Problems altering sport coat sleeves

[Amb0925]

Had to copy my post here because I'm not sure if it was in the right place before.

Hi everyone! Hoping for some advice. I am new to the game and just doing alterations from my home for now.

I had a man come in to have his sleeves taken up a few inches on a sport coat. He informed me that one of his arms may be shorter than the other, because he knows one of his legs is shorter than the other. I decided then to measure each sleeve individually to see how much to take up rather than trying to make the sleeves match. I did not measure his arms to compare them which may have been my first mistake. I also measured them based on the amount of the shirt sleeve that was visible under the coat sleeve, rather than measuring based on distance from the thumb or wristbone. Perhaps that was also a mistake; it was the only method I could find when looking into how to fit the sleeves but I think it was a bad idea in retrospect.

Once I got to work on it I realized that my mark for one arm was a full inch higher than the other arm (one needed to come up 2 inches and the other 3 inches), and his arms were not noticeably uneven so I didn't think it could be right. I asked him to come for a second fitting (embarrassing) to see if it looked right. It did not. We agreed that the shorter one needed to be about a half inch longer than originally planned, so one arm needed to be taken up 2 inches and the other 2 1/2 inches. Hopefully this is clear thus far.

I got the alteration finished, buttons on, coat pressed and they came in to pick it up. When he tried it on, I could tell that his wife was not satisfied. Something looked off to me as well. But the problem is, one minute it looked as if the left sleeve was slightly too long, and the next minute, the right sleeve looked longer than the left. The shirt he was wearing underneath had sleeves that were also a bit too long, so trying to measure based on the amount of shirt fabric peeking out did not work, as he could lift his arms, bring them back down, and there would be an extra inch of shirt sleeve down his hand. So I had him pull the sleeves of his shirt up where we could not see them and looked instead at where the sleeves hit his wrists. Once again, one minute it looked perfect, but every tiny movement he made changed it.

Finally I measured from the tip of his thumb to the cuff, and this distance was 1/4 inch longer on the right arm, suggesting that the left arm was 1/4 inch too long. I did not think to have him move his arms and bring them back to his sides and measure again; I think I probably would have gotten something different each time based on how things were going with the eyeball method. I told them I'd take another 1/4 inch off the left sleeve, they were understanding but we all left the interaction a little disappointed (he had hoped to wear it to a meeting tomorrow but would have to choose something else, and I was looking forward to moving on to other projects).

As soon as they left, I began to wonder if it would actually be worthwhile taking 1/4 inch from the left sleeve. Would I have gotten a different measurement as soon as he moved? Is there a more concrete standard I can appeal to? I dont even know at this point whether taking the left sleeve up 1/4" is the right choice if it is just an issue of his posture in that moment. Can someone explain everything I did wrong and what I should do now? Thank you if you have read this far.

[Gerry]

Firstly, I'm not a coat maker (wait for more experienced voices). It's common to measure from either the thumb to cuff (of suit) or forefinger to cuff, or both, and even things up. Example here (22 min mark):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E8IdvIqjEU&t=1320s

The majority of the time we go about our day with our arms by our sides, so that's the position you need to evaluate. Some people like a shorter sleeve on the arm where they wear a watch, so that they can show it off, so asymmetry can be very deliberate. Sleeves can also look very different depending on what shirt was worn during a fitting.

Because everyone is so focused on the sleeve length, any difference/alteration is going to be magnified and overly scrutinised. If you weren't looking, you probably wouldn't notice, so things might not be as off as you think. Take photos during fittings so that you can evaluate things in the cold light of day.

[Greger]

Maybe his coat wasn't sitting on his shoulders correct. Shoulder pads are loose?
Measuring up from the bottom of the thumb or bent knuckle and a chalk mark across the top of the ruler should be fairly accurate. Thread mark that spot.
Could be other reasons, misfit somewhere, that is causing problems.

[Gerry]

Following on from what Greger said, if the jacket is ready-to-wear, your client has shoulder-drop on one side of his body and it hasn't been compensated for, then one arm may not be shorter than the other, just lower/dropped relative to the other.

Extra padding on the dropped side might help to even the shoulders if this is the case. How well that works depends on how deep the armhole is cut on the dropped side (probably not an issue with ready-to-wear because it's usually cut very deep). Plus the hem would need lengthening on that sleeve.

The alternative would be to adjust the shoulder seam on the dropped side, embracing the asymmetry; but setting the sleeve in again might be problematic, because the armhole would be smaller in circumference. Such are the down sides of ready-to-wear.

[jruley]

With the jacket sitting properly on the client's shoulders, measure along the front sleeve seam from the shoulder seam to a landmark such as the first knuckle.  Repeat for the other side.  The difference will tell you which sleeve needs to be longer and how much.  Altering for a dropped shoulder or changing pad thickness will change this as others have already explained.

It's unfair to expect the jacket to compensate for shirt sleeves that are too long.  You could offer to shorten his shirt sleeves too  .

[Amb0925]

Thank you all very much for your input. It has been quite helpful. I will do things differently next time. This is the first time I haven't had a completely satisfied customer and had to fix my work.

You could offer to shorten his shirt sleeves too  .

Unfortunately I'm not sure they'll want me doing anything else for them after this. We shall see; they seemed nice so maybe they'll give me another shot. If anyone has any additional information I would like to learn as much as I can from this experience.

[Hendrick]

Thank you all very much for your input. It has been quite helpful. I will do things differently next time. This is the first time I haven't had a completely satisfied customer and had to fix my work.

You could offer to shorten his shirt sleeves too  .

Unfortunately I'm not sure they'll want me doing anything else for them after this. We shall see; they seemed nice so maybe they'll give me another shot. If anyone has any additional information I would like to learn as much as I can from this experience.

Here's one more (old but good), I usually only use this for measuring fitting models, but with interesting outcome... Measure your clients chest, first with his left arm, then with his right arm included and check the difference; the more fitted the jacket, the more this will influence the hang of the sleeves.

Cheerio, Hendrick