Welcome To Vintage Suit Alterations Page - For Mens and Ladies Vintage Suit Repairs and Alterations, Professional Quick Service

For mens and ladies vintage suit, trouser, jacket, clothing invisible,near invisible and alterations work carried out to the Highest of Standards

The mens and ladies vintage alterations service I tend to offer are mainly shortening legs, with the original finish retaining. When asked for the heal kick tape, slant to heal again if requested, taking in the waist area stripping down the seam and making as near original as possible, tapering the thigh area of your trousers, tapering the bottoms to make a more fitted leg or even the new type fashion of altering to make ultra tight fitting bottoms (skinny type fitment).

Vintage Jacket Alterations

Taking in the side seams of your jacket: to make a more fitted style, if the jacket is a dated look of a more 'boxy' straight side seam look and you want it with more a tapered cut into the waist line.
(Please note some alteration places will only take in the center seam, which is an unbalaced way to carry out this job, it's only too cut down on time. We don't and won't do this. It's a sub standard way to carry the job out and we dont recommend it. If you use us or another tailor to carry out your work, please request both side seams)

Let out the side seams of your jacket: you may have bought the jacket and found it to be a little tighter than wanted. You may have put on a little weight and now the jacket feels uncomfortable. We can let out jackets by around 1" - 2" depending on how much fabric the manufacture has left inside. (Some vintage manufactures from circa 1940's-1960's will leave more fabric inside, some times upto 5" !!! )

Shorten Sleeves of your jacket: be it a plain ladies type cuff or a mens jacket with buttons and button holes. On some occasions it is possible to shorten from the sleeve head to retain all the original detail present, this is a more time consuming way of altering your sleeves. But this will retain all original detail even if it has a working button hole cuff.

Lengthen Sleeves of your jacket: on most occasions we can lengthen your sleeves by 1" - 2" depending on how much fabric the manufacture has left inside. The lining may need to extended if its being lengthened more than 1". The cost does go up slighty for this to be carried out.

Shorten Length of your jacket: we can shorten your jacket be around 1" - 2", with shortening the length you need to bare in mind the length of jacket compared with the pocket balance. You dont want to go too short as the pockets on the front of the jacket will start to look slighty odd in relation to the jacket length.

Chip Shoulders: we can take in the shoulder width on you jacket by around 1" - 2" per shoulder, so upto 4" in total if you measured the complete back width.

Pick up rear neck area: if you have a slight high or low shoulder line compared with others, you may suffer with the rear upper part of your jacket having a crease and therefor an un balanced apperance, we can lift or drop this area to get rid of this.

Taper Sleeve width: on some occasions we get requested to taper the sleeves width. This is sometimes carried out along with tapering the body side seams of the jacket to keep the complete balance of the suit if the jacket and trouser have been taken in lot more than standard. You may decide you also want this service.

Re Line Jacket: we can put a brand new inner lining into your old jacket. It may have been of a poor quality when bought new and worn threw prematurely or has just worn threw with general wear and tear over the years. If the jacket is still in good condition it may be worth considering getting us to put a new lining into your jacket. We also have a superb collection of satin linings with over 50 colours to choose from, typical black, grey, navys along with some beautiful pinks, purples, yellows etcetera... We even have some polka dot ones on request. All inner pockets can be retained on request. Samples can be sent by post if required.

Vintage Trouser Alterations

Shorten Leg Length: be it 1" or 10" you need them shortening we can do it. We will replace all stitching back to the manufactures finish, replacing all internal stitching and overlock stitching to the same as before it had been altered. We can also add the heal (kick) tape onto the inside of the trouser hem for added weight and to stop the bottom of the hem from wearing away on the rear of your shoes.

Lengthen Leg Length: in most cases the manufacture leave in an inlay of around 2" for us to let down. So if your trousers are half mast and showing off your socks a little, we can certainly let them down for you. On most occasions there is not enough room inside for the heal (kick) tapes to be added (replaced).

Take In Waist Area: we can take in trouser waists be upto 4". The only thing you have to watch out for here is that the rear pockets don't meet. This looks very odd and is un-confortable once altered. The lower seat area can also be taken in if requested.

Let Out Waist Area: in most cases the manufacture leaves in an inlay of around 2" for us to let out. So if your new trousers are slighty too tight and need a touch out, or you have put a bit of weight over the Christmas period. We can defiently alter those for and make you feel alot more comfortable in your trousers.

Taper Thigh Area: we can taper the thigh area in for you, if you would like them more fitted.

Taper Leg From Knee Down: we can taper the lower leg part from the knee down, if you would like more of a fitted cut

Make Skinny Cut: with some suit trouser being around a 14" bottom as standard, we can amend any old or new trousers with a wider leg pair down to around a 14" bottom on request. We take special care to make the leg not look like its been altered, to retain the cut of the leg to be graduated and look as if its never been altered.

Lift Crutch Area: every now and then we get this request, when for some odd reason a suit trouser has been cut with slightly longer crutch than normal, we can alter this and remove the excess underneath.



Other mens and ladies vintage suit alterations can be carried out on request; the above are the most popular.

I use only the highest standard cotton threads which are of the best quality and durabilty for the alterations process be it to your vintage suit, trouser, jacket and clothing etc...

Please check the gallery page for examples of all the above mentioned mens and ladies vintage suit alteration services we can offer you.

Also please watch the video below for a collection of alterations I have carried out to men and ladies vintage suits, trousers, jackets and clothing examples



Vintage Suit Alterations @ James Personal Tailor & Son ® - For Vintage Suit Clothing Invisible Repairs & Alterations, Based in Manchester city centre and only 30 Minutes from Liverpool, Leeds, Lancaster, Preston, Blackpool, Sheffield 60 Minutes from Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester, Newcastle, Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, Wolverhamton, Scarborough, Middlesborough, Carlisle, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Coventry, Peterborough, Leicester, Dudley, Stafford, Derby, Stoke on Trent, Hull, Rotherham, Doncaster and 3 1/2 hours from London, Oxford, Cambridge, St Albans, Bristol, Ipswich, Plymouth, Exmouth, Exeter, Poole, Dorset, Southhampton, Reading, Brighton, Ashford, Dover, Kent, Maidstone, Chemlsford, Colchester, Swindon, Luton, Gloucester, Norwich, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Perth, Inverness