Creating clothes is what I do. Altering RTW is not, especially if it’s a formal mens jacket. But I’ve done it #phew.

As the eternal pushover, I said yes to extending the sleeves on a formal jacket for my ‘little brother’. I could not have completed this alteration without the style and sewing advice of those very able sewing men: Joost of make my pattern and Thomas sewingdude. Thank you both for all your advice last week. 

First attempt: moved the top button down.

On the left is the original sleeve. The right is the first attempt at adjusting the sleeve. 

Joost advised me to move the top button down after lengthening the sleeve. When I took this pic, I then decided to move another button down so the button placement matched/was closer to the new sleeve length.

What I discovered

The buttonholes are sewn and not cut, making moving the buttons easy. 

Here’s the original insides showing the buttons stitching.

This jacket had a layer of armoweft under the buttonhole stitching.

A piece of fusing is used to keep the lining and sleeve seams together.

Here’s the stitching for the entry point on the sleeve lining. The lining pocket inside the jacket is really cute.

Both sleeve linings had an entry point. The stitching was in a contrast colour and easy to undo. So I was able to unpick the sleeve without affecting the sleeve seams.

The sleeve corner had a row of handstitching so I made sure I did a row of hand stitching to keep the sleeve looking RTW.

Reattaching the lining to the jacket sleeve

Stash benefit

I didn’t have exactly the same fabric at home, but I did have a similar dark grey piece to use on the inside of the sleeve. There is a 1/2cm fold on the inside where I joined the stash fabric to the jacket fabric. 

Finished sleeves; to be professionally pressed.

The verdict
My little brother wore his jacket last night to a formal event. He was really pleased the sleeves were at the right length for him. He didn’t feel at all self conscious wearing his re-engineered jacket and had a great night with the ‘missus’ while we babysat the kids. They both beat us at Xbox and ‘Game of life’ in a big way.