Pockets, part one: the Breast Pocket

Also known as the taschino (little pocket), the barchetta (little boat), a hand-made breast pocket is easy to spot.


The first giveaway is the presence of a micro zig-zag stitch or straight stitch along the edge of the welt- this has been done by machine. A hand-felled pocket will have no visible stitching along the edge, and may have a row of pick-stitching about 1/4" from the side. The second, more subtle clue is that automatic machines can only sew the welt on in a straight line- many tailors will give a very subtle curve to the seam of the pocket- this is supposed to more gracefully follow the curve of the chest but also help prevent the pocket gaping open.


The hand-made pocket is clearly more attractive as there is no visible machine stitching, but other than aesthetics, can it be considered superior? You are not likely to stress this pocket so the delicate hand work is in no trouble of coming apart. There is no performance benefit either way- it is just more appealing when done by hand.

On the subject of cutting......

I saw an interview with an executive of a well-respected suit manufacturer who proudly stated that all of their suits were cut by hand as this is more consistent than cutting by machine. I can't disagree more! Computer-aided design and cutting technology has made huge advances in the last ten years and pattern-making & cutting is now so much faster and more precise than ever. Ask any human to cut a perfectly straight line and you will be hard-pressed to find someone who really can; then try to find someone who can cut a tight curve like the one in the armhole with precision and if you find one, let me know- I have a job for him or her! When I started cutting patterns my boss would run his finger along the side of the hard paper and if he found even the slightest nick or bump, I had to redo the piece. It took me a very long time to be able to cut paper to his liking, so I know something about cutting things by hand; fortunately those days are long over. However, if I were to cut out a pattern today, and ask my assistant to do the same, and lay one over the other I can guarantee you will see a difference between the two; this is due only to the experience and skill of the people doing the cutting. So imagine having a cutting room full of cutters, all with different levels of skill and experience; how can one claim to have any consistency? And perhaps I have had too much coffee one morning, or too much scotch the night before- my cutting today will be worse than it was yesterday. Not very consistent. Properly calibrated, automatic cutting machines can cut as little as one garment and as many as several dozen at a time, and with a great degree of accuracy. They have long been used in the tailored clothing industry with great success, but until now they have only been used for cutting plain goods- stripes and checks were generally blocked and recut afterward; my friend at Coppley Apparel, which was the beta-testing site for one particular maker of cutting machine has confirmed to me that the latest software running their cutters allows them to cut fully matched checks! Many of the people responsible for patterns, grading and cutting wouldn't be able to switch on a computer, much less operate one, so their mistrust of these machines is understandable. But it is simply untenable that a person could grade or cut in a more consistent manner than the automatic cutting machines available today.

Made by Hand

There has been a lot of discussion about sartorial excellence, hand-made versus machine-made, and how to spot the difference. Very often the opinions I hear expressed are misguided at best, or meant to convince that one garment or technique is better than another to justify a sale or a high price. True, hand-tailored garments are generally of higher quality than their machine-made counterparts, but it is not a hard-and-fast rule. I have seen sloppily made garments which were made by hand and far inferior to other well-made machine garments. There are also many operations which are traditionally done by hand, but can now be done by very sophisticated (and expensive) equipment, and often better than the hand-made version. Beyond all this, there are many different schools of tailoring, each claiming to be better than the others- is the soft, Neapolitan Kiton shoulder really better than a more structured Brioni shoulder? It is all a matter of personal preference. I have, in my years in the business, so often heard tailors and cutters claiming that the rules of cutting and tailoring to which they adhere are the strict and definitive rules, from which one should never waver; I, myself, long believed this as well. Then one day, discussing the complexities of fitting a sleeve with a retired GFT technician, he told me this regarding the rules;

There are two rules of tailored clothing;

1. If your method (rule) works, use it.

2. If your rules aren't working, make new rules.

In a craft which prides itself upon tradition, this was heresy. But it really opened my eyes and my work has greatly improved from it.Why am I writing all this?I have just cut myself a jacket. Maybe I'll cut a vest too. I'm going to make it almost entirely by hand. I am inviting anyone who is interested to follow the process with me, and at the same time look at the difference between hand-made and machine-made, and open a discussion of the merits of each. I am not selling anything to anyone, nor am I promoting any particular product so we can be very frank about it. And remember; there are a million ways to cut and sew a suit- this is mine.

Oh, all photos are taken by me, and unless otherwise stated, are of my own work.