A clever alteration

Well, I'm back.

The furniture has arrived, the boxes are unpacked, the holidays are almost behind us and so I'm just about ready to start dissecting again.

RSS was kind enough to donate an interesting pair of coats (thank you, RSS) but before we get into those, I wanted to point something out.

When I flipped the collar on one of them, something was not right- the was some curious stitching around the collar which was evidence of an alteration. Not uncommon. But then I saw a few little stitches near the buttonhole on the back of the lapel. Hmm.



There was a slit next to the buttonhole that had been carefully closed up, as if the lapel had been narrowed by a tailor, but there was no visible evidence of any alteration from the other side of the lapel.

How did he do it?

The right was narrowed by simply trimming the edge, but the left had a dart taken out of the facing which narrowed it and maintained the position of the original slit. The buttonhole could then be reworked.





Of course, the collar had to be removed and narrowed as well, the edges of the lapel had to be sewn up by hand, and the collar redrawn by hand, and a perfect match of silk thread had to be found for the buttonhole and pick stitching. Not an easy (or cheap) alteration, but when well done, as it was in this case, would be virtually impossible to spot by the casual observer.


Happy New Year, everyone!