New flight jacket too blouse-y? Try this.

[rumblefish]

I tried something on my G&B MK 43 horsehide A-2 that might be applied to any new flight jacket that suffers from being to blousy. It also worked to remedy a tunneling problem I had at the wrist knits.

For the waist knit I simply sprayed water on the knit on both sides until it was thoroughly damp, not dripping. I then stretched out the waistband as far as it would go without pulling on the leather, and draped it over a wing back chair and left it to dry.

For the wrists I did the same wetting step and pushed in a tapered water glasses to the point where the knits were the same circumference as the leather sleeve. Then I them let dry.

The tunneling on the sleeves was so bad that the knits would turn themselves completely inside and disappear even though the leather wasn't laying on my wrist. It wasn't just a length issue because, now that I've done this it's given room to the wool sleeve to ride a little more on my hand and not allow it to push back into the sleeve and my forearm. I you were to look at the sleeve length on me before it would seem to be too long. Now that you can see all of the knits and all of my hands when I have the jacket on, it appears to be a good length.

As for the waist, instead of puckering the leather up around me and blousing, it sort of drapes a little nicer and lets the leather lay just a bit more closely to my body.

Chris M.

 

[Feraud]

So the jacket is too blousy because the knits are too tight?

I thought a blousy looks is because the jacket leather is cut too full?

 

[Fletch]

I think it's the same principle as wearing your hair long to make your ears look smaller. The blousy fit is still there, but the less tight knitting doesn't accentuate it.