Alright, the snow hasn't completely disappeared yet, but March, Mother's Day and Easter are all strolling rapidly towards us, which means – spring is nearly here!

If the idea of having to shell out another few hundred pounds on outfitting your children is giving you a headache and you enjoy being creative with your hands, why not do some clothing alterations at home? This skill also comes in handy if you buy some amazing clothes for your self or your children at a sale that' are just a bit too big or don't fit quite right, and you'll be helping the environment by throwing out less textiles, since the UK has one of the highest turn-over rates for mass-produced clothes.

MyFamily shows you how to get started with our basic how-to guide:

What you will need:

How to let out hems

STEP ONE: In order to lengthen a skirt or dress so that it can be worn again, you'll need to remove the hem. Press out the crease with the steam iron, and if it still shows, sponge the line with white vinegar and then press down hard with a damp pressing cloth.

STEP TWO: Get your child to put on the dress or skirt and stand in front of a mirror. Mark out a new hem of about carefully with the straight pins so that the hem is secured to the fabric, keeping the pins placed close together.

STEP THREE: Take the skirt or dress carefully off your child and place it on an ironing board inside out. With the hem folded up, press firmly against the crease to create the new hem. Hems should usually be about one to two inches in length all the way round the width evenly, so you need to cut off the excess material, unless you want to keep it in case you need to let it out again.

STEP FOUR: Take out the pins if you're confident, but if you worry about making mistakes, move the pins to the top of the hem, near the crease and secure the fabric there. Before you can sew your new hem, you will need to “finish” the end of the fabric so that it doesn't unravel. You can do this either by sewing a straight-stitch along the edge of the hem with a sewing machine, cutting the fabric with pinking shears or by sewing a seam binding, or lace and ribbon binding to the end by hand or with a sewing machine.

If there is too little hem left to make up the one to two inches of fabric, use seam tape. Lay the tape along the trimmed edge of the newly-created hem with the right sides together and the outside edges aligned neatly. Straight-stitch the tape into place 1/4 inch from the edge, being careful not to stretch the tape. Then turn the tape up so the raw edges are underneath it, and press the seam open.

How to let out seams

STEP ONE: If the clothing fits too tightly, you can open the seams and restitch them. First start by turning the garment inside out. Use the seam ripper to gently remove the stitches from the seam on one side of the dress.

STEP TWO: Sew the seam back together closer to the raw edges to give you more space. Resewing the seam of one side might be enough, otherwise repeat the process with the other seam.

How to take in seams

STEP ONE: As with above, remove the stitches from a side seam. Then put the garment on inside out and use straight pins to create new seams in the right position, or get someone else to help you with the pins, if you're the one wearing the dress.

STEP TWO: Take the garment off carefully and sew the seams back together, curving the new stitches gradually into the line of the original seam. You don't want to make completely new seam markings, as some of the original markings will be correct, so just restitch and adjust the fabric as you need to.

By Mary-Ann Russon