[Troones]

Inspired by a recent post on the tweed thread by Flanderian, with photos of an amazing jacket with gauntlet cuffs (or turnback cuffs?) I have a question and I so hope the answer is yes.

I have a couple of sport coats that need to have the sleeves shortened. I need to do this on most off the peg jackets. Could a skilled tailor take the opportunity to create gauntlet cuffs instead of just shortening the sleeves? If so, how much fabric would be required?

Bespoke isn’t going to happen for me in the near future but I would like to have the experience at some point in my life. For now, is this something that can be done? Has anyone here done this before?

 

[Flanderian]

Since I was the instigator, I'll take the first swing -

"Could a skilled tailor take the opportunity to create gauntlet cuffs instead of just shortening the sleeves?"

I would think so, if there's enough cloth.

" If so, how much fabric would be required?"

Don't know, but would think it would be variable due to several factors. Likely best to ask that skilled tailor.

Never had it done.

 

[Peak and Pine]

Has anyone here done this before?

Yes, me.
There are a number of ways to go about it. Think of it like cuffs on a pant. For an inch and a half cuff you need minimum three and a half inches extra fabric, one and a half inches down, then one and a half up, then a minimum half inch turn-under to secure the cuff.

But a one and a half inch gauntlet is visually weak; two and a quarter is my preference. So you would need five inches minimum extra cloth at the outlet. Very few ready made jackets have that amount available, even after shortening. Which is why God made faux gauntlets.

Because my net access is exclusively by cell phone and fat fingers have to type on a keyboard literally half the size of an index card, I cannot give you the detail you need (the tedium of typing and the typos), but going faux can often produce good results. However, the maneuver is furthher complicated by the idea that the best gauntlets are half gauntlets, going around just the front of the sleeve, seam to seam, the top curving at the vent.

I have had fun through trial and error creating different types of full and faux gauntlets on a number of my jackets. Talk to a tailor. Share this info with him.

 

[Peak and Pine]

I went into the tweed thread looking for what inspired you, didn't go far, came up with Gielgud, is this what you saw?

Odd, the seemingly 300° cuff and vent sewn shut. Below are a couple favorites. Not mine, hardly, these are gold...

 

[Troones]

I went into the tweed thread looking for what inspired you, didn't go far, came up with Gielgud, is this what you saw?

View attachment 86903

Odd, the seemingly 300° cuff and vent sewn shut. Below are a couple favorites. Not mine, hardly, these are gold...
View attachment 86904
View attachment 86905

Yes, that first photo is the one that has inspired my post but it’s just the most recent example. I’ve been eyeing these with envy whenever they pop up in any thread. Excellent info! Appreciate it Peak and Pine!

 

[Peak and Pine]

There is a member, I think from Brazil, @bernoulli, who sometimes posts in WAYWN and wears almost exclusively gauntleted suit jackets. A meticulous dresser, I think his gaunts need more punch tho, they're sometimes a bit flat. Look him up.

After looking again at Sir John's cuffs above, I think maybe the vent isn't sewn shut, there's a perpendicular tack just above the button and the seam wavers some as an opened vent will do. I bother to make this slight correction because @Matt S will catch me on this, especially after I just stupidly tagged him.

 

[Matt S]

There is a member, I think from Brazil, @bernoulli, who sometimes posts in WAYWN and wears almost exclusively gauntleted suit jackets. A meticulous dresser, I think his gaunts need more punch tho, they're sometimes a bit flat. Look him up.

After looking again at Sir John's cuffs above, I think maybe the vent isn't sewn shut, there's a perpendicular tack just above the button and the seam wavers some as an opened vent will do. I bother to make this slight correction because @Matt S will catch me on this, especially after I just stupidly tagged him.

I have not forgotten how you like to make up your own terminology. I will once again be happy to point out how a "gauntlet cuff" is not the same thing as a "gauntlet" (a word already with a number of other definitions), and thus it cannot be shortened to "gauntlet". The tailors who make them and the people who wear them do not shorten it to "gauntlet". Why not call it a "cuffed suit jacket" instead of a "gauntleted suit jacket"?

Going back to @Troones' original question, shortening the sleeves will not provide enough extra fabric to create gauntlet cuffs. The cuff is created as a separate piece from the sleeve and then sewn into or on top of the sleeve. The sleeve cannot simply be turned back for this effect. If that were the case, the patterns wouldn't match. Adding gauntlet cuffs would work better if it was a full suit and you had extra fabric to cuff off from the trousers.

 

[Peak and Pine]

I have not forgotten how you like to make up your own terminology.

This is true.

The tailors who make them and the people who wear them do not shorten it to "gauntlet".

But I do.
Basically because where else are you going to have a gauntlet except at the cuff. Window shutters on a house, or just shutters?

Story time. Thirty years ago, my first Starbucks, I would go in for a cup of coffee. Now I go in for just a coffee, because what t'hell else are they gonna serve it in.

Going back to @Troones' original question, shortening the sleeves will not provide enough extra fabric to create gauntlet cuffs.

Read my post above about faux gauntlets.

The sleeve cannot simply be turned back for this effect. If that were the case, the patterns wouldn't match.

True, but pattern matching in this area means zero. No more than trying to match another turn-back feature, the lapel, with the cloth upon which it rests, not possible.


Now, following your somewhat tight a** view of tailoring terminology, consider renaming your (much admired) blog. The word suit is part of a phrase, not originally a word unto itself, a phrase that when I was a boy the craggy, old Down Easterners would still use, suit o'clothes.

 

[Matt S]

Basically because where else are you going to have a gauntlet except at the cuff. Window shutters on a house, or just shutters?

You have this backwards. The cuff is at the gauntlet, not the other way around. This would be the same as calling "window shutters" just "windows". That's why the way you shorten gauntlet cuffs makes no sense.

Read my post above about faux gauntlets.

I couldn't follow what you meant about "faux" gauntlet cuffs. All gauntlet cuffs I have ever seen are of two kinds.

There's the "laid-on" kind, which are cut independently of sleeve. They're either sewn inside the end of the sleeve and folded over or sewn only to the outside of the sleeve. They may be a half-gauntlet cuff where it's only on the outer half of the sleeve and sewn into the sleeve's seam.

The other kind of gauntlet cuff is the more traditional kind, which I've seen called the "formed" gauntlet cuff. The sleeve is made slightly longer, but it's folded back a few inches from the end and sewn in place. I've seen this on frock coats and military coats, and maybe highland dress too.

I have never seen one where the cuff is merely folded back or folded like trouser turn-ups.

True, but pattern matching in this area means zero. No more than trying to match another turn-back feature, the lapel, with the cloth upon which it rests, not possible.

You posted two examples where the pattern matching makes a big difference. Those jackets would look amateurish otherwise.

 

[Peak and Pine]

^
I gave the shutter example to clarify, not as a tool for you to muddy this further. In the example of window shutter, window is not an adjective describing shutter, it is an understood possessive, as in window's shutter, the word window being unnecessary when speaking in an architectural context. When gauntlet is used in reference to a jacket, as we're doing here, the word gauntlet is neither an adjective or a possessive. It is a noun. And I believe that nouns are the only words in the English language that can stand completely on their own, which is how I have used it. But It should be noted that its use is strictly metaphorical, in that the item we're discussing is not a gauntlet at all, but only resembles a gauntlet, in the same way that hounds tooth and herring bone are metaphorical and only resemble their name sakes. Don't hate me just because i'm exceedingly bright and smell really good. I have more to share with you regarding gauntlets, but I'm off to bed at the moment and Night Beat on SiriusXM 1940s classic radio awaits me under the covers.