The (mis)adventures of an amateur alterationist

[Choeki]

I've been practicing the skill of sewing for some time now - practically since kindergarten - and have been working my way up to making my own clothing. However, there are a few mysteries of construction that I have decided that I cannot solve without deconstruction of existing works and some hands-on experimentation. Unfortunately, since I have no sewing machine (nor knowledge of how to use one) I have to sew everything by hand. I've gotten rather quick on the routine things though (the saying "with enough thrust even a brick can fly" comes to mind...), so I imagine it can't be too difficult to develop new skills as long as I can afford the luxury of making mistakes. So meet my project suit jacket to be:

This is a modern U.S. Army "Class A" 44L jacket I purchased from an eBay lot of 6 for around $10 USD a piece about 4 years ago or so. I originally purchased them to convert to Ground Self-defense Force uniforms for sale in Japan, but I ran out of time and gumption on the issue so they sat around for a bit collecting dust. However, once I began my job as a professional teacher I was in dire need of a large quantity of suits so I converted one of them in an early attempt to make a civilian suit out of it:

Which resulted in the above. I simply stripped all the pockets off, along with the epaulets and military buttons. Then I replaced the buttons with a set of generic plastic ones and made a fake breast pocket:

I used it for a while just like this until I managed to lose enough weight to buy off the rack at the local department stores and relegated it to the back of the closet.

However, recently it was brought to my attention that the majority of my suits were fitted poorly (jacket hems and sleeve lengths) so I decided to do a complete and full alteration on the jacket so that I can do the same for my regular use suits (about 9 summer and 7 winter weight). So begins my trials using the jacket as an experimental "study"

First of all, the jacket is missing a number of things that are necessary for making it into a regular suit jacket. For example, there are no cuff buttons or any indication of where to put them:

There are also no pocket flaps of any kind:

In addition to this, it is much too long in the coat length (almost 10cm) and about 3cm too long on the sleeve cuffs. So the first major alteration on the agenda was to measure, cut and re-create the hem of the jacket to proper length.

Front:

Back:

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 2

After ironing the excess under the jacket using an ironing mesh and then stripping the original stitching on the lining with a seam-ripper, I was greeted with this mess:

Basically a lot of iron-on adhesive used to give the material a bit of insulation apparently. Nevertheless, I soldiered on and sliced off the excess woolen material in anticipation of hemming:

Front:

Back:

Once I had sewn the hem down in the back, I then decided to eliminate the single vent and measured/cut/reinforced a set of double vents:

Detail:

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 3

Now that the back was sorted out, I decided to work out the front. Since I wanted to break up the square silhouette of the original coat I decided to give the front hem a taper:

This was measured off of another suit that already had this style (a three-button pin-stripe suit I normally wear for work). I decided to cut the excess material in a way that left only about 8mm or so of seam due to the curved shape of the hem - something I copied from the original square hem to prevent bunching of excess material once I sewed the ends together:

After about an hour of sculpting the material with a hot iron, lots of steam and an ironing mesh I sewed the hem together with a decent result:

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 4

Next on the agenda was to sort out the unruly lining. I've had trouble in the past with linings, mainly dealing with lining them up properly and having deformations from sewing them on too short. However, in this case everything turned out peachy:

After accomplishing this, I finally decided to replace the ugly plastic buttons with some fabric covered ones I had made the other day from the excess material. I used a kit I picked up from the local Daiso in order to make them:

Here they are sewn onto the coat:

Once that was out of the way, I decided to tackle the sleeves so I rolled up and ironed down the extra material:

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 5

I decided to do something a little different this time (as opposed to the last time's results which I was currently dismantling) and make bespoke style functional cuff buttons. Here is the initial cuff with the ironed-in fold:

I measured the functional suit jacket (again) and determined the approximate length of how far the seam should be split and disassembled it, hurriedly reinforcing the end of the split to prevent unraveling:

I then ironed out the extra creases from the old alteration and made a judgment call to retain the slack as a reinforcement for the modification:

I then cut and re-attached the lining on the cuffs of both sleeves:

Next, I measured out the area and location of where the button holes needed to be and made appropriate chalk marks on both cuffs:

However, I noticed that now that I made this modification there was not enough extra seam to make a proper foundation for the buttons and retain the proper shape of the cuff. I decided to fix this by making a "button panel" out of scrap material and quickly measured them out and ironed them into shape.

Total time taken so far on this project is 15 hours. I attached the button panels on last night temporarily, so I'll finish up this part of the project tonight.

 

[indycop]

Uh, Choeki are you sure you want to be a school teacher and not a tailor? You give new meaning to hand made!!:eusa_clap That is just amazing!! I have that very jacket in my closet from my Army days, though it could never fit again. I just can not get rid of it for sentimental reasons I guess.
Great pictorial too!!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Choeki]

Uh, Choeki are you sure you want to be a school teacher and not a tailor? You give new meaning to hand made!!:eusa_clap That is just amazing!! I have that very jacket in my closet from my Army days, though it could never fit again. I just can not get rid of it for sentimental reasons I guess.
Great pictorial too!!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

Thanks!

As much as I appreciate the compliment though, I'm still just barely an alterationist... I have had people tell me in the past that I should try and make some money from my sewing hobby, but I'm not efficient enough to work on more than one or two items at a time. Plus, I'm still not confident enough to generate clothing from scratch (or at least from bolts of cloth and making patterns of my own design).

Funny thing is that I'm not actually a teacher by vocation - I mainly advanced to this position from an apprenticeship and eventually graduated up to being a fully licensed private school teacher in Japan. I'm currently working on getting hired for a Federal LEO position (my actual chosen vocation), but I'm stuck in the hiring pool until the budget's been sorted out (currently frozen due to politics).

Nevertheless, I'll post last night's labors later. I didn't get much done since I was pretty tired, but I did get the foundation stitches done for the button holes. Tonight I have a laundry and shirt ironing marathon to get through, so I may document the process of producing Japanese-style high starch shirts.

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 6

Last night I finished sewing on the button panel, but I also had to do a bit of trimming up on the sleeve seam due to the thickness of the panel:

As you can also see, I also added the foundation for the button holes on the leading flap.

Here is the underside:

And here is a close-up of the button hole foundation stitching:

If I have time tonight during or after taking care of my laundry I may manage to finish this part today. Next on the agenda is manufacturing pocket flaps for the two front pockets, and making a proper breast pocket with lining. I believe I need to take in the seam a bit where I did the double vent since it drapes poorly in that area when I put the jacket on. The added waist suppression should be subtle enough to be unnoticeable... I hope. After that I believe the only thing left would be to add another interior pocket or two for pens and a notepad, possibly a ticket pocket. Currently there is only one internal pocket on the right side where the manufacturer's label and care instructions are attached.

 

[Jovan]

This is very cool. The close together four buttons and peaked lapels make the coat look Victorian. I wouldn't worry too much about pocket flaps unless you really want them, style wise. Many coats from the past had none.

 

[Choeki]

Laundry's finished! But it's 9 p.m. and I have tobe at work by 7:30am tomorrow...

This is very cool. The close together four buttons and peaked lapels make the coat look Victorian. I wouldn't worry too much about pocket flaps unless you really want them, style wise. Many coats from the past had none.

Hmm... You know, I actually didn't think about the implications of what period it would represent when I started the modifications. Back when I was just wearing it as a stripped jacket, a friend of mine informed me of the incorrect length as well as commented that "only black people wore 4-button suit jackets" as hip-hop pimp suits, apparently.

Having a Victorian attribute to it does put it in a new light though, as I do have a liking for Victorian era dress (both actual and "steam punk" aesthetic). Not as much as I do the 30's and 40's, but it does have a place - evening wear and morning dress/frock coats IMO. I wonder if it wouldn't seem too costume-ish to wear on a daily basis? The only thing I was a little worried about if I did wear it on a regular basis (once I completed it, of course) was people thinking I was trying to cosplay the Riddler from Batman:

I do admit that I've been wanting to buy a bowler hat lately, but not a green one though... Much less a swanky cane.

Nevertheless, I'll probably be putting the pocket flaps on anyway. I need the practice if I want to make my own proper suits someday. Besides, I plan on producing them in a manner that would allow me to tuck them in to conceal them if I choose. That would be a bit more challenging since I have to partially disassemble the existing pocket along the top to properly mount the flap.

 

[Tomasso]

Basically a lot of iron-on adhesive used to give the material a bit of insulation apparently.

Actually, that's a fused interfacing which is applied to the front of the jacket to give it structure and body. On better jackets a floating canvass (made of horsehair) is employed, affixed by hand.

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 7

Actually, that's a fused interfacing which is applied to the front of the jacket to give it structure and body. On better jackets a floating canvass (made of horsehair) is employed, affixed by hand.

I've heard of the canvas thing before for bespoke suits, but I was under the impression that a military uniform jacket would have had a slightly better quality level to it than this fused interfacing stuff. I suppose I'll have to figure out how to do that eventually along with sort out how to make a complete lining since this particular jacket only has partial lining.

Anyway, I've been slacking off the past two days on the project compared to my weekend marathon. I did manage to complete the right sleeve last night though. Basically I started from where I left off the other day where I affixed the button panel and completed the hand stitching of the button holes:

After cutting the button holes open with a seam ripper, I used a chalk pencil to mark the attachment location of the buttons on the panel I attached:

Considering how close to the edge the attachment turned out to be, I probably should have made the button panel a bit wider (possibly another centimeter). Oh well, something learned for next time.

Here are the buttons attached:

I took the pains to make sure they were sewn on in a manner that followed the grain of the material. I'm not sure if that's typically what is done with fabric covered buttons, but it seemed to make sense to me from an aesthetic viewpoint.

The buttons were then buttoned with some difficulty:

Apparently I had underestimated the amount of slack I would need to make it comfortable for the buttons to be manipulated through the buttonholes (I usually only make buttonholes for shirts to convert cuffs over from barrels to French style). I'll have to go back later and extend them 5mm or so if I ever plan on being able to open and close the sleeve cuff without tremendous difficulty.

Here is the cuff finally completely closed... Which took a grand total of 15 minutes of pushing:

And here's how it looks from the other side:

I suppose if I just leave it as is and never plan on manipulating the buttons ever again things should be fine. I get the feeling though that I'll eventually have to revisit this and fix the mistakes I made (button panel too narrow, button holes too small) and perhaps add one more button to match the amount on the front of the jacket.

Total time taken on this jacket is about 20 hours. I'll finish the left sleeve tonight (with corrections) if I have time. The investigation continues...

 

[Mr. Rover]

Wow- what an undertaking! This is fascinating! Keep us updated!! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 8

I took a break on Thursday (went out with a girlfriend), so I ended up working on the jacket again on Friday night. First thing was to fix the button holes on the right sleeve by adding another 5mm of space and then slicing through the old border with a seam splitter:

So now, it is fairly easy to open and close the cuff. After this was completed, I did the left cuff with a little more skill. First I added the 5mm of space for the hole that I did when I corrected the right cuff in the foundation stitches:

Here are the hand-stitched button holes before I cut them with a seam splitter. I think they came out a bit neater this time compared to the right side's:

Notice the old foundation stitches for the original length of the hole on the boxy end.

After slicing open the holes and using a chalk pencil to mark the locations of the button, I sewed on the buttons:

Here they are fastened (much more easily than the right cuff's initial holes):

Here is the left sleeve from the back:

And here is the right:

There is a little distortion around the base of where the split seam was made, but I believe I can fix it by doing a simple barrel press. Next I believe I'll fix the rear venting appearance by doing a bit of waist suppression, then I'll install a real breast pocket on the front of the jacket. I just managed to get some canvas with rubberized/waterproof finished on one side, so I plan on using that for any new pockets I make.

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 9

I took a couple of days off working on the jacket and got some local shopping done. I'll be posting the information on that adventure in the appropriate forum shortly. Nevertheless, I had another marathon session last night.

I decided to begin the laborious endeavor of creating a real breast pocket on the jacket last night, so I drummed up some gumption and got to work.
The first thing I did was to bring out the waterproofed canvas material and measured out to be cut:

As you can see it's a light tan/khaki material with a black coating of some sort of water repellent material on the other side. I'm not sure what it was originally intended for, but I figured it would be more than suitable to make pocket linings out of.

Next, I measured out the general size of the pocket and then added about 1.5cm around it using a chalk pencil:

I made two of these and then cut them out. The I sketched the pocket's internal border on the material using a chalk pencil and put down a foundation line for a lock stitch using a doubled thread:

Here is the result from completely sewing the pocket halves together:

I decided to simply use a double thread and small stitches instead of a two lines of stitches for reinforcement on the seams so that I could use the seam later (near the top) as a reinforcement for the pocket's attachment to the jacket.

Next, I removed the fake pocket from the jacket using a seam splitter:

Then I left a reference mark using the chalk pencil so that I could place the pocket correctly once I was finished with the lining:

I then trimmed the lining's seams in anticipation of attaching the fake pocket facing to the front of it and then ironed down one edge so that I could keep the appearance of the pocket interior smart:

At the time I didn't realize that I made a slight error in doing this as I left very little slack to fold over for when I actually installed the pocket on the jacket. Not a huge disaster, but a little irksome:

Here is the pocket facing completely attached, with a view into the lining from above:

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 10

Next on the agenda was to properly measure and cut the opening for the pocket. I've done this before on a cut-down 80's era double breasted suit to raise the left and right front pockets, but it was a bit rough due to the fact that I didn't conceal the old pocket openings effectively. However, in this case I had a very clear picture in my mind of how everything would go together from beginning to end (not including the pocket lining seam error, of course...).

I began by offsetting and marking the area where I was to cut the face of the jacket. I noticed that the original pocket location chalk mark was not perpendicular to the fly of the coat, so I made a correction before I marked the location of the opening:

I then sliced open the top portion of the pocket opening seam with a seam ripper:

I ironed the flap of material under the face of the jacket and fitted the top portion of the pocket lining assembly to make sure the hole width was correct:

Moving on, I checked the amount of slack I left on the bottom of the pocket facing in order to measure out the bottom portion of the pocket opening seam:

I then made marks with the chalk pencil to indicate where to use the seam cutter:

I followed with the location of where I was to fold the material and iron under the seam:

After this I ironed the seams down flat using the highest heat and steam setting on the iron while using an ironing mesh to prevent scorching of the material:

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 11

I then proceeded to install the pocket lining:

Unfortunately, I was only able to insert it halfway since there were some construction stitches on the inside batting that were preventing me from inserting the lining all the way.

After slicing away the stitching, I fully inserted the pocket lining:

I then checked to see if the clearance was all right, along with making sure the seams lined up before sewing the pocket lining on:

Attaching the pocket facing back onto the front of the jacket was somewhat difficult since the facing was a little distorted from attaching it to the lining. So I decided to sew only the base corners of the pocket facing first to make sure it was lined up properly:

I then attached the left and right side of the pocket facing:

And then finally the bottom of the pocket facing:

After attaching the back of the pocket facing to the top seam of the opening in the jacket, I inspected the pocket interior to make sure I had lined it up properly again:

Finally, I ironed the pocket facing using high heat and steam with an ironing mesh to shape it. The results were pretty much as I expected, as it was a complicated operation to produce a subtle effect. Since it looked pretty much the same as it did before I worked on this portion of the modification, I decided to insert a pocket square for the final photo:

Next on the agenda is to do a little waist suppression to cinch up the double vents in back, and then make some pocket flaps for the left and right front pockets.

Total time taken on this jacket is about 26 hours. The investigation continues...

 

[mister7]

Your sewing skills are VERY impressive! This is all by hand correct? I'm curious if you have any interest in machine sewing.

Here in the U.S. many sewing machines are Japanese, mine is a Riccar. I bought it to make and repair outdoor gear (I am a rockclimber). My sewing experience is mostly limited to multiple layers of nylon fabrics or webbing. My machine is not a fancy one, but it will sew heavy fabrics.

I was wondering if the kind of fancy sewing you do is easier if done by hand, or if some tasks would be easier with a machine? For the outdoor gear I sew, machine sewing is required for strength, but my sewing is not very cosmetic. I have always been afraid to try making any clothes, or for that matter, to even try the kind of major alterations you so succesfully accomplish.

Congratulations on your fine results! I am envious of your skill!

 

[Choeki]

Your sewing skills are VERY impressive! This is all by hand correct? I'm curious if you have any interest in machine sewing.

Here in the U.S. many sewing machines are Japanese, mine is a Riccar. I bought it to make and repair outdoor gear (I am a rockclimber). My sewing experience is mostly limited to multiple layers of nylon fabrics or webbing. My machine is not a fancy one, but it will sew heavy fabrics.

I was wondering if the kind of fancy sewing you do is easier if done by hand, or if some tasks would be easier with a machine? For the outdoor gear I sew, machine sewing is required for strength, but my sewing is not very cosmetic. I have always been afraid to try making any clothes, or for that matter, to even try the kind of major alterations you so succesfully accomplish.

Congratulations on your fine results! I am envious of your skill!

Thanks for the compliment! As I mentioned before I do all my work by hand because I don't know how to use a machine (nor can I afford one... that works at least). Yes, a large number of the things I have to do requiring detail work are done better by hand. However, having a machine would cut off the tedious long seams or clothing construction along with embroidery work. If you ever get the chance, you ought to go to Korea or one of the other less-developed Asian countries where there are still inexpensive tailors present. I have seen some real masters in Itaewon, Seoul that can duplicate nearly any article of clothing and can do fast and accurate embroidery work with nothing but a pencil and a sewing machine.

I'm actually finished with the Army jacket project and have worn it to work as well as out to Tokyo (on Saturday night, actually), so I just need to process the images and post them here. Soon afterwards, I'll post a guide on how to machine wash suits the Japanese way with this very same suit.

 

[Choeki]

Suit alteration study Part 12

I decided to forgo the creation of pocket flaps due to the fact that the dimensions seemed to be off on their location for the current length of the jacket. After studying other 4-button suit jackets as well as the input of a friend of mine, apparently most front pockets are usually placed at least above or the same level of the last button.

So onto the last portion of this alteration - fixing the double vents. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the double venting looked a bit off since it was open all the time to the sides. Also it draped oddly, causing the possibility of an awkward looking reversed overlap:

I figured the best way to fix this was to do some simple waist suppression and make a small overlapped portion along the seam above the vents. I measured out about 6cm and marked it with a chalk pencil in order to provide enough of a seam to let the vent drape properly:

Here is a close-up image showing that I also marked where the seam should end:

I then used my trusty seam ripper to open it up:

Again, I reinforced the stitching on the end of the rip to keep the seam from completely unraveling. I then re-shaped the seam with a hot iron and ironing mesh:

The original seam wasn't overly generous to begin with, but it was fairly straightforward from here on in. I decided to use a double thread and use a standard lock-stitch to close the seam:

Incidentally, I believe this would have been a job where a machine would have been much more efficient despite not taking too long to complete.

After completely re-attaching both sides, I had a grand degree of overlap on the lower portion of the double vent:

The jacket also looked more natural from the rear:

A close-up of the double vents:

And the overlap from a natural hanging position: