How To Make A Suit Jacket Smaller Without Sewing
If you have a suit jacket bigger than your size, you will face discomfort. Whatever may be the reason, you can change its size to your best fit.
Nowadays, many people tend to rush to tailors for their suit jacket alteration. Well, if you make your suit jacket from a professional tailor, it can cost up to ? of the original price. In addition, you may have to wait for a couple of days or more to get back your suit jacket from the tailors.
So, the best solution is to make your suit jacket smaller with some tips and methods, without sewing. But, these clothes have complex fabric construction that cannot be shortened with the shrinking process. So, instead, there are several tricks and astonishing ways without sewing that can fetch your best-fit suit jacket.
You can save a lot of money and time if you learn and understand the methods and steps correctly. So, feed out your curiosity and knowledge with the help of this comprehensive guide.
How To Make A Suit Jacket Smaller Without Sewing?
Contents
If you want to alter your suit jacket smaller, you will need patience and dedication. In addition, you will need proper equipment and thorough knowledge to execute the steps correctly.
The first easy step to make your suit jacket smaller is reducing the amount of fabric in it. Well, you have to decide how much fabric to take away based on allowances of extra material under the seams or hems of the jacket.
Moreover, you must not give up on the poor fittings of your suit jacket as it can be resolved effectively. Also, if your suit jacket is bigger rather than too small, then you will enjoy doing alterations.
You can cinch the waist of your suit jacket by a dress size or more and add shoulder pads. In addition, you have to narrow the sleeves and shorten the length of your suit jacket by a few inches.
So, follow this article to know how to proceed with the above steps without touching the needle.
Equipment Needed To Make Your Suit Jacket Smaller Without Sewing
It is crucial to gather all the necessary equipment before proceeding with your suit jacket alteration. Then, with the right equipment available in front of your hands, you can efficiently make your jacket smaller. So, check if you have all of this equipment ready or not.
Hem Tape
If you want to succeed in making your suit jacket smaller, you will need hem tape. These double-sided adhesives are the best solution to any type of alteration.
Moreover, a good quality hem tape will enable you to alter your suit jacket permanently or temporarily.
Scissors
You will have to cut off the edges, sleeves, and some pieces of fabric while altering. So, you will either need a sharp-edged scissor or a seam ripper for the best-shaped cutting of your fabric.
Bobby Pins
Bobby pins are an everyday household that is easily available in the market. Y9u must keep a bunch of bobby pins in your possession prior to the alteration.
Moreover, these pins will help from cropping the hem to shortening the sleeves. It acts as the best temporary solution for your suit jacket.
Fabric Glue
Nowadays, many sewers prefer to use fabric glue instead of sewing for quick and effective results. So, get yourself prepared with a box of fabric glue for your hem allowance, etc.
Iron
You will have to use an iron on an ironing board to warm the fabric to shrink more. Also, ensure to use an iron with an adjustable heat setting for better alteration results.
Fabric
You will need a wet towel fabric for protective layer purposes in ironing. In addition, keep some extra fabric for preventive purposes.
Method 1: Make Your Suit Jacket Smaller With Hem Tape
If you want to make your suit jacket smaller with hem tape, you will also need other equipment. They are scissors, measuring tape, and a marker. So let’s explore each step.
Step 1
You have to turn your suit jacket inside out and try it on your body. So, now check for the areas where your suit jacket fits loose and oversized. Remember the area in the jacket, and if possible, mark them.
Step 2
If you find the sides of your suit jacket to be big, you have to pin its seam. You can use ball pins or bobby pins to pin the side seams of your suit jacket.
In addition, you must leave out ease and a bit of seam allowance so that the suit jacket remains comfortable. It will also help any creases to lay flat.
Step 3
If your suit jacket has long sleeves, then you will have to try it on the right side. Also, you have to make a mark on the sleeves with any chalk or pencil for a proper length.
In addition, try not to use markers as their ink may be permanent and cause damage.
Step 4
If you have trouble with oversized sleeves, you have to pin the seam beneath the sleeves closer to your arms. Also, you must pin the sleeve only and not the lining.
Step 5
Follow the folding step if you have decided and measured the new length for your smaller suit jacket. First, you must fold a new hem to your required length and tuck hem tape into the crease.
So, now you can iron it for use. You can also shorten your sleeves of suit jackets with the same new hem fold and tuck tape procedure.
Method 2: Make Your Suit Jacket Smaller With Bobby Pins
Are you looking for a temporary solution to make your suit jacket smaller? Well, bobby pins will help you with it most efficiently. Here, the steps are short, precise, and simple to understand.
Step 1
Take your suit jacket and flip it inside out on an even surface table.
Step 2
Now, look for how much smaller you want your suit jacket to be. Then, you must mark them with the help of chalk or pencil.
Step 3
You can pin the marked areas such as a hem, sleeves with bobby pins to fix it temporarily. However, using bobby pins without any cover can affect your impression. So, later, you have to either hem or sew those pinned areas.
Method 3: Make Your Suit Jacket Smaller With Fabric Glue
Well, you must know the power of a standard adhesive. But, fabric glue has a potent compound and adhesive to join multiple layers of fabric easily. Here’s how you can make your suit jacket smaller with fabric glue.
Step 1
You have to keep your suit jacket inside out. Then wear the jacket and check for the areas where it fits loose.
Step 2
Now, you can mark or pin those areas for further action.
Step 3
You have to cut those areas by keeping an extra seam allowance to avoid unraveling. To make fabric smaller, keeping ? inch of hem allowance will be enough.
Step 4
Now, add your fabric glue to the new seam and press firmly on it.
Things To Alter In Your Suit Jacket
With so many pieces of fabric and design, a suit jacket can require an alteration for many reasons. One of the best advantages of alteration with exact knowledge of the issue is a perfect fit suit jacket.
So, try to keep these short yet essential things in mind for alteration of your suit jacket.
1. You can alter to shorten or lengthen sleeves without buttons on your suit jacket.
2. You can also alter your suit jacket to lengthen or shorten sleeves with effective buttonholes.
3. Also, you have to take out the side and back seams to alter the length, shoulders, and waist.
4. You can also reconsider making your suit jacket big enough to fit your weight gain.
5. You can watch for the collar gaps and alter them to get the best overall fit.
6. Moreover, you can use alteration to narrow down the waist of your suit jacket.
How Much Can Your Suit Jacket Be Adjusted And Let Out?
You will be excited to know that suit jackets offer enough seam allowance. It gives about 1 or 1 ? inches of added or reduced length. Now, you have to adjust your sleeves along with the buttons, etc.
Your sleeves adjustment largely depends upon the place where the buttons of the cuffs are and your willingness to relocate buttons.
How Can You Determine If A Suit Jacket Is Too Small?
If your suit jacket doesn’t fit you, there can be numerous reasons. At times, weight loss, inherited jacket or ignorant shopping can lead you to such situations. However, you can easily follow a few signs to see if your suit fits perfectly or not.
- Your suit jacket’s shoulder pads will start to sag and bite you.
- The chest gapes in your suit jacket open or breaks.
- The jacket rarely covers about 80% of your butt appearance in the back.
- The trouser seat is not smooth and good.
- If the button pulls is higher than one to three fingers above the belly button.
So, these are the signs which you should keep a watch on.
Crafting has always been a deep-seated passion of mine, one that has flourished and evolved over the years.
I've dedicated considerable time to both studying and practicing in the realm of fashion and sewing, amassing a wealth of experience and skills.
It brings me great joy to share these insights and experiences with you all, hoping to inspire and foster a similar passion for the art of sewing.
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