My Original Stitch Experience: Unfortunately Zero for Two

Medical experts often suggest that we should not be using the WebMD site. They fear that we are attempting to self-diagnose our illnesses when we really should be relying on expert care from doctors. Perhaps obtaining bespoke clothing falls in the same category. I am zero for two in trying to get a perfect fit.

Recall my original blog article:

Read the blog post.

I had not taken my measurements carefully enough. Luckily, Original Stitch allows each customer to have one mulligan — a do-over because they recognize that sometimes these things happen. Although I have comfortable worn 16"-34" inch shirts off-the-rack for as long as I can remember, my free replacement shirt from Original Stitch is better, but not great.

My sleeves as too short. As far as I know, my arms are the same length, yet one sleeve seems shorter than the other.

This problem is a manufacturing defect and not my fault. Successful bespoke clothing creation is a partnership between customer and manufacturer. To verify what the problem was, I took my favorite shirt for the past 15 years. It was a gift from my sister-in-law, Becky Eiermann. It is a 16"-34" shirt.

I was not sure how shirt sleeve lengths were measured, so I laid a yardstick on the shirt.

I found that the sleeves measured 34" from the center of the shirt.

So I did the same thing with my replacement shirt from Original Stitch:

I found that one sleeve was 32".

The other sleeve was 33".

This was perplexing since I specified 34" sleeve lengths for the original short and its replacement. I really think this is a manufacturing defect. Should I start my own #BoycottOriginalStitch hash tag? :-)

Another issue is second button placement — who knew that was a thing? Since I am not Don Johnson, normally I just leave the top button unbuttoned.

My wife says it looks like the shirt is choking me, so she insists that I leave the top two buttons unbuttoned:

If I ever wear this short, I guess I'll have to make sure to either wear an appropriate undershirt or go to a disco. I could live with that, but the sleeve length is a deal breaker. Maybe I need to roll them up?

I think my best course of action is to visit a store, try on a shirt, and if it fits, buy it.

The reality computing team at Autodesk refers to a RIP MOD FAB process where an original is captured, modified, and fabricated to create something new from something old. The RIP part typically involves scanning or photogrammetry to get an accurate representation of the original. This seems essential. When the capture process is unaided by technology, it does not turn out so well.

We might have a way to go before all bespoke product creation reaches that level of maturity; however, for his November 2^nd birthday, we gave our son a gift certificate to MTailor.com.

MTailor uses video from a person's smartphone to capture a person's dimensions to create a perfectly fitting shirt. I'll report back on how that turns out for him. Hopefully, with technology on his side, he'll have better luck than I did. I am still not sure where the Original Stitch process went wrong.

Learning from failure is alive in the lab.