Minimum room separation from first button to edge of sleeves?

[JezeC]

How much separation is required from the first button to the edge of the sleeves?

I bought an overcoat that fits everywhere but the functional button sleeves are an inch too long for my arms. There's 4 buttons, so another option is to make it 3 buttons (not sure if this is advisable). Right now there's about 2 inches or so of separation.

I would hate to shorten the sleeves by the shoulders since the process would be way too costly for this particular purchase.

 

[GBR]

How do you propose to remove the hole?

This is something that you should have thought of before buy, you cannot properly make this adjustment.

 

[JezeC]

I was thinking about surgeon cuffs.