DIY Alterations- side vents and slimming

[macuser3of5]

Originally Posted by khaki sack

A licensing ,for home tailoring. My friend Ahmed, from school , got logged out from lack of proper home tailoring ,ceritifications.
too hard, you are trying.

 

[J Darnielle]

Originally Posted by khaki sack

I am more concerned ,that he is performing the alliterations without proper supervision and ,licensing.
Khaki's comments could be correct. Be careful, Conrad, your clothing corrections might be cause for concern.

Eh? eh?

 

[AcuraNSX]

Originally Posted by JamesT

The difference between the chest size and the waist size. In this case the waist is 11 inches smaller than the chest.

Many thanks! Never would have figured that one out on my own.

 

[Conrad]

Yeah, i thought about the before and afters after I did it all. I'll see if i can dig up a picture of me in the suit before hand. Side and back views are actually sitting on my camera right now, but the batteries just died.

I did all of the alterations with a machine except for a couple little places. I've got a Pfaff 1222E which is alot fancier of a machine than necessary, but it was free since it needed a timing set put in it and the old lady had already bought herself a replacement.

I used the machine to take the back and sides in, hand sewed the corners of the vent where it gets turned "inside out" to make the clean 90*'s, and hand sewed the side vents where they transitioned into the shoulders, and hand stitched the lining back in.

The jacket is also only partially lined, so I only had to take back 2" of lining at each side seam to do the work, and didn't have to touch the lining to take the center back seam in.

The pants are on the agenda to get the seat taken in and slightly taper the legs, but that doesn't take much time. I'm getting the jacket done first.



As for the little bit about performing alterations without "licensing and supervision" I could see that being a cause for concern IF I were doing this for other people. No money is changing hands so it's the same idea as me fixing my own car. If i do it for someone else I technically have to be licensed and insured to be an auto mechanic. For myself, i'm just a hobbyist.

But here's another set of pics. It's a suit I got from the same grandfather as the olive suit.

Before:

After:

 

[Jumbie]

Good job. Wish I could do that.

I still think you need to shorten the jacket sleeves a bit more and also that the pants look a bit too baggy; this coming from someone who likes slightly looser pants.

 

[Conrad]

I still need to work over most all of the pants. All of the suits are 40 shorts ( i have 3 or 4 more to mess with), but the pants vary from 30's to 34's. I wear a 30 pant, the first suit they're 32's and the second they're 34's.

The 32's won't be bad to take it, but the 34's are going to need a total reconstrution to get them fitting right. Fortunately that's the only one that has 34's.

So far the hardest thing has been getting sleeve lengths correct. Doing it on someone else would be easier, and if I had someone with an eye for detail that could do it on me that would be easier as well.

 

[Jumbie]

Originally Posted by Conrad

So far the hardest thing has been getting sleeve lengths correct. Doing it on someone else would be easier, and if I had someone with an eye for detail that could do it on me that would be easier as well.

Do you have a friend, g/f, wife, etc. that could help you with marking the correct length with tailor's chalk or whatever it's called? I don't know how you're currently doing it but I do agree that twisting to measure your own length would throw everything off.

 

[Conrad]

Originally Posted by Jumbie

Do you have a friend, g/f, wife, etc. that could help you with marking the correct length with tailor's chalk or whatever it's called? I don't know how you're currently doing it but I do agree that twisting to measure your own length would throw everything off.


Hadn't thought of just marking it with chalk, that would really make things easier.

I had my g/f help me on one, but the rolling didn't turn out like I wanted. she'd roll it up and pin it, but they'd always come down a little and saying "pin it higher" tended to wind up WAY too high.

Just marking would really let me get the iron in there and get it good and creased.

Thanks for the input, Jumbie.

 

[a tailor]

Originally Posted by Conrad

Hadn't thought of just marking it with chalk, that would really make things easier.

I had my g/f help me on one, but the rolling didn't turn out like I wanted. she'd roll it up and pin it, but they'd always come down a little and saying "pin it higher" tended to wind up WAY too high.

Just marking would really let me get the iron in there and get it good and creased.

Thanks for the input, Jumbie.

first turn the cloth inside ,that way you can see the way the finished length will look.
all you need is a small chalk mark at the front crease on one leg.

you mark the bottom straight or an angle as you wish.
lay the two legs together and mark the other leg.

 

[AcuraNSX]

That comparison is night and day. It turned out wonderfully. Good show!

 

[Conrad]

Originally Posted by a tailor

first turn the cloth inside ,that way you can see the way the finished length will look.
all you need is a small chalk mark at the front crease on one leg.

you mark the bottom straight or an angle as you wish.
lay the two legs together and mark the other leg.

I've been rolling my pants and getting good results, but I'm definitely going to take all the pointers on working the sleeves over. It's stuff that just seems so obvious once someone tells you, but is the cause of untold grief before hand.




The other thing about doing all of this is honestly I can only do it right now since I'm a student and have a decent amount of free time and no money. If I had a 9-5+ I could still do it, but it would take a week to alter a jacket instead of a day.

A single center vent jacket takes about 2 hours to taper start to finish and the dual side vent took a solid 4 hours to do and it was only partially lined. I'm sure if I did this for 20 years I could really get the time down, but as it sits it's a serious time investment.

Once I have a job I'll go back to paying a tailor for his services just so I don't have to bother; this is just a money saving exercise to get me through school.

Also if I only had one suit to do I'd just send it out to get done, but I have a total of 6 suits that I need to taper and shorten sleeves. Sending it all out at once would cost me at least $300. Doing it like this I get to learn about the clothing constructing, expand my horizons, and enhance my ability to communicate with my tailor for when I do use his services. I like being able to tell him exactly what i want done, not just walking in and saying "this doesn't look right, fix it".

It's like being able to go into your auto mechanic and tell him exactly what your car is doing wrong. The more precisely and accurately you can articulate the symptoms, the more likely it is that he'll be able to fix it correctly and more quickly the first time around.

 

[tommib]

Well done to you for doing your own alterations, some good skills there.

As for those licensing comments, are you high on crack? Those of us who live in the free world don't need a license to alter our own clothes.

 

[Dmax]

Kudos, on learning to do your own alterations. I sometimes do my own hemming just to see if I can do it. Your stitching looks a lot neater than mine though.

I like how you keep a turbocharger and a long gun next to your suits.

Pay no attention to the Sad Sack troll. He is normally more good-natured in his Vaclava persona.

 

[khaki sack]

Originally Posted by Dmax

He is normally more good-natured in his Vaclava persona.

Who is , Vaclava?

 

[Conrad]

Originally Posted by Dmax

Kudos, on learning to do your own alterations. I sometimes do my own hemming just to see if I can do it. Your stitching looks a lot neater than mine though.

just a matter of taking my time. My stitching started out uneven, loose, and just plain crappy looking. I praticed on some scrap until i got that "link stitch" (i don't think that's what it's called, but it's descriptive enough for me

) decent enough looking to actually try it on a suit I'd wear.

The hardest part for me was training myself to pass the needle through the fabric, and then bring then needle back through right next to the initial pass before moving along. Once I got myself focused on that, making the even and tight stitches was easy.

Originally Posted by Dmax

I like how you keep a turbocharger and a long gun next to your suits.

I'm a man of many hobbies

I rebuilt the turbo for an aircooled VW I was doing, but got offered more than the car was worth before building the motor so all of the components are still hanging around, just waiting for the right victim

The gun is an 870 Wingmaster. I didn't even realize it was in the picture until you pointed it out, I must have cleaned it the day I took that picture. All of my guns spend their free time cased and vaulted.