New Sleeves

You know how sometimes you make a new project and when it is finished you are really chuffed with it, then you wear it for a while and something about it doesn’t work quite right; that is like my lovely orange coat.  I originally made it with priest sleeves, and it soon became apparent these were a bit annoying because I could not wear long sleeved woolly jumpers under it and the cuffs were too tight to get on and off easily.  Grrrrrr!

The Priest sleeves are nice but impractical, this is before the change

So, over the weekend I cut some new sleeves and made them up ready to change them a bit.  I still wanted to retain the brocade detail at the wrist but it needed to be much narrower so I can wear my nice fluffy silk and mohair jumper under it.

Today, in my lunch break I unpicked the old sleeves, removed the shoulder shaping and the old sleeve linings ready to be replaced by all new ones.

New sleeves

These are the new sleeves.  I replaced them after work today and they are perfect.  Because the previous cuff was a little tight at the wrist the strain caused the brocade to come apart a little at the seams and I had had to repair it before it gave way completely.  To prevent future strain on the seams I have double stitched all the new seams and then top stitched them down to make them sit flatter as the fabric is quite bulky.  The new cuffs are much shorter and the full part of the sleeves are longer so I can wear all the woolly pullys I want to.

I have fallen in love with my coat all over again because I have worked out the major design flaw that it had first time around.

Don’t be afraid to change something you have made, sometimes you need to have a second pass at the projects that don’t work out right first time around –  take it apart and make it beautiful so that you will love wearing it until it practically falls apart.  Design is about experimenting, and it doesn’t always work the first time, don’t worry, you will learn more from your mistakes than from your successes!  Dare to fail sometimes, all the most accomplished designers and makers make plenty of mistakes along the way before they reach perfection.

Have fun.

This is the final instalment of my Alterations features and here I will be focusing on Women’s alterations.

Now, Men’s alterations are very straightforward to give a rough guide on price because most men’s clothes are made in a similar manner.  For women however, the designs and the manufacturing processes employed in clothes are almost as diverse as women are themselves; which makes it very difficult to give any kind of estimate without seeing the garment in question.  Quite often I receive emails asking how much it would cost to alter a dress, to be honest it is impossible to give a quote without seeing the dress in question because of the previously mentioned diversity in design and construction.  Even when I see a woman’s garment, until I get inside of it, I don’t necessarily get a good enough idea of what will be involved to offer any more than a very rough guide of the prospective cost.

I now guestimate with the proviso that once I know fully what needs doing the cost may go up or down and I will always contact the client BEFORE proceeding if it is likely to be much more expensive than the original guide price, so the client can change their mind if they wish.

With regards to the kinds of alterations I am willing to take on, the short answer to that is just about ANYTHING! Here is a brief list of alterations I carry out regularly:

• Taking up hems on sleeves and at the bottom of garments, by hand and machine
• Taking in trousers, skirts, dresses, jackets and coats
• All bridal, bridesmaids, mother of the bride and other occasional wear alterations
• Garment make-overs and updates. Please read my Blog post entitled; Alterations – New from Old, re-purpose, re-love, upcycling
• Repairs of all kinds, by hand, machine and using machine embroidery; replacing linings & zips.

I have not yet come across a project that I could not carry out and I love a challenge.  There is no fabric I am unwilling to work with, in fact to me there is no such thing as a ‘difficult’ fabric.  I will give only one qualification to that, and that is Leather.  To work with leather one needs specialist tools, needles, glues, heavy duty industrial sewing machine and specialised feet.  

Sometimes when altering clothes one has to be rather inventive and these are the jobs that I like best. They push my considerable skills and knowledge to the limit and make me learn new techniques, or offer a creative challenge to achieve unique garments from something fairly run of the mill.

Here are some examples of the Women’s alterations I have carried out over the years.

Recently one of my brides came to me with two bridesmaids dresses she had bought second hand, they were both size 14, one only needed a little taking in to enhance a beautiful curvy waistline, this one however needed altering to fit a size 6!

This is the after shot, on a size 8 dummy, it was quite a major job to lift off all the boning inside, take in the seams and put the boning back by using what amounts to keyhole surgery.  One has to spread the amount that is taken in all the way around the body in order to preserve the integrity of the dress.  It was a jolly satisfying job.

This was an interesting wedding dress.  My client had bought it in a Debenhams sale for £20 and it was originally a strapless, full length fishtail style dress (which in my experience only suits very tall and slim women).  I have cut the hip section out, brought the full section of the skirt up to the waist and used the leftover fabric to create the shoulder straps.

Here you can see the back, I have created rulo loops for the covered buttons that replaced the original zip and made the straps this shape to cover a tattoo that the client wanted out of sight on her big day.  I was really pleased with how it turned out, as was she.

The skirt in this shot I took up and then did some machine embroideries on the three front godets (triangular panels).  It was left to me to choose what to embroider as my client is very happy to leave those decisions to me – we work together regularly.

This skirt was very fragile as the fabric came from another skirt made a number of decades ago with Liberty print shot Silk Chiffon, it needed a lot of gentle treatment in order to prevent further damage to the fragile fabric in the process of remodelling.

This was originally one of those horrid 1980s skirts that was heavily gathered at the waist and looked a little like a sack tied in the middle, having re-cut it I added a yolk waistband with matching binding at the hem along with a nice lining.

I loved this project, my client adored the shape of her tunic jumper but found it a little boring, I sat one evening with a box of lovely bits and pieces and have embellished just the neckline for her with buttons, butterflies cut from embroidered silk and some interesting yarns.

This is another of my favourite projects, originally it had these elbow length sleeves, ugly buttons and a lining that was rather worn.

Using some similar coloured linen I extended the sleeves and created a long cuff, replaced the lining with a nice new red one, changed the buttons and covered the belt to match the extended sleeves.  My client was totally blown away with the results as she had given me a free reign to update the jacket that she had only kept because she loved the fabric.

Hopefully this has given you more of an idea of what can be achieved with those garments you have lurking in your wardrobe, or that you find when shopping that don’t quite fit properly.  As for the clothes you need for special occasions you no longer need to worry, bring them along and when I have finished they will fit perfectly; I recently altered a stunning wedding dress in pale green/grey embellished silk Dupion, the bride’s Mum took it away with her for the Hen do and reported back the following Monday, when she came for her Mother of the Bride outfit fitting, that it was indeed absolutely perfect.

So, whatever the garment, whatever needs doing to make it right for you, get in touch and I have no doubt I can help to make it fit perfectly and maybe sprinkle a little extra magic over it for you too.

Alterations for Gentlemen

Alterations for Men are generally more involved than those for Ladies, this is because of all the heavy structural tailoring involved in good quality menswear so I wanted to provide you Gents with a reasonable guide to what might be entailed in getting your clothes altered.

Outline of alteration services; 

• Simple – these are things like taking up trousers and jeans and will be done using a number of different methods including for trousers; simple machine job, hand caught hems and hems with tape for durability, and also jeans hems preserving the original hem (taking up the extra above the hem and relocating it).  These usually take 1-2 hours each and range from £15-£30 depending on the complexity.

• Moderate – Jacket sleeves fall into this category, as do changing waistbands, taking in and letting out trousers, taking up jackets, putting in new pockets.  These jobs take a little longer at around 2-4 hours each and usually range from £40-£100.

• Complex – these are the big jobs that involve major structural changes to garments. I do a lot of menswear alterations like this and it would be things like raising sleeve heads or re-lining jackets and total re-modelling.   These are the biggies that take a minimum of 4 hours each and usually cost upwards of £100 although none have thus far cost any more than £300.

Of course there are occasions where there are several processes needed in a single project; such as raising the sleeve heads, shortening the sleeves and taking up the hem of a jacket all at once, the last one of these I did took around 8 hours in total.  Here are some examples of lots of different Men’s alterations, most of which come in the moderate and complex categories.

On the right here is my lovely Dad on his and my Mum’s wedding day, his suit needed taking in and the sleeve heads raising as he had lost rather a lot of weight since he bought the suit several years earlier. (On the left is my son sporting the very first men’s jacket I ever made, it needs a bit of work and I need to learn from a Men’s specialist to perfect my skills in order to offer made to measure for men.)

One of my most recent weddings, I have altered both the Brides dress (details in my next moth's alterations post) and the Groom’s suit.  Being a slight chap I have taken up the hem of the trousers and the cuffs on the jacket, including moving all the buttons and fake buttonholes up a couple of inches.

This is the before photo of a jacket I have altered quite a lot, although quite subtly.

I have raised the sleeve heads which takes around 4 hours to complete as there are lots of layers of padding and structural reinforcement to create the perfect shoulder.

This is the shoulder after moving the sleeve heads, when you move them inwards you have to also change the shoulder to keep the opening for the sleeve the same size.

I have also let out two seams and two darts to give the client a little extra room around the trunk – he bought the suit around 30 years ago and as one ages the body changes shape, losing bulk around the shoulders and getting thicker around the middle; moving the sleeve heads and letting out the seams is much more straightforward on tailor-made suits as tailors make allowances for this and leave large seam allowances.

The matching trousers have also been let out at the centre back seam.  Good men’s trousers have extra fabric in the back seam to allow for this.

This is the inside view after letting them out around 2”.  Just letting out men’s trousers that are constructed like these ones is very straightforward and takes around an hour or so.

These are trousers belonging to a beautiful Saville Row suit my client had made in the late 1960s and would be worn with braces.  I have let them out and repaired the inside of the waistband.

This is the inside view.  You can see a repair to the pinstriped fabric I have made using heavy duty fusable interfacing, this is because the original seam was oversewn several times and with age this has damaged the fabric a little, the interfacing stabilises the tweed without having to use unsightly stitching.  The waistband was rather worn inside so I have replaced some of the lining with new cotton.

These trousers have been altered twice now for the same client as the previous ones.  A few months ago I let them out at the centre back seam but this was not enough.

The previous alteration at the centre back seam.

In order to gain some extra fabric to let them out further I have taken some of the bulk from the turn-ups and made a godet (a triangular panel) to set in at the side seams.

On a tweed like this the godet made out of the turn-up’s pretty much disappears and would be covered by the matching jacket.

The godet in detail, even a close look at the inset panel one would not really notice that the fabric used is cut on a different orientation to the rest; this is a really good fix when you have trousers you have had a long time that are worth doing the work on to get them to fit.  The existing expanding waistband had lots of extra fabric folded into the seam allowances allowing me to change it without having to add in any extra on the outside, inside I have used some 6cm wide webbed tape to extend the inside band.

I do like doing men’s alterations, gents like to get their money’s worth out of their clothes and I am delighted to help with that.  Hopefully this has given you a bit of guidance as to what is possible and how much it may cost to have the work carried out. 

If you are buying a suit but can never get one to fit properly there are a number of avenues to go down:

• You could have a new suit made from scratch buy a reputable Men’s Tailor, if you go down this route look for time served tailors who have a really good reputation, asking someone who serves in the forces is a good place to start looking as forces tailors are amazing, if few and far between these days.  Having a suit made would cost upwards of £2,000 (or £4,000 if you go to Saville Row) these days, but it will last you for decades.

• The next route is to buy a ready-made/off the peg suit that fits around the middle and to have it altered by someone like me who can make the major changes that may need doing.

• Another really cost effective way to get a very good suit would be to look for a good second hand suit either online or in a charity shop and get it altered for your body shape, the above tip of the suit fitting around the middle applies here too.

If you do buy something ready-made you need to be aware that neither the fabric nor the cut will be as good as having a suit made for you, and it will not last as long as a good wool suit made in the traditional manner.

This was going to be the last instalment on alterations but having pondered it a bit I thought a separate entry for Gents alterations would be useful, I hope it has been.  Keep an eye out for the last one on Womenswear next month, it will be a bit of a biggie methinks.

Alterations – New from Old, re-purpose, re-love, upcycling

In this instalment of my Alterations story I am going to outline how you can take an old garment that may look out-dated or tired and re-awakening them with some fresh ideas.  I love these projects, they stretch my creative thinking and give new life to much loved items and is a real joy to do – I wish you could see how happy clients are when presented with a newly revived garment that they have hung on to because they loved it so much the first time around, they love it all over again.

There are some very simple and cost effective changes that can be made to garments with a little thought and a play with some fabrics.  I have a pretty vast library of fabric pieces both large and small and I often have a good sift through to find something delightful to decorate garments with.

I bought this skirt from a charity shop some years ago because I loved the shape and the fabric is really nice – if a little conventional for me.  Using 3mm satin ribbon I stitched on swooping vines and then zig-zag stitched lots of circles in different colours of silk.

My client found this cashmere sweater in a charity shop too and brought it to me to brighten it up a bit, I hand stitched on some covered buttons and oriental mirror embellishments.

This blouse was quite pretty before but had a missing belt and a couple of the black buttons missing, I replaced all of the buttons for mixed vintage red ones, put some in the centre of the flowers for good measure and made a new belt with satin ribbons and a vintage shell buckle.

I could see the potential of this dress as it is a lovely shape, however, it had the ugliest buttons I have ever seen (so much so I binned them, they were too hideous for words) and using some polka dot fabric leftover from a dress I bias bound the collar and decorated the skirt and replaced the buttons with pretty red polka dot ones.

This is a skirt I really loved the first time around when I first bought it when at Uni, but I got a bit bored with it.  So, slashing some of the seams un-evenly I added some fluted frills to the lining and made it much more interesting. It swished beautifully, I loved it and literally wore it to death!

Remember my friend who’s wedding dress I made into a suit for her brother’s wedding; well this was originally one of those very long floaty skirts, and being quite small it really swamped her.  I took off the top two frill sections, turned them upside down creating a new waistline, added a waistband from another old dress, then put on straps and fluted cap sleeves – she wore to Ascot as far as I know.

These are all relatively swift additions and changes and all took between 1 and 5 hours, the next projects are much more involved, making new garments out of old ones.  These projects can take from 10-30 hours depending on the complexity.

My client called me and asked me to make a jacket for her out of some of the dated items in her wardrobe after she saw something I was wearing that I had re-loved.  The turquoise is an old pleated skirt and the mauve was a two tone dress with a chevron detail.  I used the skirt for the body of the jacket and the dress for the decorative details.

There was just enough of the dress to make the revers, collar, inside cuffs, half belt and the cheeky box pleat in the back.

Originally this was a men’s antique silk wedding kimono, these were produced very interestingly with narrow panels with parts of the pattern that are fitted together for the whole patterned design.  I made this long waistcoat and added a contrast lining and piping in silk.  To give weight and added stability to the antique fabric it is interlined with lose weave raw silk and falls beautifully.

This is one of my all-time favourite projects and was such a privilege to work on.  I was given an antique opera cape belonging to my client’s Grandmother and asked to design a formal jacket for occasional wear at formal functions.  Taking the silk velvet trim I made a soft jacket using Mutka Silk with silver Lame threads, the upper sections are cut on the straight of grain and the lower are cut on the bias to make it twinkle in evening light; the trim I used in it’s entirety to make a deep collar and edging and to decorate the cuffs.  It is lined in silver crepe backed satin silk to pick up the silver lame.

This is the back and the skirt is a remake of an antique liberty print silk skirt also belonging to a family member from decades past.

These are a good show of what can be done making one garment into another, but what if you had a garment that was completely unsuitable for you and wanted made into something more useful, or you had something other than clothes that had fabulous fabric that you thought might make great clothes?  Here are a couple of examples of that kind of idea.

My Aunt was bequeathed a reversible cotton jacket by a very dear friend, however, her friend was over 6’ tall and my Aunt is 4’ 11” so it swamped her totally.  I made it into a bag using the plain mauve side as the outside of the bag and decorated this side with turquoise satin ribbons.

And this side with mauve ribbons to suit her mood; these are her favourite colours.

Then the patterned side of the jacket I used for the lining of the bag and saved the pockets to make all the pockets to put things in.  It is now a lovely keepsake and every time it is used it makes my Aunt smile and remember her friend.

When my Mum met my lovely Stepdad, he had in his possession around 10 metres of fabric from the curtains he had had made only a few months prior to moving in to my Mum’s.  Instead of giving them to a charity  shop he gave them to me to use for something nice.  Two of my clients saw the fabric when visiting with other work and asked about it.  I have now made a jacket pairing it with turquoise satin for the lining and piping; and this stunning, full length coat that also has a big hood, matching covered buttons all the way down the front and raspberry lining and piping.

You can see the inside of the hood here and the piped half belt.  There is no pleat in the back of this coat but the skirt is much fuller than my standard coats.  It looks amazing on and comes right down to my client’s ankles – it is her “big hug in a coat”.

I hope this has given you some food for thought, have a riffle through your wardrobe and a little ponder.