How hard is it to slim/taper the sleeves on a jacket?

I just got back from a tailor (Ernesto's in Philly) and am having a fully canvassed Samuelsohn sport coat altered. I'm getting more waist suppression, sleeves lengthened and sleeves slimmed. The tailor was very reluctant to get the sleeves slimmed, but I've seen users on SF do this to their jackets with great results. Is it really that difficult to get the arms slimmed on a jacket? He mentioned he'd slim them an inch. I figured slimming sleeves wouldn't be a problem for them since they mainly produce bespoke clothing.. I hope it won't be. I have such bad luck with tailors. I did read this thread btw: http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=141805

Originally Posted by musicguy

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I just got back from a tailor (Ernesto's in Philly) and am having a fully canvassed Samuelsohn sport coat altered. I'm getting more waist suppression, sleeves lengthened and sleeves slimmed. The tailor was very reluctant to get the sleeves slimmed, but I've seen users on SF do this to their jackets with great results. Is it really that difficult to get the arms slimmed on a jacket? He mentioned he'd slim them an inch. I figured slimming sleeves wouldn't be a problem for them since they mainly produce bespoke clothing.. I hope it won't be. I have such bad luck with tailors.

I did read this thread btw: http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=141805
I also had a tailor fairly reluctant to slim up the sleeves on one of my jackets. Her argument, was the lining on the sleeves made it a fairly time-consuming process, and that she'd do it but for way more money then I was willing to spend.

I've never had my tailor make a fuss or charge me a ton of money to do this but then again he does great work and has great prices. Probably why I travel 30-45 minutes to see him

The tailor is charging me 100 bucks for waist suppression and lengthening and tapering the sleeves. He said it was going to be expensive, but I was expecting more.

I think that sounds very fair considering you are lengthening the jacket which I always thought to be the difficult job out of the three

Originally Posted by cioni2k

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I think that sounds very fair considering you are lengthening the jacket which I always thought to be the difficult job out of the three

I'm not lengthening the jacket! just the sleeves... It's still not that bad.

My tailor charges me $20 to do this.

I had a tailor take in the waist of a jacket and slim the sleeves. I told him that I wanted him to raise the arm hole and make the sleeve more slim from top to bottom. He said he understood, and did it for $60. I'm not very experienced with suit jackets, but once I got it back from him it only looked like the sleeves were slimmer from the elbow to the wrist. Is it really possible that he could have charged $60 to slim the arm holes? Or did he just take advantage of my (young) age and tell me that he slimmed them?

i would be pissed if a tailor did that to me b/c of my young age. remember to just try on post alterations, and if there is the slightest thing you do not like, make it clear.

anyways, sort of on topic but i got charged ~$80 for shortening one sleeve, waist suppression, hemming and tapering pants. if all goes well will consider slimming arms and maybe take in the waist.

CDHagg said:

I had a tailor take in the waist of a jacket and slim the sleeves. I told him that I wanted him to raise the arm hole and make the sleeve more slim from top to bottom. He said he understood, and did it for $60. I'm not very experienced with suit jackets, but once I got it back from him it only looked like the sleeves were slimmer from the elbow to the wrist. Is it really possible that he could have charged $60 to slim the arm holes? Or did he just take advantage of my (young) age and tell me that he slimmed them?

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Definitely possible, though he could perhaps just be incompetent/lazy? In any case, you should bring it back and confront (well, ask) him about it.



CDHagg said:

I had a tailor take in the waist of a jacket and slim the sleeves. I told him that I wanted him to raise the arm hole and make the sleeve more slim from top to bottom. He said he understood, and did it for $60. I'm not very experienced with suit jackets, but once I got it back from him it only looked like the sleeves were slimmer from the elbow to the wrist. Is it really possible that he could have charged $60 to slim the arm holes? Or did he just take advantage of my (young) age and tell me that he slimmed them?

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The armhole can't be slimmed. You would have to create material to raise it, and that obviously can't be done.

I've had my tailor slim the sleeves on a couple of my suits. It turned out well, and I think it cost me around the same as shortening sleeves.

For the benifit of SFers residing in Houston, the tailor who did the questionable sleeve job was Harry Malkani at Larry's Original Custom Tailors. Very affordable, but I'm not sure if he's very skilled or even very honest. I don't think he leveled with me on the arm holes (I was very clear about "raising the arm holes", and he just said ok). Maybe he was just trying to do me a favor by saving me money. Don't know, but I probably won't be going back.

^ It is not possible to raise the armholes

How hard is it to rip leather sleeves from other jackets and put them on a crewneck sweater?