You probably have one, lurking there in the back of your closet: The "nice suit" you'd wear if only it were, well, stylish. Maybe it's a relic from your first days as a Business Professional. Maybe it was an impulse buy.

"I see so many people buying suits just to fill the closet, but they never wear them," says Christopher Kim, owner of an eponymous Washington tailoring shop. "They end up being too good to throw away but too uncomfortable to wear."

What to do with all those wool crepe missteps? A tailor may be able to give your sloppy jackets or baggy slacks a new lease on life. In many cases, whipping a suit into shape can cost as little as basic alterations: $25 to $30 to slim down a pair of too-wide trousers, say, or give long sleeves a cute crop. Then again, if your suit needs a major overhaul, you might be better off paying for a new one.

Here are six style problems that can plague an old suit, with tips to help you decide whether to stitch it or ditch it.

FOR WOMEN

THE '80s JACKET. Sport wide, padded shoulders and saggy sleeves, and you might as well be wearing parachute pants, too. One more-stylish alternative: The cropped-sleeve jacket, which showed up on spring runways from Christian Dior to Chanel. Most sleeves can be easily altered to achieve the cropped look, but if a tailor has to alter the shoulder construction to get that scaled-down effect, things can get costly.

"Taking out shoulder pads is not as simple as you might think," says seamstress Irma de Scandiffio of Arlington, Va. "Newer jackets have smaller pads that are easier to remove, but older ones are bulky and hard to work with."

WIDE-LEG AND/OR PLEATED PANTS. Suit pants have slimmed down considerably over the past several seasons. As for major pleats? They're all but obsolete. A tailor or seamstress can streamline your wide pant legs for the price of basic alterations, even if they have a busy pinstripe or plaid pattern. Pleats, on the other hand, are generally a lost cause.

"To take out pleats, it has to be a good-quality pair of slacks — we're talking a thousand-dollar suit," de Scandiffio says. "It's expensive to move a waistband, so if you don't love the pants, it's not worth it."

THE DROOPY, DOWDY SKIRT. Skirts are inching above the knee for spring. But don't give up hope if your favorite suit includes a now-dated ankle-length skirt. This is usually a routine alteration. Many tailors alter women's as well as men's clothing, but often they'll recommend going to a seamstress (most of whom work exclusively with women's clothes) for skirts and dresses. (Some tailoring shops have an in-house seamstress or can recommend an independent one.)

"Men's suits are more of a science," says Hamza Simrick, an Arlington tailor. Women's, by contrast, are an art: "Each piece is a little bit different," he says. This is especially true if your figure is curvy; seamstresses have more experience fitting waists and hips of varying dimensions. Discuss your style and skirt-length preferences beforehand to determine whether that A-line or pencil shape you're aiming for is attainable.

FOR MEN

THE LINEBACKER JACKET. Nothing says "kid playing dress-up" like a too-big blazer. "When you buy an off-the-rack jacket, it should be the perfect size," Washington tailor Georges de Paris says.

De Paris, who has crafted custom suits for every president since Lyndon Johnson, says the jacket's shoulder is the most tedious area to alter. Taking in one or two sizes is manageable: going from a 44 to a 42, for example. Once you're talking three or more sizes, though, consider a new get-up.

BAGGY, CUFFED PANTS. Tempted by the au courant skinny suit but plagued by a closet full of loose, cuffed trousers? When it comes to tailoring, too-big pants do offer a little more wiggle room than supersized jackets: "Pants are easier to alter, and you can have up to about three inches of extra fabric" in the waistband, Kim says. If you need to slim your slacks by more than three inches, though, you're better off buying a new pair.

Removing a cuff is an easy task for a tailor, but keep in mind that the material under the fold may seem darker on an older suit and will be visible once the cuff is unfolded.

THE ALL-WORK, NO-PLAY SUIT. Lend an overly square suit some style by adding a colorful lining, working buttons or pickstitching.

"I find that guys are really afraid of color," says Matt Landsberg, co-owner of Eric Finn Custom Clothiers in Washington. Landsberg sports brightly colored custom linings on his suits. It's a simple alteration on most jackets, though the price can vary depending on the quality of the lining fabric.

Working buttons, a trademark of high-end suits, involve a tailor creating buttonholes, which look great but can be pricey. Craving a less expensive fashion fix? Consider pickstitching, which personalizes a jacket with contrasting stitches around lapels and pockets — and costs about half as much as adding custom linings or working buttons.