryer.
Avoid abrasive cloths, detergents, and bleach. Take great care with your faux leather garments to get the most out of your time with it.
Is it Worth Fixing my Faux Leather Garment?
What you should take away from this is that you can indeed tailor and alter faux leather to match your required measurements. And it doesn’t have to be a hard thing to do.
It takes slightly more effort than other simpler materials like cotton and polyester, but if your favorite jacket or pair of pleather trousers are worth it, then there’s no harm in trying to alter, tailor or repair your faux leather garment to get many more happy years of wearing it out and about.
