tailor baffled down jacket/vest – worth the effort?

[Brendan Mulholland]

Wanted to pick your guys' brains before I got myself in over my head here –

How involved of a project is it to take in some girth from the torso of a baffled jacket or vest?

I have a NB Fugu and a Nunatuk Skaha Vest that I love and fit perfectly through the shoulders and arms but fit too boxy through the torso (i.e. I would like to take 3-4" out of the circumference through the torso).

These are both pieces that I plan on keeping and are not fashion items – all I am looking to do is make a functional alteration that doesn't have to be up to professional standards with regard to appearance but ideally is as light as possible .

To give you an idea of my skill level – I have made some functional (but not yet overly pretty) tarps, bug-net innertents, backpacks, etc but have not tried anything yet with clothing/down aside from adding down to an Ultra 20 which was pretty basic.

Is there any reason (aside from looks and the extra weight) to not just tailor the inner of the jacket/vest and not the shell (possibly as simply as making a 2" fold right down the middle of the back to take up some material?

Thanks in advance,
Brendan

[Jerry Adams]

Why are you doing this? Better fit? Save weight?

Do a French Seam – sort of like you were saying with 2 inch fold:

Do a 1.5 inch fold in both inner and outer, with the fold out. Cut off about 1/4" from seam. Pull it back inside and sew, hiding the raw edge.

[Brendan Mulholland]

Jerry,

Thanks for the idea about the french seam. As I said, I haven't done any clothing before so french seams are new to me. As far as I can see it should be possible to make the seam vertically (i.e. right down the back of the jacket) without having to rip out any of the existing seams. Is that what you were suggesting?

Cheers,
Brendan

[Jerry Adams]

Yes – vertical seam, right down back of jacket, without having to rip out existing seams

This might help – http://thru-hiker.com/projects/french_seams.php

To start, you could just pull out a fold, put a couple hand stitches to keep it in place, try it on to see if that's what you want, keeping in mind that when you pull it back inside and finish the French Seam it will make it a little tighter

When you're all done, it will be practically invisible

[Brendan Mulholland]

Thanks Jerry,

I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. That was exactly the info that I needed – french seams it is.

Brendan

[David Scheidt]

Fold and use clips (binder clips work great) to see what you need to do before you stick holes in it. And make sure you can move in it, get it on and off, etc. That way if you discover you really want the ease that's there, you have not hurt the down proofing of the shell.

[Brendan Mulholland]

david,

thanks for the idea, worked well for a trial run.

Am I right in thinking that the finished product using french seams would leave me a small 3/8"ish fold sticking out from the outter of the jacket (and the same sticking in from the inner) if I did the whole operation just by taking a fold out of the back of the jacket/vest?

I think that if I go this route I will do so on both sides right under the armpits (over an existing seam) to reduce visibility.

Cheers,
Brendan

[Jerry Adams]

When you're done, there should be a 1/2" fold on the inside only.

inside out:

right side out:

That's synthetic booty but same idea.

Yeah, may be good idea to do it on existing seam under each arm.

[Brendan Mulholland]

Jerry,

After looking at your pictures I think I misunderstood what you said originally. It appears to me that with your booties you have taken up BOTH the inner and outer fabric in one fold and made one french seam. Is that correct?

The problem that I have is that my jacket and vest are not sewn through (they have full loft where I would like to make the french seam). Thus, it appears to me that I would have to make 4 seams in total to complete a jacket (one for the inner fabric on each side under the arms and one for the outer shell on each side under the arms). If I were to draw both the inner and outer fabric in the same fold I would create a cold spot. Does that sound right to you?

[David Scheidt]

Brenden, that's all correct. If you're worried about the lofting (and, also, splitting the down tube into two), you need to either do the two sides separately, or do the work at an existing seam.

Another possible approach, which will look ugly, is too simply fold the excess fabric out of way, and sew those pinched areas up. No need for a seam treatment, because you're not cuttin anything out, just making a dart by sewing it up. (If there's a lot of fabric, you can roll the folded out up, and sew the roll together.) Do that on both sides, and you're set.

[Jerry Adams]

Yes, and as David said

Yeah, there would be a cold spot there

The fold of the French Seam would stick out a little so there would be an air space inside. I don't think you'de notice any cold spot. And there would only be one seam that had a cold spot.

But, I've done that with synthetic but not down so…

Maybe you should leave it as is and not worry about it : )

[Nancy Twilley]

The only way I would personally do this would be on an existing seam — I would just pull in the material I wanted to eliminate, shake all the down out of it, then sew a straight line and close it off. No French seams needed.Would leave very slight cold spots on the sides of the garment (where the existing seams are), but otherwise I don't think you're going to be happy with the finished results, and it's going to be too much of a finicky project to be worth it. Good luck!

[Jordo _99]

I bought a coat off here in the gear trade section a few months ago for cheap. Turned out to be a little bit too big.

I'm likely to just leave the sleeves how they are, but mine has seems along the side of the coat (basically 3 main pieces…front left, front right, full back). I'll try to move it up my priority list and get it done sooner now that there's another person interested in the same (so we can help each other out).

Shouldn't be terribly difficult if you just push the down away from the edge and sew the seam in a bit further, then cut off the excess…that's my plan anyway.

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