An old tweed jacket of mine resurfaced recently. It still fit, but a month or two of swinging an axe might tighten the shoulders a bit too much. I picked it up at a church rummage sale some time ago, and it is likely from the early 1980's with an extremely low cut on the front-buttons.
It wasn't bad, but I realized why I rarely wore it. The buttons are too close together for my taste and both are too far down... nearly open to the belt line. I took it to the seamstress, and she was happy to add another buttonhole above the top. I hadn't purchased any matching buttons, so she leap-frogged the bottom button to the new top buttonhole.
The photos are reversed (I took them in the mirror), so don't be alarmed if the overlap looks wrong. I still will add a bottom button, but it looks better to my eye already. The bill was $12, which is twice what was paid for the jacket, as I remember. Warm and heavy, I'll happily be able to wear it a bit more now that it was tuned up.
A delightful turn of events for The Cableknit Charlestonian, and his fun post can be found here. Also following his quote apropos of this post:
"Uh-oh, I've lost a buttonhole." -Steven Wright
Excellent idea to get that alteration. The fit of the jacket looks much, much better. I'm always mindful of button stance when thrifting a sport coat, but I've never given serious thought to having the stance changed.
ReplyDeleteThanks for mentioning my post! I'll soon have to share a similar story that occurred just yesterday.
Steven Wright. Possibly the most underrated comic of the last thirty years.
When I was living in New Haven there was a store around the corner that sold these bad-boys: http://bit.ly/yw4BmK
ReplyDeleteClearly you need to step up your button program.
Neil Commented (but Blogger malfunctioned and didnt post). Sorry Neil! Below are his thoughts:
ReplyDelete"So the low two button cut is early 80s. I guess the same goes for the low notches on the lapels of the Harris tweed coat I bought, too excited by the fabric to pay attention to the cut. When I read your post I thought I had a solution but adding a third button will not work with the low notch lapels. Back to the thrift shop unless I can figure out what to wear with an 80s coat...."