Taking in a leather jacket.. ?

[SpaceDirt]

I need some advice about this one. I know how to sew but I'm not confident enough yet to risk ruining this jacket. The leather is thin compared to more leather jackets and well worn. I want to take in the arms and possibly the armpits.

Have any of you lovely people done this before? tips?

 

[Matt Derrick]

@LeftCoast has an industrial sewing machine and makes stuff, even has an etsy store (and lives in seattle). you should ask him

 

[Joni]

the older cast iron machines will do it with a leather sewing needle. armpits are kinda hard to reduce in size because the arm hole is bigger than what you need for smaller arms. utility knife for cutting works well.

i reduced the arms on an dress shirt. what i did was just clip/pin along the seam until i got it about were i wanted it with the shirt inside out. then sewed it permanent later. cut off the extra. neat thing is if it doesn't work with the pins you can move it so it does.

on a wool coat i took in for winter i took the waist in. i didn't bother doing the same to the liner. it turned out to be a good thing gave a little more wiggle room for the liner.

hope this helps...
-joni