Opinions on tailoring waxed cotton insulated Filson jacket

[whipcord]

Hello. I recently bought a Filson Insulated Journeyman jacket, 17 ounce waxed cotton with a pleated and insulated interior. You can Google it to see what it look like. I have never owned one of their products because they are quite expensive, but got this one on sale so I bought it. Their "Fit Finder" told me 75% of people with my dimensions ordered large, and 25% ordered XL. I ordered the large and it is too big.

The issue is that the jacket is now sold out and nowhere to be found from any retailer, so I have no way of trying on a medium. It's either make this jacket work or send it back and never have one. When I wear a t-shirt, the thing is slightly large in the shoulders and chest (the shoulder breaks the tiniest bit past my shoulder, almost even), but it is gigantic in the waist area. I don't honestly understand the shape of this jacket. I guess they are making sure people with gigantic beer bellies fit, too.

When I put on a sweater the jacket feels excellent in the chest, shoulders and back, but still swimming in the stomach area, and that's with the rear adjustable cinches being utilized. They are about 6" up the back of the jacket. I would like to be able to layer with this jacket, so I feel a medium would be too snug in the chest with a sweater, but great with something lighter.

I was thinking the easiest way to address it would be to add two additional adjusters lower on the waist hem to take up some more of the slack. To see how this would feel, I put two suitcase clips on to take in the additional fabric and it felt much better. No more ballooning of the waist which lets cold air in, and just a better all around feel. The additional fabric "pleat" if you will naturally follows the line of the aforementioned adjusters which are up the back a ways, so it looks like it was designed like that.

Short of sending it to a tailor to reconstruct, which would likely not be cost effective for me, the other option is to just send the jacket back, but I really do like it for its intended use, which will be walking the dog in the rain, working outside, and riding my motorcycle, I just need less room in the midsection.

Does anybody have any experience with altering this kind of jacket? Thank you in advance.

 

[whipcord]

I did not get any opinions on this thread but thought I would just close it by saying I took the jacket to a tailor and she is going to take it in on the sides, putting a seam down each. I'm hoping for the best.

 

[standaloneprotein]

As a note, I tried a jacket at the Filson store (I'm between M and L, mostly L) and I was surprised that I had to go with the small. Still looked big. I had to walk away. Post pictures to see what they did to the jacket.

 

[whipcord]

I changed my mind on having it tailored and sent the jacket back to Filson. The cost and hassle of an alteration in conjunction with the fact that I'd lose the warranty wasn't worth it to me. After dealing with their "customer service," if you can call it that (think 1 hour hold times on the phone), I'll never buy another one of their products.