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guide to touching up your suit without wrecking it

jefferyd

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Originally Posted by gentleman amateur
jefferyd


For general brushing, do you recommend going with the pile first, then against the pile, and do you recommend brushing both inside and outside the suit?


Not all fabrics have a pile and those do could pill from an over-aggressive brushing against the nap. If you have a spot to remove, go first against and then with, otherwise I would say just brush with the pile (which in most cases except some velvets goes down). I don't think it is necessary to brush inside the garment.

Originally Posted by newtrane
jefferyd: I like your post and your garments - May I ask who makes your clothes?


Thank you. I make my clothes. Well, not the tie.

Originally Posted by hadamulletonce
It's tough to find a true professional these days.

try this
http://www.ifi.org/
 

jefferyd

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I should also have directed your attention to the images in this post on the London Lounge

http://thelondonlounge.net/gl/forum/...153&highlight=

which gives an idea of what can be done before a single stitch is sewn. The same sort of manipulation is used throughout the construction process. Steaming a suit will undo all that work. Perhaps having seen these images you may have a slightly better understanding of the importance and why we feel so strongly about it.
 

Wes Bourne

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Originally Posted by jefferyd
I make my clothes.

Since you included a pic of a final pressing at Samuelsohn, should we assume you work there?
Btw, great posts jefferyd! I enjoyed your blog as well. Unfortunately, I don't think I should be trusted with pressing my suits myself...
 

mmkn

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Originally Posted by jefferyd
steaming a suit can also make problems appear such as puckering and blown seams, breaking sleeves etc. . . . If you have blown any of the seams (if they look a little puffy instead of flat)

Jd,

Do you have any photographic examples of blown seams or steamed and flattened coats/jackets?

Thanks,

- M
 

jefferyd

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Originally Posted by Wes Bourne
Since you included a pic of a final pressing at Samuelsohn, should we assume you work there?
I used to.

Originally Posted by mmkn
Jd,

Do you have any photographic examples of blown seams or steamed and flattened coats/jackets?

- M


For a blown seam, see the video which I linked to at the beginning of the post. I'll try to get a photo later. As for a garment, I don't have one to hand but it wouldn't be a bad idea to show you a before/ after ; I just don't think I have any suits that I would want to do that to on purpose.
 

Cary Grant

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Originally Posted by hadamulletonce
It's tough to find a true professional these days.

So true-- I'm going through love hate with cleaners right now myself after I ha a suit cleaned and my tailor had to take open the lining and repress the canvass due to the cleaner's mistakes.
 

mmkn

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Originally Posted by jefferyd
I'll try to get a photo later.

Jd,

Thanks.

While you're at it, if there is a photo of the back of the jacket you posted (or the gorgeous grey flannel that is your blog's avatar), I would appreciate you posting that photo as well.

My fitter-tailor recently taught me how to iron suits, and the principles of "what causes wrinkles? = heat and moisture" are consistent with what you've written about steaming wool fibers.

The key seems to be to "remove the steam out of the fabric" once it has been pressed and "realigned." The vacuum below the ironing board is one way; I also saw him press the steam out with a wooden model of an iron.

I suppose a culinary analogy would be to cool a dish quickly in ice after cooking it to lock in the desired configuration . . . .

Perhaps you can clarify this, but leaving the ironing lesson I thought that once the canvas is shaped, it is tend to retain that configuration with various pressing jobs. Is a fully canvassed bespoke garment so delicate that steam could take away its shape?

Also, it seems that to properly press a suit one needs about 2 hrs. and a 12 lbs. iron at that!

- M
 

Manton

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I would be curious to read the comments of someone brave enough to try this. Post your experience. How well did it work? Tailors have always told me that pressing a suit well is a skill that takes a long time to learn, and that requires lots of practice and many demonstrations/corrections from an observing master.

That's why I have never tried. That and fear that I would screw it up.
 

jefferyd

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Originally Posted by mmkn
Jd,

Do you have any photographic examples of blown seams or steamed and flattened coats/jackets?


- M


I can't believe I did this.
Pocket before

3039773700_0303f0058a_o.jpg


pocket after

3039773654_e29f2860c7_o.jpg


I might point out that a fused jacket would not look this bad, but nobody here has any of those, do they? Notice how the side seam looks puffy instead of flat? Obviously, fat tweeds won't show as much as finer fabrics will. Another reason to stay with heavy, hard-wearing goods.

This is the sleeve inseam which has blown, and it now breaks along the front because the top sleeve, which was stretched during the making, has relaxed.

3038936279_38f09e5686_o.jpg



Originally Posted by mmkn
Jd,

Thanks.

While you're at it, if there is a photo of the back of the jacket you posted (or the gorgeous grey flannel that is your blog's avatar), I would appreciate you posting that photo as well.

The key seems to be to "remove the steam out of the fabric" once it has been pressed and "realigned." The vacuum below the ironing board is one way; I also saw him press the steam out with a wooden model of an iron.

Perhaps you can clarify this, but leaving the ironing lesson I thought that once the canvas is shaped, it is tend to retain that configuration with various pressing jobs. Is a fully canvassed bespoke garment so delicate that steam could take away its shape?

Also, it seems that to properly press a suit one needs about 2 hrs. and a 12 lbs. iron at that!

- M


Remember, we have taken a two-dimentional surface and worked it into three by working the fabric and canvas into a shape which is not natural to it. We use heat and steam to do it. If you apply more heat and steam without molding and drying you undo that shaping. If a woman uses a curling iron to curl her hair and then goes on on a humid day the curls fall. Exactly the same principle. Wool is the best fiber for tailoring for the very same reason- it takes a shape the same way our hair will when we style it using a blowdryer or curling/straightening/crimping iron.


Oh and here's the back. Now I see a few things I need to correct- a camera straight on is much better than a 3-way mirror for fitting yourself! I'll use my camera instead, next time I make something.

3039773762_31424f857e_o.jpg

Originally Posted by Manton
Tailors have always told me that pressing a suit well is a skill that takes a long time to learn, and that requires lots of practice and many demonstrations/corrections from an observing master.

That's why I have never tried. That and fear that I would screw it up.


That's why this thread was called "how to touch up" and not "How to press your suit".
 

Dewey

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Can you repair that pocket, that lousy sleeve, and make them look new with expert pressing?
 

jefferyd

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Originally Posted by Dewey
Can you repair that pocket, that lousy sleeve, and make them look new with expert pressing?

Yes, but there are other areas that would be much harder. If you mess up sleeve cap or shoulder seam for example, good luck to you. And there are also other fit aspects which would be much harder to fix properly. FYI I used the steamer setting on my Iron so that I wouldn't wreck the whole jacket by hanging it in the bathroom. There are probably a lot of things that people have never noticed because it was never pointed out to them, but once they see it it will be really obvious to them. I wouldn't have wasted my time trying to convince the average person, but these are not average people.
 

mmkn

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Originally Posted by jefferyd
Notice how the side seam looks puffy instead of flat? Obviously, fat tweeds won't show as much as finer fabrics will. Another reason to stay with heavy, hard-wearing goods."

Wonderful, thanks for the education. You have a "gift for explaining . . ."

I'm getting the sense that any water/steam (except for the miniscule amount needed to straighten out wrinkles) is bad for fabric/stitch relations in a bespoke garment (not so much RTW - made to withstand the tortures of modern cleaning).

I hope I'm not pushing this too far if I asked what it might look like on the other side of the puckered seam, and can you press out the pucker? (no pun intended.)



Originally Posted by jefferyd
Oh and here's the back. Now I see a few things I need to correct- a camera straight on is much better than a 3-way mirror for fitting yourself! I'll use my camera instead, next time I make something.

3039773762_31424f857e_o.jpg
".


Yet another chance to learn . . . what would you do?

Originally Posted by jefferyd
That's why this thread was called "how to touch up" and not "How to press your suit".

I get the impression that this is all the hobbyist consumer can really do . . . touch up. Get your bespoke garments dry cleaned sans ironing, bring it to a trusted tailor for the 2hrs. pressing, and then touch up the rest of the time.

Thanks again, Jd.

- M
 

TheFoo

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Does it matter whether the cloth was properly sponged before being made into a suit?
 

jefferyd

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Originally Posted by mmkn

I hope I'm not pushing this too far if I asked what it might look like on the other side of the puckered seam, and can you press out the pucker? (no pun intended.)


Not sure what you mean by this.

Yet another chance to learn . . . what would you do?
The back looks a tad long- see the draping just below the waist? It could be that I haven't stretched the side seam enough, though; there is some junk under my left arm which I need to clean up and the blades are messy. One reason I cut my sleeves so big and ropy is that I would rather have a close fit with no drape- the big sleeve and correctly placed armhole allows that and I can still move very freely. Strangely, the collar looks like it doesn't match properly but I rechecked it (again) and it does. Weird.


I get the impression that this is all the hobbyist consumer can really do . . . touch up. Get your bespoke garments dry cleaned sans ironing, bring it to a trusted tailor for the 2hrs. pressing, and then touch up the rest of the time.

- M

EXACTLY. Though some dry cleaners do know how to press. Check out the link I posted earlier in this thread.

Originally Posted by mafoofan
Does it matter whether the cloth was properly sponged before being made into a suit?

Not really. There is so much pressing in the construction and final pressing that that pretty much makes up for it. At one point we tried using some chemical setting agents (Siroset) during production but testing wasn't conclusive. The important thing is to have the right combination of steam, heat, pressure, and supporting shape (press form or sleeve board). And no jiffy steamers!
 

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