Fixed my pleat problem - sorta...

[Panama Tom Jr.]

I have been plagued with the fact that, due to my annoyingly narrow shoulders, the pleats on my Raiders jacket sag open, creating the appearance of large gaps in the top of the pleats. I had tried to see if there were any alterations that Wested could do, but they said no. As I got to thinking, I seemed to remember that my first Raiders jacket, which I sold, did not seem to have the same issue, or at least not as noticeably - even though it was a larger jacket. The only difference other than size that I could think of was that I had elastic put in the pleats of my current Raiders. I worked up the nerve, made a small hole in the seam of the inside liner, and removed the elastic. Believe it or not, it reduced the appearence of a the gap in the top of the pleat. The way I figure it is the elastic kept the inside of the pleats drawn toward each other (which it's supposed to do,) which accentuated the appearence of a gap. The sag is still there, but without the elastic the leather inside of the pleat relaxes out to fill in the gap of the pleats...
The left is with elastic, the right without...

[Heirphoto]

The pleats are the only thing I hate about my Wested. Love the look and feel of the jacket but I guess it's just my build that makes the pleats buldge open at the top. I just hate the profile view of the jacket.

I did not get the elastic and wonder if I should have. The only saving grace is that it still fitas way etter than my old US Wings Indy jacket.

Tony

[Swindiana]

I had the same problem with the first jacket I sent back. It had the elastics. The problem was solved on the second one, though they had forgotten the elastics on that one. I'm not sure what else they altered to make it work better, but there you go.
The second shot looks a whole lot better I think. Well done!

Regards,
Swindiana