How To Tailor Your Own Suit

Maybe that suit you tried on in the men’s clothing store seemed to fit “well enough” at the time, but isn’t so flattering now that you’re in the harsh light of day. Maybe you bought a new suit jacket that was just a little too long in the sleeves because it was on sale, and you couldn’t pass up a good deal. Or maybe you recently started working out more and have lost some weight, leaving your professional wardrobe ill-fitting.

In any of these situations, you’re going to need to tailor your suit. The truth is, even if you buy a suit that seems to be the right size, you’re likely going to have to make some alterations. Men are not cut from the same cookie cutter mold, and unless you had a suit specifically designed for you by a store like Balani (which isn’t always an affordable option) you can always benefit from having a tailor make some adjustments.

But what if you don’t want to splurge on a tailor? Well, there are a few minor alterations that you should be able to make yourself, and I’ll go over those below. However, when it comes to more serious alterations, it may be worth it to take your suit to a professional tailor. These more serious alterations include:

• Adjusting the width of the jacket torso
• Adjusting the width of the trouser legs
• Tapering a jacket or trouser legs
• Adding darts to the jacket
• Adjusting the neck roll on the collar
• Taking in the shoulders
• Adjusting the jacket length
• Relining the jacket
• Fixing small holes using other fabric from the suit

Now that you know which problems you’d be better off bringing to a tailor, let’s talk about some of the things you can do yourself.

Hemming your trousers

If your trousers are a little too long for you but otherwise fit fine, you can easily hem them yourself. Figure out how long you want your trousers to be based on your own personal preferences and fold the bottom of the pants over once to get to this length. Pin this new hemline in place and run an iron over the bottom of the trousers. This will create a crease to mark the new hemline. Unfold your pants and take out the seam for the original hemline. Refold along the crease and sew a single line seam, and voila—you’ve adjusted the length of your trousers. Just be sure to use a thread that is the same color as your trousers!

Hemming your jacket sleeves

You suit jacket (like the one seen here that John is wearing) should ideally leave about a half inch of your shirt sleeve showing underneath, but if your jacket sleeves are currently too long, don’t panic. This project is a little more challenging than hemming your trousers, especially if your jacket has an inner lining, but it’s still very doable. As with the trousers, roll the sleeves up to the new length that you want, pin them in place, and measure how much is going to be hemmed. Take out any buttons on the cuff as well as the seam that holds the lining to the sleeve. Once you’ve got the lining loose, roll it up so it will be out of the way for the time being. If your jacket is vented at the cuff, you’ll also need to remove the thread holding the vents in place and flatten the vent out. Mark the new length you want for the sleeves and cut away the extra fabric (keep in mind that the sleeves will become slightly shorter when you sew in the new hem). Sew the vents shut. Mark and cut the same length on the suit lining as you did on the sleeve. Now fold your new hem in place and pin the lining in place over the edge of the sleeve. Hand sew the lining to the sleeve, sew the buttons back on in their original position, and you’re done.

Lacking Sewing Experience?

If you’ve never sewn anything before, you may want to read a few manuals or watch a few good tutorials, then practice on some extra fabric before diving right into suit alterations.  Hopefully this is obvious, but you should be comfortable with hand sewing, doing a basic slip stitch, ripping stitches out, and using a sewing machine before you attempt to tailor your own suit. Sound too time consuming? In that case, finding a good tailor might be a good investment. But if you do put the time in, it should be no problem for you to gain the skills you need to complete basic suit alterations.

Willie Pena is a men’s fashion and style writer who enjoys writing about tailoring and fashion among other topics.