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Suit Sleeves w/ working buttons

UltraMagnetical

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Looking to have a suit jacket's sleeves shortened; from my research here it appears that to do this it needs to be shortened from the shoulder area. On average how much would something like this cost and how likely is it that the jacket will be ruined
confused.gif
 

Blackhood

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The price is inversely proportionate to the risk.

A good tailor may charge $80 and there is a 95% chance it'll work.

A poor tailor could charge $25 and there is a 60% chance it'll work.
 

patrickBOOTH

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How is that inverse?

If there is a pattern it wont match up anymore taking it from the shoulder. Yikes.
 

Sanguis Mortuum

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Originally Posted by patrickBOOTH
How is that inverse?
He said price is inverse to the risk. The percentages he mentioned are the chance it will work, which are themselves the inverse of the risk. Lower cost = higher risk, higher cost = lower risk. That's pretty clearly an inverse relationship...
 

patrickBOOTH

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Crap you're right, that is what I get for trying to type and read while on a conference call.
 

UltraMagnetical

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no its solid navy....I havent bought it yet but Its a good deal and everything will fit except I prob need to shorten teh sleeves a half inch or so. Just scared to ruin the jacket.
 

Blackhood

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Half an inch may be worth doing from the cuff. If there is about 2" from button to cuff, then reducing it to 1.5" wont make much of a difference visually.
 

patrickBOOTH

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Originally Posted by Blackhood
Half an inch may be worth doing from the cuff. If there is about 2" from button to cuff, then reducing it to 1.5" wont make much of a difference visually.

+1
 

UltraMagnetical

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Originally Posted by Blackhood
Half an inch may be worth doing from the cuff. If there is about 2" from button to cuff, then reducing it to 1.5" wont make much of a difference visually.

I do not think I can...i believe its the standard 1.25" from the cuff to the button. Im just estimating on the .50: im not positive as I have not tried the jacket on...however it could be .50-1.00

Should I stay away from buying the suit b/c of this even it i can get it for a great deal?
 

EzraPaul

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It's a huge risk for a couple reasons:

1) If the sleeve tapers quickly, the tailor will be forced to turn the sleeve in a little in order to match the width of the armhole with the sleeve head.

2) The should tends to loose it's original shape. In my experience the jacket generally gets a rounded look.

If it's just a half inch, you can have the sleeves shortened from the end of the sleeve as usual, and have the tailor slant it slightly, so that the inside of the sleeve is shorter than the outside where the buttons are.

This is exactly why I don't do surgeon sleeves on my RTW collections. It makes it pretty much impossible for anyone that doesn't have the exact right length arms to purchase a jacket. It's better to prep the sleeves and and the functioning buttonholes after purchase.
 

JensenH

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Originally Posted by Blackhood
The price is inversely proportionate to the risk.

A good tailor may charge $80 and there is a 95% chance it'll work.

A poor tailor could charge $25 and there is a 60% chance it'll work.


Most tailors charge between $75 - $100. I know of no one that charges $25.
 

UltraMagnetical

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Originally Posted by EzraPaul
It's a huge risk for a couple reasons:

1) If the sleeve tapers quickly, the tailor will be forced to turn the sleeve in a little in order to match the width of the armhole with the sleeve head.

2) The should tends to loose it's original shape. In my experience the jacket generally gets a rounded look.

If it's just a half inch, you can have the sleeves shortened from the end of the sleeve as usual, and have the tailor slant it slightly, so that the inside of the sleeve is shorter than the outside where the buttons are.

This is exactly why I don't do surgeon sleeves on my RTW collections. It makes it pretty much impossible for anyone that doesn't have the exact right length arms to purchase a jacket. It's better to prep the sleeves and and the functioning buttonholes after purchase.


wow thats bad news for me....as the suit would be a great deal but IDK if id wanna risk damaging the suit to fit me correctly. I could wear it as is but none of my shirt cuff would show :/
 

fwiffo

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Originally Posted by JensenH
Most tailors charge between $75 - $100. I know of no one that charges $25.

$25 will net you the bloke who will shorten it with the working buttonhole either inside the sleeve or 0.25" from the edge of the cuff.

If there's no space to place the button, he or she will then just leave it as "unbuttoned" or try to close it up and leave a scar there anyway.
 

mic

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I had a tailor take in the shoulders of a nice jacket (basically took it from a 38 to a 36), and it came out really well, at least to my eye. Is the sleeve-shortening operation any more or less difficult?

I have to lose 1.5" from a very high end mohair/wool blazer with an absolutely perfect fit otherwise, and I'm afraid of having it botched. I wonder if I should trust it to the same shop or find a higher-end tailor.
 

heaven7

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I just did this with a Caruso I bought in B&S.
Among with other alterations it ended up running me about 150 bucks.
While I'm pretty happy with the results, I have to admit that the shoulder shape certainly did change.

Given all factors, I probably wouldn't do it again. Too expensive, time consuming and risky.
 

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