To alter or not to alter

[AeroFan_07]

Loks amazing. Excellet jacket!

I would let the sleeves alone!

 

[ton312]

Would never wear unzipped so guess that’s good.

In that case I’d double down on leaving them be. The opposite is true for me, I never zip the sleeves. Even as a rider, I liked the wind up my arms.

 

[Hh121]

Looks great, do not take chance to send this jacket to any tailor. I had a jacket that needs sleeve shortening so I send it to one of most reputable tailor according to the recommendation in this forum, and this person ruined my jacket (one sleeve is shorter than another, and this person refuse to admit the mistake).

 

[morrison2951]

Leave it be.

 

[navetsea]

your sleeve is perfect for a riding jacket style when zipped, whether you feel it being a bit long when worn unzipped I can't see from those zipped pics, perhaps wear it 75% zipped all time just leave the tip unzipped for easy wearing around the wrist. I like to zip my sleeve but when the jacket worn open I tend to half unzipped the sleeve too to match the more casual look of unzipped jacket.

 

[JCSD]

your sleeve is perfect for a riding jacket style when zipped, whether you feel it being a bit long when worn unzipped I can't see from those zipped pics, perhaps wear it 75% zipped all time just leave the tip unzipped for easy wearing around the wrist. I like to zip my sleeve but when the jacket worn open I tend to half unzipped the sleeve too to match the more casual look of unzipped jacket.

Good suggestion!

 

[JCSD]

Looks great, do not take chance to send this jacket to any tailor. I had a jacket that needs sleeve shortening so I send it to one of most reputable tailor according to the recommendation in this forum, and this person ruined my jacket (one sleeve is shorter than another, and this person refuse to admit the mistake).

I’ve definitely had my share of mishaps.

 

[Damon141]

I think they look great too, I’m envious because off the rack jackets have such long slew for my height.

With that said I spoke to a recommended alterations person through an email exchange and this person was quite rude.
I only explained that I was considering purchasing a $2,500 Freewheelers jacket and inquired very nicely if they were confident they were that they could alter them without looking altered. Because the jacket was not purchased and would only be purchased if in their experience it would turn out well.

The person replied that they don’t like dealing with picky customers and you can not compare an alteration to a production seam.
I humbly disagree with that statement considering stitching is just stitching, either your good at it or not, it’s a talent and if you have the same stitching ability then you can clearly shorten without a noticeable difference. Especially since this jacket in question is not a mass production in the first place.
As we can see not everyone is equal in this regard and you don’t want to bring a jacket with 10 stitches per inch and the alteration have 5 stitches per inch.

So I will leave said person to continue repairing and altering the mall jackets they are used to and give my business to bespoke jacket builders.

 

[JMax]

I ride and zip my cuffs 90% of the time. Even off the bike. This looks great to me. Imo- The key with sleeves fitting this way is a nice seal at the cuff when zipped up. Looks like you have it. Love this jacket.

 

[El Marro]

That jacket fits you so well!
I know we’ve all had jackets where we are trying to convince ourselves that something that is a little off works, when really we know in our heart of hearts it doesn’t. That is not this jacket, not even close!

 

[navetsea]

I think they look great too, I’m envious because off the rack jackets have such long slew for my height.

With that said I spoke to a recommended alterations person through an email exchange and this person was quite rude.
I only explained that I was considering purchasing a $2,500 Freewheelers jacket and inquired very nicely if they were confident they were that they could alter them without looking altered. Because the jacket was not purchased and would only be purchased if in their experience it would turn out well.

The person replied that they don’t like dealing with picky customers and you can not compare an alteration to a production seam.
I humbly disagree with that statement considering stitching is just stitching, either your good at it or not, it’s a talent and if you have the same stitching ability then you can clearly shorten without a noticeable difference. Especially since this jacket in question is not a mass production in the first place.
As we can see not everyone is equal in this regard and you don’t want to bring a jacket with 10 stitches per inch and the alteration have 5 stitches per inch.

So I will leave said person to continue repairing and altering the mall jackets they are used to and give my business to bespoke jacket builders.

I think alteration to make it shorter is more difficult than making it the first time on a zip cuff sleeve, there are holes in the leather some need to be reused some need to be hidden, there are excess zipper need to be shifted or cut, then there is thread color and gauge to match with a pristine original japanese thread, much easier to alter a vintage jacket or worn in jacket as the characters on the jacket easily hide little alteration than a completely pristine expensive jacket, if anything vanson style cuff is much easier to alter since it is just folded without top stitching.

in that La Brea case, it is much easier to just alter the french seam and shift the whole cuff a little higher by cutting the part of the sleeve rather than altering the cuff and ruining the proportion.

 

[Guppy]

Honestly, the makers of the jacket should pay you to use these photos to sell their wares. It's that good.

 

[Damon141]

I think alteration to make it shorter is more difficult than making it the first time on a zip cuff sleeve, there are holes in the leather some need to be reused some need to be hidden, there are excess zipper need to be shifted or cut, then there is thread color and gauge to match with a pristine original japanese thread, much easier to alter a vintage jacket or worn in jacket as the characters on the jacket easily hide little alteration than a completely pristine expensive jacket, if anything vanson style cuff is much easier to alter since it is just folded without top stitching.

in that La Brea case, it is much easier to just alter the french seam and shift the whole cuff a little higher by cutting the part of the sleeve rather than altering the cuff and ruining the proportion.

This looked to be plain thread but if it was something more then it could’ve been acquired. In this case it was a zipper cuff but the holes wouldn’t need to be re-used because at the same time as the shortening they would also have to be tapered and they would have taken the excess material from the obvious spot, the former stitched areas.

I just wanted to share my experience from the conversation on alteration incase he was still considering it and make sure he knows that it wouldn’t be worth the hassle of possibly ruining a really good fit on a jacket of the highest quality for an inch at most.

With that said, thanks to finding this board.

Thanks to this board I have learned that I/we do have access to custom makers, granted a pretty small number, but we do have custom options for great fitting jackets for those of us that are not as lucky as the original poster to fit off the rack.

I have come to terms with just admiring everyone’s unique creative jackets but know I won’t fit.

Unless some day a company like Freewheelers or Real McCoys can atleast offer simple variations like a short, regular, and long versions.

 

[navetsea]

sometime though not a perfectly fitting everywhere but keep on wearing it to death perfectly works for a leather jacket, the wearer are supposedly rebels. I mean just a tad short on the sleeve or a tad long on the sleeve, just wear it on, make it works then it will work.... not when too big on the body though... that is a different matter.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

It's a motorcycle Jacket...they're meant to be long in the sleeves, it's fine fine fine.