For Xai Xiong, the road to her current career started during her childhood in Thailand when her mother handed her a needle and thread.

“I started to sew when I was 10 years old,” said Xiong. “My mother taught me … and sewing was always really fun to me.”

Xiong’s family immigrated to the United States when she was 12, settling in Sheboygan, Wis. As she grew up, Xiong continued sewing, partially because she enjoyed it and partially out of necessity.

“I need everything shortened and tapered to fit me, because all the (clothing) here is so big,” she said, laughing. “So I started to fix my own clothes.”

Six years ago, Xiong and her husband, Teng Lee, opened Suns Alterations at Kennedy Mall in Dubuque.

Through the business, Xiong offers a variety of services, from replacing zippers, hemming pants and shortening sleeves to patching holes and altering formal gowns.

“I love to help somebody that doesn’t know how to fix their clothes, so I can help them to make it right for them,” she said.

She is one of several local sewists who use needles and thread, plus plenty of experience and a dose of creativity, to repair or prepare area residents’ clothes.

The profession is a “dying art,” but a vital and rewarding one, according to Heather Clasen, owner of Epworth, Iowa-based business The Threaded Needle.

“I always say that I fix the ‘but’ in (the sentence): I like my dress, but …’” Clasen said.

Clasen got her first taste of sewing in junior high school home economics class. As part of the course, she participated in a local “Dress-A-Doll” program, which tasked kids with designing and creating clothes for dolls that were then donated to children in need.

When Clasen won her age division in the program, she received a gift certificate to a local fabric store. There, she purchased fabric and a pattern and made herself a dress for her grandparents’ wedding anniversary.

“At the party, my aunt liked my dress so much, she asked me to make the bridesmaids’ dresses for her wedding,” Clasen said. “So, the summer after seventh grade, I made five bridesmaids’ dresses.”

After college, Clasen held a variety of jobs, from special education teacher to bridal store owner to event planner, but she always continued sewing on the side.

In 2017, she transitioned to sewing and alterations full-time, opening the business that would become The Threaded Needle.

Clasen specializes in altering women’s formal wear, particularly wedding attire for brides, attendants and mothers, plus prom and homecoming dresses and the occasional pageant or dance costume.

During the busy wedding season, from April though October, she completes alterations for about 100 dresses per month.

“My job is to get the (bride’s) dress down the aisle and to have them looking and feeling their very best, to empower brides and bring their vision to life,” Clasen said. “It’s kind of like I’m the fairy godmother.”

She also makes keepsake items like pillows from the clothing of loved ones who have died, as well as “angel dresses” to donate to local hospitals for stillborn babies or infants who die shortly after birth.

Like Clasen, Rose Schmock started sewing at age 13. She worked for nine years in the alterations department of a bridal store before launching her own business, Cutting Edge Alterations, in 2015.

The business alters both men’s and women’s formal wear. At any given time, Schmock has about 30 dresses in her rural Manchester, Iowa, studio and finishes between eight and 15 per week.

Particularly when it comes to wedding dresses, the work goes far beyond merely raising a hem or shortening a sleeve.

When altering a dress with beaded appliques, for example, Schmock has to make her cuts quite carefully or risk a rain of beads rolling across the floor. Lace hems must be meticulously stitched to avoid unraveling.

“It takes someone very experienced to take a wedding dress apart and put it back together and make it look like it’s never been touched,” Schmock said. “A lot of people know how to sew, but they don’t know how to do this.”

Xiong agrees. Since Suns Alterations works with casual clothing as well, she most commonly handles requests to hem a pair of jeans or fix a hole, which she can do quickly, but formal wear is much more time-consuming.

“Some dresses have 10 or 11 layers for the bottom, and you have to go layer by layer,” she said.

Clasen said a current trend in wedding wear has brides asking her to rework their mother’s or grandmother’s wedding dress to create a shorter, more casual number suitable for a rehearsal dinner or bridal shower.

She and Schmock also have deconstructed old wedding gowns to create First Communion dresses, flower girl outfits or baptismal dresses.

For Clasen, the reuse of wedding attire is attractive for both sentimental and practical reasons.

“I’m a huge saver, as many sewists are, so I love that nothing goes to waste,” she said. “If there’s fabric left after I’m done (altering) a dress, I hold onto it and suggest that they wrap their bouquet with it.”

It also lets her flex her creative muscles in redesigning the garment, something she and Schmock enjoy.

“I’m a very hands-on person, and I love to be creative and offer opinions on what would make their dress look better and make them feel good,” Schmock said.

Their profession is a unique one, and the numbers of sewists are dwindling nationally — particularly as the current professionals age.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 24,600 tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers employed nationally in 2023. Of that number — which is expected to decrease by 7% in the next 10 years — more than half of those workers are 45 or older, and the median age is 49.

When Schmock has to decline a project and her would-be customers ask for other recommendations, she often finds herself at a loss, now more than ever, as several local sewists she knows have retired.

Clasen wishes classes like the home economics course that fostered her love for sewing were still required for students, as they could not only bolster the sewing industry but also simply empower ordinary citizens to feel more confident in fixing minor issues with their own clothing.

She does what she can through the home sewing parties she offers. Groups who book one can make small projects like tote bags or table runners, and Clasen always teaches each attendee to thread a needle and tie off a stitch.

“Even if they never sit at a sewing machine again, they’ve learned how to hand-sew, and that’s a valuable skill for everyone,” Clasen said.