Copying a shirt you already own

Questions people ask

Will you cut up my shirt to copy it?

No. The garment is never taken apart. The shirt is measured, laid flat and measured again, and the pattern is drafted from those numbers. It goes home with you the same day. This is the unspoken reason people leave a favourite shirt at home and try to describe it instead, which is the harder route to the same result.

What exactly gets copied?

Every measurement and shape: body width and length, shoulder, sleeve, armhole, collar height and shape, cuff depth, and how much shape is taken out of the back. Details like pockets, plackets and yoke pleats transfer if you ask for them. What cannot transfer is the cloth itself, and anything the original has lost to washing. Ask for the details you want kept, because a plain copy will not assume a pocket or a placket you did not mention.

Can you improve the shirt rather than copy it exactly?

Yes, and it is usually worth doing. The common corrections are a sleeve an inch too long, a collar that has been tight since the first wash, and a body fuller than you now want. We will say what we can see and what we would change, then do what you ask. Nothing is altered quietly. Decide which you want before the pattern is drafted rather than at the fitting.

Does the copy have to be in the same cloth?

No: the copy can be made in a different cloth, and often it should be. A shape you like in a heavy cloth is frequently better in a lighter one for this climate, and the same pattern in a different cloth hangs differently. Compare the books by hand against the shirt you brought; that comparison is the most useful two minutes of the visit.

Can you copy a shirt that has shrunk?

We can, but you probably do not want us to. A shrunken shirt copied faithfully is a shrunken shirt in new cloth. Tell us how it fitted when it was new, or bring another that still fits, and the pattern can be corrected back towards the garment you remember rather than the one in your hand.

How long does a copy take?

The same as any other shirt: the shop sets the date at the order. Copying does not add time, and if anything it removes a conversation. Bring the shirt on your first visit rather than your second, and the order is placed in that one visit.

Can you copy a shirt from a photograph?

A photograph is enough to discuss a style and nowhere near enough to take a pattern. Send one on WhatsApp first if you want to know whether the thing you have in mind is made here. For the pattern itself, the garment has to be on the table, because a photograph carries no measurements.

Can you copy trousers or a jacket the same way?

Trousers, yes, and it works as well as it does with shirts. A jacket is a harder proposition because so much of its shape lives in the canvas and the pressing rather than in the flat pattern. Bring it in and you will get a straight answer about what can be taken off it.