Off The Cuff Machines Don’t Make Tailored Suits
8 Jun, 2014
Machines Don’t Make Tailored Suits
This wording fills me with dread. This post is going to be backed up with pictures to run along side my home page article “How Honest Is Your Tailor ?” This article should be your absolute number one point of call before shelling out a single penny with ANY tailor.
This article will equip you through the numerous pictures so that you can then go and compare your suit to see if it has actually been tailor-made or is a fully machine-made suit. And before you commission a tailor use the information here and the pictures to keep an eye on what you are being sold.
You wouldn’t buy a Faberge egg and then be happy to find out it was laser carved would you ? So why should you settle for a suit that was supposed to be tailor-made but in reality it transpires that your new spend is merely a factory machine-made suit !
Seam inside the sleeve shows the coat was ‘bagged’ out and factory made.
The picture on the left shows one of the coat sleeves turned inside out.
You can see the raised seam on the lining, this means this coat was ‘bagged out’.
This coat was more or less fully made inside out and a small hole was then left inside one of, or both of the sleeve enabling the machinist to then pull the coat through the sleeve when all the sewing operations were finished.
No tailor, and I mean no tailor in the world uses this method to make suits. it is 100% a factory way to do things.
The under collar melton has been machine zig-zag stitched. Badly done I might add, they couldn’t even be bothered to trim the excess canvas poking from the edge to keep it tidy !
The picture to the right shows the under collar melton machine zig-zag stitched around the neck and also on the top edge of the collar.
This example is even tattier than the usual suspects because they obviously couldn’t even be bothered to trim the excess under canvas from the melton.
When this is done correctly by a quality manufacturer then it can be a neat way to finish the collar melton but wait ……………!
Tailors ALWAYS finish these areas with delicate hand stitching and NEVER by machine.
What a load of absolute rubbish !!
The picture left shows one of the worst cuff finishing jobs I have seen for a long time.
The button holes and buttons aren’t straight, the buttons are machined on, the stitching from the machined lining inside the cuff is showing through.
Ask yourself this, would a tailor of any quality let this out of his workroom ? Of course he wouldn’t.
This poor chap thought he was dealing with a tailor but the reality was it was only a Manchester middleman, Established 40 years I might add !! All the pictures of the blue suit is their handiwork. Beggars belief.
The picture of the light grey coat to the below right shows the imitation machine ‘hand’ stitching.
This is machine stitching. It’s supposed to resemble hand stitching. You can see it comes nowhere near replicating it ! Imitation hand stitching ! That imitates my hand stitching as much as I imitate David Beckham !
This stitching is bold, deep, pronounced and often not really on the edge as you can see. Again a factory made indicator.
If you also look at this collar and lapel you can see the lapel is not sharp at the tip, it’s round and badly executed.
The general size, shape and angle of this collar and lapel is totally wrong. This is an offering from a company who have set themselves up in York.
This is the coat as it sits on its hanger. You don’t have to be a genius to see this is poor work.
Tailor made ?
Look at the state of the sleeves, the chest, the fullness. This is bad work and I hate to say it’s not isolated, because lots of the middlemen tailors all use the same manufacturers.
These garments are absolutely typical of the quality that gets churned out from these trade making factories.
My father would turn in his grave. Right, what I am going to do now is simply post various pictures of work from these places and you can make your own minds up.
Each picture has a description so you know what to look for and what you are looking at.
Buttonholes cut in the shop after it left the factory. Couldn’t even be bothered to trim the eye of the hole out !
The dream boats selling this stuff are clever and will go to great lengths to part you from your cash.
They will rent nice premises, offer you whisky, have magazines lying around, all the trappings to make you feel comfortable and them convincing.
They will read old tailoring books and tailoring forums picking up the ‘lingo’ to sound credible. They will also lie, yes lie. They will tell you a load of old rubbish like “Oh a factory made machine suit is far superior to hand sewn”. No it isn’t ! And you’re not paying for a sewing machine to do the work, you are in a tailors so you should quite rightly be expecting a tailor to make your suit, so if this brain of Britain stood in front of you selling you your suit isn’t making it who the hell is !!!
But the final proof is in the product they give you and these pictures will help you get your money back, yes, get your money back ! You have been mis-sold, end of.
Tailors do not make trousers with ‘bound’ pocket bags. these are factory made trousers.
Trousers with fullness all over. This will NEVER be able to be removed.
Machine made button hole and machine sewn imitation hand stitching.
Another machine made pocket and flap. Machine stitched edges.
Ribbed pocket jets done by machine. The piping strip should be thin, pressed open not have a ridge.
Trouser extension. Compare this factory made one to my tailored one ! Hello ! Someone tell the factory this extension should be square !