Question about having a shirt tailored

[AL-Ump]

I've heard on the forum that the MLB guys (and some of you) have your shirts tailored and I thought that this would be a great time to make an investment into myself.  With the new softball uniforms coming out in January, why not have them tailored to look so fresh and so clean clean (OutKast reference)?  I'll only need a handful of shirts since there will be no more conference logos - so the cost shouldn't be too bad.  Once I have the 4-8 shirts done, they should last me for several years.  Look the best to be the best - the motto of a local shirt vendor.

Sorry I'm not cultured, but I have a naïve question:

If I want to have a shirt tailored, what do I need to tell the seamstress?   I've never had tailoring done before...to ANY garment other than my umpire pants. I know with the pants there are some tricks of the trade - leave them very long in back, the tapered front to back cuff.  Anything special I need to tell her?

[eagle_12]

I haven’t had it done but I think a lot of the tailoring is cleaning up the armpit and sleeves. Sometimes the sleeves are too long, or too wide (biceps don’t quite fill it up), and the armpit is droopy (like the seat area on pants) 
 

in the body of the shirt the panels throw a wrinkle in I’d think. You would want to maintain the width integrity as best you can so they may need to trim in a different area than they might normally take from. 

[MadMax]

1 hour ago, AL-Ump said:

I've heard on the forum that the MLB guys (and some of you) have your shirts tailored and I thought that this would be a great time to make an investment into myself.

The MLB guys have every part of their uniforms tailored, by default. Prior to Dick Honig’s retirement and the consolidation of the shops & assets into the one-box entity that got purchased and located in Denver, CO, all those tasks and coordination was handled by Honig’s (out of the Ann Arbor HQ). While Majestic and Fechheimer became the official clothiers, Honig’s began to build those tailor-able traits into their own uniform pieces. Collars were smaller and trimmer, sleeves were longer but narrower, and the overall lengths of the torsos were longer and tapered.  The pants were sleeker in the thigh (on the Bases version, at least) and were slimmer in the shin. 

The college guys – especially those in the Power conferences on TV – loved them, and would have them tailored further, especially at the arms and waist. They would have specific plate and base shirts, with the standard sleeve length on the plate shirt, and then taken up on the base shirt. Honig’s CP design was an outgrowth of this tailored philosophy, too. If you notice, Honig’s didn’t make a CP with an exposed carapace plate. Why’s that? Well, what happens to the shirt when it’s sandwiched between a hard plastic carapace plate and an impacting baseball? 🤔 A bruise or cut to the shirt… that you spent all that time getting tailored. 😩

You all can now see why many umpires, especially college guys, fiercely defend using one shirt color and style. And, why stand-alone patches, which could either be stuck on or magnet-ed on, became the preferred method of identification over the direct embroidery 🧵 (which HS associations latched onto so as to squeeze their members for additional money… I don’t care how much heat you blast me with, they do it, you know they do it). 

So if you’re looking to get your shirts tailored, depending on what model of CP you have, consider having separate plate and base shirts. I don’t necessarily do this; I have my Schutt MaXV so trimmed down that I use any/all my shirts in both roles. The condition of the shirt (bruising) usually dictates whether I use it plate or base. With that said, I try and keep my Majestics and Honigs for bases, and let my Smittys get beaten on plate! Wear your shirts in to have your tailor / seamstress see and measure it on you. Take in a taper it at the waist, adjust the sleeves, and consider tacking down the collar points. 

For the pants, the alteration you’re looking for is a “parade break” – law enforcement and military uniforms do this. Some umpires will request a permanent crease to be laid down (vertically). My hems are broad and stitched in with a “ghost” thread; my plate pants have a double stitch at the front where the pant leg could get snagged on the shin guards.