Adventures in Alterations: Rag & Bone Blazer Overhaul Preview

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a very happy new year! As for me, I took a very nice mental vacation where I didn’t do much else besides eat, sleep, and see good friends who were in town for the holidays. =)

Since my collection of basics seems to be pretty respectable at this point, I’m looking more and more to add interesting pieces to my wardrobe, even if it means a little bit of adventurous tailoring is needed. Case in point: this Rag & Bone printed blazer that I’ve had my eye on since it first hit stores months ago (not to mention, Rag & Bone is one of my favorite brands, so I’m always on the lookout for pieces by them I can add to my wardrobe).

I love the print and nothing else similar has caught my eye enough to divert my attention away from it. I knew it would need a lot of work to get it to fit, so I waited patiently hoping it would go on sale enough to justify the tailoring bill. Sure enough, during the holiday sales I was able to snag it at a great price and decided to go ahead and alter.

This blazer needed a pretty big overhaul:

• shoulders taken in – a costly alteration that I would suggest you avoid if you can. Unfortunately, my narrow shoulders makes this alteration a common adjustment. The sleeves are detached at the shoulder, the shoulder cut smaller, arm hole adjusted, and sleeves re-attached.
• sides slimmed – the blazer is easily taken in at the back seams, similar to this blazer.
• sleeves slimmed – another easy alteration that really elevates the look of a blazer.
• sleeves shortened – the working button at the bottom of the sleeves complicates this alteration. Since the sleeves were getting detached for the shoulder alteration, my tailor shortened the sleeves at the shoulder instead of at the wrist.

Even after all those alterations, it will never look the same way on me as it does on the model because of the length, which is shrunken on the 5’10” model, but fits more like a “hacking” style blazer on 4’11” me. I’m beginning to appreciate this as one of the coolest things about tailoring non-petite clothing down to fit…it’s like creating a whole new unique garment that no one else can just buy in a store. Is it possible I have the only Rag & Bone chevron Bailey “hacking” jacket in the world? I’d like to think so. =)

I’ll note here for Los Angeles readers that I used a new tailor for the first time who came recommended by Wendy. Hector in West Hollywood has done a fabulous job on so many of Wendy’s items that I tagged along on one of her tailor trips to see Hector’s work in action. He did a very good job, as you’ll see in the reveal post.

See this blazer after alterations.