Altering a Sweater. Worth it?

[deveandepot1]

I just inherited a few nice sweaters from an elderly uncle. They are my size, but they are massive. If possible I want to get them tailored. But first I have some questions.
Is it possible? What is the cost? What can be done? Can you mess with cashmere?
Thanks

 

[godofcoffee]

Originally Posted by deveandepot1

I just inherited a few nice sweaters from an elderly uncle. They are my size, but they are massive. If possible I want to get them tailored. But first I have some questions.
Is it possible? What is the cost? What can be done? Can you mess with cashmere?
Thanks

I'm not sure what you mean by your size, but massive - I've done it before with Cashmere, and it cost about $20 per sweater in Vancouver. But I tried it once when the shoulders didn't fit and was (unsurprisingly) not impressed by the results.

 

[stylemaven]

I'd love to hear more on this subject - can most sweaters be altered?

 

[godofcoffee]

Originally Posted by stylemaven

I'd love to hear more on this subject - can most sweaters be altered?

I'm not at all an expert on sweater alteration, but to elaborate, I had the sides of some sweaters (which, incidentally, I also inherited from an elderly uncle) taken in as well as the sleeves. Worked pretty well - I don't think it's a very difficult operation. Not sure about shortening or anything else, though.

 

[barims]

As I understand it, doing the side seams is not particularly hard, so I'm planning a DIY job on two jumpers. If I actually have a camera by then, I'll let you know In this case, it would have been better to resurrect the last sweater alterations thread, since it contains the DIY info I intend on using

 

[clintow]

The side seams are easy. You can do it yourself without too much trouble. If you have access to a zig zag sewing machine, you can also cut off the excess material from the inside and overcast the edges to avoid raveling. I wouldn't cut off the excess material if you don't have a way to overcast the edges, but if you're not putting them in the washing machine and the knit if fairly fine you might be okay. Just leave a large allowance and don't handle the edges too much.

Arm and body length on almost all nicer sweaters are impossible to alter and have look like the original, as the rib knit ends are knitted as part of the body/arm of the sweater, as opposed to sewn on. Of course, there are ways to do it; one could cut off the rib knit ends and the excess length, then sew the rib knit back on. This would add a seam between the rib knit and body/arm of the sweater, so that depends on your own tolerance with those sorts of things as well as how bad the length is to begin with. If the rib knit ends are already sewn on, then length alterations are totally doable, just kind of a pain.

Good luck!

EDIT: Just saw your link to the old thread. The linked tutorial is pretty good. I would add that you should take some measurements from a sweater you like and use them to plot your new side seam. That saves some of the trying on, which is always a little scary when there are a bunch of pins poking out of the fabric.

 

[Thurston]

I just had some very good luck in shrinking two sweaters. The first was a 50/50 silk cashmere that was bought a size big and then stretched further. The second was a cashmere that was cut a lttle big and stretched out.

I spritzed them with clear water and ran them through the dryer in 5-10 minute increments, varying the heat and time based on progress. They went from items I would not wear to items I'm looking forward to wearing again. If you're careful, this could be a whole lot cheaper and easier than alterations.