In over my head? What else is new.

So it's been an interesting week. The largest, and most frightening, announcement of my life went live on Facebook three days ago-- I'm going to be a father. I think I looked similar to Mr. Fox when Mrs. Fox broke the same news to him:

I then proceeded to make this exact same face for over 5 minutes. The news fills me with excitement and dread. How will I pay for all this? Will I be a good father? Where can I score a good child's suit pattern? All questions I plan to address in due time.

But first, lets get back to the present. Last time I posted up about modifications on a sweet houdstooth blazer, that I scored at a local thrift shop. It's getting lots of love and wear, however I'm starting to think that the right sleeve had been tailored about 1/4" shorter than the left. The jacket was tailored by the previous owner (Ralph Lauren never made anything off the rack that was my exact shape), and arm length differences are pretty common, plus it would explain the poorly spaced sleeve buttons. It's an easy fix, but one that will have to wait. Because Christmas is coming!

This year the family decided to try and get as crafty as possible with gift giving. A decision was made to make as much as possible and try to second hand the rest. I decided that my brother needed a nice suit. To be honest, he sort of has one, but it's been pieced together so the trousers don't match the jacket, and nothing really fits well. Sorry Tom, it just doesn't look great.

Fortunately, I have an extra-- sort of. Enter my great-uncle Wallace's old suit:

I'm not wearing the trousers here, because they won't stay up without my camera hand's assistance, and this isn't-that-sort-of-blog. Notice how baggy it is. Note the cool old curved lapels, the low placed notches, the too-long sleeves. All things that scream "Early 90's off-the-rack cheap suit". But I can fix all this... I think.

Lets another angle:

As you can see here, I have at least a half-hand's width of extra material on each side, but all the excess comes on the button edge of the coat. This was, I believe, a common practice among coat makers of the era. It lets you sell to people with waistlines in excess of their shoulders (or roughly 70% of America).

I figure I have two options in correcting this: I can convert it to a double breasted suit, thereby working this excess into the over-flap. I have buttons and a keyhole button-holer, so it's probably an easy route to take, but I just don't like the look of it (Too 'old banker' for my tastes.):

That leaves me with the option of removing several inches of material from each side. After playing with it a bit, I think that it would be easiest to do so from the button assembly; basically make the new edges about even with the inside edge of the old button holes. The pockets shift inwards when this happens, but the settle down pretty close to where they are on the houndstooth jacket, so I'm sure it will be fine.

It will be a lot of work, for sure, but still much easier than reworking the pocket seams, sleeve seams, or trying to take the excess out from the back. At this point, I even dare think this will all be a bit... dare I say it? Simple.

So the final plan for this project:
1) Hem the inside jacket facing inward roughly 3" on each side.
2) Rework the lapel edges to be straight for a more modern look
3) Adjust sleeve length
4) Adjust trouser waist and inseam

And the biggest hurdle: I'm trying to make it a surprise so I can't ask him to swing by for a fitting or to get his measurements! I know, Madness. But we're twins so I should be able use myself for most measurements. He's a little heavier than I am, so I'll include a little extra room in each measurement (although he claims to have the same waist-size I do, so I'll have to keep it all pretty close).

Tom, if you are reading this (and I doubt you are) the surprise has been ruined. Damn you. Damn you for ruining Christmas! That said, pick up your phone and call me, I'd much rather have accurate measurements for this, and I'm 300% sure the end result will fit better.

Any thoughts? I'd love a little guidance before I jump into this. Fortunately this project has fewer parts than my 97' Ranger engine rebuild (and we all know how well that turned out). Unfortunately, I only have 2 weeks to make this happen. We'll have to see how it all goes. Stay tuned for a rapid progression on this!