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.