What a Tailor Actually Does: Nine Jobs Beyond Hemming Trousers

A tailor is most often pictured with a trouser hem in one hand. It is a fair picture, since hems are the commonest job in any alteration room, and also the smallest part of the work. Most of what reaches our bench on Culver Blvd fits in three places and misses in two. The job is to find which two, then to say honestly whether they can be moved.

It helps to know that Mr James is a cutting house as well as an alteration room. We make garments from scratch at 221 Culver Blvd and we alter garments other people made, and the two sides of the bench teach each other a great deal. What the work of a suit tailor in Los Angeles amounts to is set out in full on its own page, and if the question behind yours is really the figure, how much a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles answers it in the first line.

Nine of those jobs follow, with a note on each about what can be put back and what cannot. Our page on suit alterations in Los Angeles lists them with prices.

1. Trouser hem and taper

The hem sets the break, the fold of cloth that falls over the shoe. Most trousers come with an inch and a half to two inches turned up inside, so a leg can be lengthened once and no further. A taper takes width out from the knee down through both seams, so the leg stays straight. Both are reversible within the cloth that is there, though take a leg in too far and the old stitch line shows as a faint ghost when it is let out again.

2. Jacket waist suppression

A jacket comes in at the centre back seam and the two side seams, and most have inlay enough for two inches. The limit is not the seams. It is the pockets and the vents. Pull them in too far and the flap pockets ride forward, and the vents cross over instead of hanging closed. Past that point it stops reading as a jacket that was too big and starts reading as one that has been altered.

3. Sleeve length from the cuff, and from the shoulder

Shortening a sleeve from the cuff is quick. It stops being quick the moment there are working buttonholes, since the buttons and holes then sit in the wrong place. The sleeve is shortened from the top instead, out of the sleevehead, which means opening the armhole and setting the sleeve back in so the roll still sits smoothly. Three quarters of an inch is the limit from the top, and the work costs three or four times what the cuff would have.

4. Shoulder adjustment, which is the expensive one

A jacket hangs from the shoulder, and everything below it is a consequence. A wide shoulder can be narrowed: the armhole is opened, the shoulder seam cut back, the sleevehead reshaped to a smaller armhole, and the sleeve set in again by hand. It takes hours rather than minutes, and done well it changes a jacket more than any other alteration. A shoulder cannot be made wider, because there is no cloth beyond that seam. A jacket narrow across the shoulder is the wrong jacket.

5. Collar gap

If there is a gap between your jacket collar and your shirt collar at the back, the collar is rarely the problem. The balance of the jacket is wrong for the way you stand, so the whole back is riding up. We open the collar and the top of the back, remove a crescent of cloth and close it again. Half an inch comes out cleanly on most jackets. It is a fault people live with for years, and our notes on how a suit should fit show how to spot it in a mirror.

6. Seat and rise on trousers

Trousers are let out or taken in through the centre back seam, which carries an inch or more of inlay on good trousers and very little on cheap ones. The seat can also be lifted, which cures the sag under the back pockets. The rise, the distance from waistband to fork, is harder. It can be shortened by taking off the waistband and recutting the top, and it cannot be lengthened.

7. Shirt body darts and sleeve slimming

A shirt that billows through the body comes in with two darts in the back or through the side seams. We prefer the side seams, since darts leave two vertical lines that read as a shirt which has been pinned rather than one that fits. Sleeves can be slimmed through the underarm seam. Collars and cuffs can be remade when the edges go, which is worth doing on a good shirt. We also make shirts from your own pattern at $295, under custom shirts in Los Angeles.

8. Replacing a lining

A lining gives out long before the cloth does. It goes shiny under the arms, splits at the armhole, or wears at the back of the neck. Replacing it means unpicking the inside of the jacket, cutting a new lining and putting it back in by hand. For a jacket you like, in cloth that still has years in it, this is money well spent.

9. Rebuilding a worn trouser seat, or repairing a buttonhole

Trouser seats and inner thighs wear through. The repair is a patch set in from the inside, taken from an inlay or a hem so the cloth matches, then pressed and stitched so it lies flat. We will be plain about the result. In a smooth worsted a repair of that kind shows in a raking light, and in a flannel or a tweed it disappears. A frayed hand buttonhole can be reworked with silk. A buttonhole cut in the wrong place cannot be moved.

What this costs, and what else we do

Alterations here are $80 an hour, with a turnaround of one week. We alter garments we did not make, gladly.

Alterations are only part of the house. Mr James has made clothes from scratch since 2010, and every garment we make is full canvas and fully bespoke, cut from a pattern drawn for one person and made by hand by Max, our atelier in Southern Brittany, France. A two-piece starts at $1,795 and a three-piece at $2,045, with unlimited fittings, and a year of complimentary alterations on anything we have made. There is more under bespoke, and our tailor in Los Angeles page covers how we work. If Playa del Rey is awkward, we offer home and office visits at $300.

Questions we are often asked

How much do alterations cost in Los Angeles?

At Mr James, $80 an hour, with a turnaround of one week. A hem is a short job and a shoulder a long one, so we tell you the hours before starting.

Can a suit jacket be made bigger?

Only as far as the inlay allows, which on most jackets is an inch to an inch and a half through the waist and less through the chest. A jacket that is too small is the hardest garment in the trade to rescue.

Can the shoulders of a jacket be altered?

They can be narrowed, by opening the armhole, cutting back the shoulder seam and resetting the sleeve. It is the most expensive alteration we do. Shoulders cannot be made wider.

Are alterations included on a suit Mr James made?

Yes. Every garment we make carries one year of complimentary alterations, and unlimited fittings before delivery. Bodies change, and a suit cut for you should be kept fitting you.

What cannot be altered at all?

A shoulder cannot be widened, a trouser rise cannot be lengthened, a lapel shape cannot be changed, and a jacket cannot be made longer in the body. Our notes on what can and cannot be changed in a suit cover the rest.

We are at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, CA 90293, a storefront with free parking front and back. Telephone 310-503-3592, or book a fitting. Seven days a week by appointment, roughly nine until six, with forty-eight hours' notice. You will be seen by Robb or by Ben, and the first consultation is an hour and free.