I just bought an off-the-rack suit, because I have lost weight, my old suit doesn’t fit and I have some upcoming meetings where I might want a suit.
I have a large upper body and ever-decreasing waist.
The suit came with 48 chest which fits nicely, but 42 inch pants, which are at least 6 inches too big.
Can the pants be saved or is it cheaper/easier to try and find a pair of pants that fit and match?
I guess you can take them in until the back pockets touch.
At some point you’d actually be reconstructing the pants to keep them looking normal. After an inch or so I’d buy new.
I agree, it’s easier to buy new than to cut down and reconstruct. You may find a tailor who is willing to do it for a hefty price, but 6" or more is a lot*. Unless the fabric is special and unmatchable, I’d find a new pair.
It depends on a lot of things. Yes it’s possible, but after about 2 inches, you’re getting into “how much is this particular article of clothing worth it to me” territory.
Things to think about:
Is there any pattern at all to the fabric? Houndstooth, stripes, even subtle thread shadings can stand out really badly and unfortunately when things are altered drastically.
How stiff is the fabric itself (as well as the backing/lining/interfacing of insides, pockets, waistbands, etc)? If you have either very stiff or very thin fabrics, they show alteration marks very commonly, even when the change is done well.
How complicated is the original design? If pants, do they have a “comfort band” or other inset stretch panel in the waist? Do they have pockets on the side seam, or in the front on an angle? Are there back pockets and are they patch or sewn into the pants themselves? Are the pants high-waisted or low? (High makes for a more difficult alter, as the pattern has to account for measurements for waist as well as hips.)
How much are you willing to spend? If you want to blow craploads of money, you can probably find someone willing to entirely disassemble the pants and re-pattern them to you from the pieces which are there. It would actually be more difficult than creating a pair of pants from scratch, and you would be charged accordingly for the process.
My mother was a seamstress, and she once cautioned me against having six-inch reduction done in a pair of pants (from 42 to 36). The suit in question was new, and she said while it was possible to make that great a reduction, it wasn’t likely to turn out well; I was better off buying a different suit.
Of course, I ignored her. Of course, she was right. :smack:
Taking in the pants at the back center too much will throw the cut of your pants off.
Obviously, the pockets at the back will be too close together but the side pockets, seams, and belt loops will also all be shifted.
Hopefully, if your suit is a solid colour and texture you can find something to go with it, but you will almost never match it. Alternately, you may have a blazer you can wear with any pants you want.
Thanks for the great advice all. I was pretty much expecting what has been said.
Two of the suits are solid colors, the other is pin-striped, but I think I can match it. Even when I made the purchase, I was pretty much thinking I was just buying the suit jacket.
if the two back pockets touched then you would end up with a monopocket.
I try not to take anything in my pants.
My pastor got monopocket skinny at one point. He was losing a ton of weight, and they didnt’ have enough money to buy him new dress clothes.
Well, there’s the usual relativistic pants limit, where if the density of stitches per unit length exceeds the maximum density of neutron pants, it forms a ‘black pocket’ from which the pants, and anything that falls into the pants, cannot escape.
Of course, you may be talking about the recent developments by Haggar in quantum slacks, in which case the uncertainty limit on the minimum waist of the pants is inversely proportional to the uncertainty of the minimum pant length.
The fashion world eagerly awaits a theory of quantum pants gravity.