What man or woman hasn’t rummaged in the closet for something to wear only to find an alarming number of rarely — or never worn clothes, and some still with the price tags on?
What do we do with them? Stuff them in a bin bag and take them to the thrift store or perhaps sell them on eBay? Not an option when those ill-fitting fashion faux pas have cost us a pretty penny.
Fortunately, there are “engineers” who can fix those unflattering, ill-fitting clothes: They are called tailors.
Emilio Moncada is one such tailoring “engineer.” With an expert eye and a host of sewing machine techniques, local tailor Emilio Moncada can work his magic on clothes that have long languished in the closet and make them wearable again.
“Clothes can be spoiled by ill-fitting shoulders, poorly positioned straps, tight waistbands and blouses that gape open between the buttons,” said Moncada. “And it gets worse as we get older, put on weight and nothing ever seems to fit well,” he said.
Born and raised in Honduras, Moncada started learning the trade of tailoring at the tender age of 14. His family owned a tailoring business in La Ceida, Honduras and it was his uncle that taught him the skills of tailoring.
Those skills include taking professional measurements and assessing the posture and body shape of each customer to make the proper modifications to a customers’ garments.
Moncada works Tuesdays through Saturdays in his shop at Russell Plaza on Spring Hill Drive. On any typical day, he will be taking in darts, letting out waists, shortening sleeves, tightening seams, adding new zippers, or matching pieces of fabric to clothes that don’t fit properly.
Spending an hour or two with Moncada can reveal the wide variety of puzzles that tailors solve instantly with a snip here or a tuck there.
Moncada held up a beautiful black velvet gown and said the client had wanted it taken in tightly at the waist and the hem shortened.
“But when she tried on the dress in front of the full length mirror, I advised her against it because when I pinned the hem, the dress hung perfectly from her shoulders,” he said.
“Only an experienced tailor knows the tricks to make clothes hang properly,” said Moncada.
Moncada’s arsenal of tricks includes updating old or vintage garments by resetting the shoulders and taking in the sleeves.
“Fashions come and go, but they’re never exactly the same,” he said. “Sometimes my clients bring in a photo for the makeover.”
Client Robert Sullivan of Spring Hill arrived with a formal dinner suit jacket.
“I need the sleeves shortened,” he said. I’m going to a very special occasion next weekend so I need my dinner jacket altered quickly,” he said.
Moncada deftly pinned the sleeves to the correct length and said he would have it ready for Sullivan to collect in a couple of days.
Lisa Rogers of Spring Hill was also there to collect a skirt that Moncada had reshaped for her and a pair of dress pants that needed re-hemming.
“They fit perfectly now,” Rogers said.
Moncada is able to completely re-engineer the fit of any garment to make it comfortable to wear.
“It’s easier to slim-down a garment that is a little large but letting-out a garment that’s too small or tight is more difficult,” said Moncada. “The most important thing about any garment is how well it fits your body,” he said.
“Usually, garments can only be taken-in on the seams whereas you need extra fabric, called seam allowance, in order to make clothes larger,” he said.
Unfortunately, Moncada explained, these days, clothes are mass produced and made as cheaply as possible with the very minimum of seam allowance.
Moncada’s sewing workshop boasts six specialized sewing machines including one customized for working on denim jeans called a chain stitch machine.
“Once you find a pair of jeans you love they become your favorite piece of clothing,” he said. “I can fix tears or take up the length and stitch it using the exact same color thread and stitching as the original.”
The cutting room at Moncada’s also has a mean collection of tailor’s scissors and measures.
Picking up a large pair of cutting shears, Moncada said he uses this particular for cutting leather or suede.
“A lot of my customers are bikers and they bring in their leather gear or me to fix,” he said.
Working with leather is like surgery, Moncada explained.
“On this jacket, I cut the cuffs by 4 inches and had to take out the zippers and replace them with shorter length zippers,” he said. “A tear or rip doesn’t mean the end of use for a leather jacket or coat.”
Pricing for alterations range from item to item depending on the customer’s requirements. A heavy-duty overhaul of tailoring can be costly but in the end, a garment that was previously hidden away in the closet has been salvaged and is now wearable.
When you’ve found yourself a good tailor, it’s a treasure forever.
IF YOU GO:
Moncada, the tailor, is located at 11171 Spring Hill Drive.
Phone:
(352) 683-7664
Hours:
Tuesday-Saturday
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
emilio36tailor.wix.com/moncadatailor