It is always nice to be able to work in a relaxed and unhurried way when undertaking difficult tasks but sometimes in this job you have clients who come to you in a last minute panic to fix something in time for an important event.
We were approached by a gentleman the day before his wedding. He brought us a suit that had been with another tailor who had promised to remove the pockets on the front of his jacket and place them back in a different, more angled position. Unfortunately all of the pocket welts and flaps had been unpicked and removed before the realisation dawned that this is simply not possible to achieve!
Though an attempt had been made to put the pockets back as they had originally been, the result was messy and unattractive. The seam lines were bumpy and uneven, the fabric around the pocket was stretched and could not be pressed flat and there was frayed fabric around the edges.
All this was not surprising - when you construct a pocket you work with a large seam allowance that allows neat and precise stitching, this is then cut away to leave a tiny amount of fabric on the inside of the garment so there are no bumps or bulkiness from the outside. If you then try to unpick these seams and re-sew them the fabric begins to fray and you are left with so little fabric that it is almost impossible to sew.
In normal circumstances we might have suggested that it was a better idea to give up on that suit and go and find an alternative, but with the wedding in less than 24 hours that was not an option and we simply couldn't leave the poor groom with no suit.
We opened the lining of the jacket to allow access and carefully unpicked the pockets and side seam next to it. An interfacing fabric was applied to stabilise and straighten the fabric and prevent any further fraying. A longer pocket hole was created to remove the frayed edges. The original pocket welts were far too damaged to use so the inside pocket was removed and new welt pieces were made from the fabric. Then these were very carefully resewn back in place along with the pocket flaps, the side seam and lining closed back up.
After a very long night of careful work we were very happy to present the groom with a smart, wearable suit in time for the ceremony.