So I had this shirt:
(Sorry for the bad lighting, but there wasn't a better place to do it.) In case you can't tell from the pictures, this shirt was very long on me and quite baggy. Especially around the lower arm area (which I tried to illustrate in my second picture, not sure how well that went).
So I took it upon myself to make it better, and I'm going to show you how I did that and how to avoid some pitfalls I encountered. First, I took a shirt that I own that fit me well:
Then I turned both shirts inside out (you should probably iron them if they're wrinkly) and lined them up. Pitfall one: Make sure to line the collars up exactly. I mean, there can be a little bit of extra space on one side, but it shouldn't be more than a few centimeters. Basically, it should look perfectly even when you're using the naked eye.
Pitfall two: Make sure both shirts are laid out flat on the ground. This is especially hard to tell if the shirts don't have side seams, so be aware of that. My purple shirt had seams on the side, so that was easy to figure out, but I messed up a bit with the black one because it didn't. Just be careful there.
Next, you're going to take a Sharpie (I used another kind of marker so that it would show up on my black shirt, but a Sharpie should work for basically any other color shirt) and basically trace your "good" shirt onto the shirt that doesn't fit as well. This is where making sure you avoided pitfall two comes in handy. (You can see in the second picture how much of the sleeve I didn't need. XD)
Pitfall three: Do not trace the pattern shirt (the purple one in my case) exactly onto the other shirt. You want to leave half an inch or more "wiggle room." More than an inch is probably excessive, though. This is to ensure you don't accidentally sew the shirt too tight on the edges.
Once you're done tracing the sides of the shirt, you're going to want to draw a line from where the side ends to where the sleeve ends. As you can see from the picture, I started my straight line a little below the end of my side line and I'm very thankful I did.
The key is the same as the one in pitfall three - you can always make it tighter, you can't always make it looser. You also want this line to stay straight to the top of the sleeve (on the right in the picture above).
Next, you're going to pin the shirt in preparation for cutting it. I'd choose the side that you like the line of the best (the line you drew, that is), and then keep that side on top to actually use as a template. This will ensure that your shirt is even and symmetrical.
Pitfall four: Be sure that the shirt doesn't shift while you're cutting it. This is why I recommend you stick a few pins in there - so the shirt doesn't move. this will again help with the symmetrical-ness of your shirt and all that. Once you have the pins in there, go ahead and cut away!
Next, you're going to divide the two sides of the shirt so it can lay flat again. (DO NOT sew it while it's pinned in half. That will not end well.) The key to this part is to try and keep the shirt exactly as it was when it was pinned together, just now separated into two layers. Take your time with this part.
Pitfall five: Make the seams on your sleeves line up. You want it to be as near perfect as possible. If this doesn't happen, you'll have to resew and seam rip a lot of stuff near the underarm area because it'll bunch up and all sorts of stuff (learned this the hard way).
Now you can start sewing. I used black thread because my shirt was black, and if your shirt is white, you should probably use white thread. But if it's a stranger color (like aqua or the purple color of my other shirt), white should do just fine. You'll only see a tiny bit on the very bottom hem.
I included the first picture to show you that not even someone who's been sewing for eight years does it perfectly. If this happens, it probably means your bobbin isn't attached correctly (the little circular thing full of thread that goes under your needle). That was my problem here.
Then just sew! Start at the end of the sleeve, and go all the way to the bottom. I tried to make sure that the right edge of my foot (the metal thing-y) stayed on the edge of my fabric, and I think that gave me a pretty good seam all around.
At this point, I took a break to turn it inside out and put it on. It's looking a lot better here (sorry for the lighting again) but it's still really long. So guess what you do next?
Yep! Cut the bottom off and re-hem it. I only cut about an inch to two inches off, but depending on how long your shirt is, you might need to cut more or less. (Or if it's the perfect length, you don't need to cut anything off!)
Then you hem the bottom! Pitfall six: Do not just fold the edge over and sew. You want to fold it twice and then pin it together so that there is a clean edge on the inside of your hem. That's especially important with the knit fabric this shirt is made out of (and most shirts are made out of). If you don't fold it twice, it will curl up all weird on the inside. Not cool.
But at the same time, don't make this hem too thick. It should still be thin so you don't accidentally make the shirt bottom too high.
Pitfall seven: Make sure your hems are even on both sides before you sew. This is so easy to have not happen, and a pain to fix after you sew.The first picture is before I fixed it, and the second picture if after I did. You can see how the bottom hem doesn't stick out so much anymore. It's not a huge deal if it only sticks out a few centimeters, but more than that is probably not okay.
Then sew and iron! Pitfall eight: Make sure to sew on the left side of the hem and not on the right side. If you sew on the right you might not catch the part that's folded under and that causes a bunch of problems.
One quick note is that I decided not to make the sleeves any shorter because I was happy with the length. If you do want to do that, just do exactly what you did for the bottom hem to hem the sleeves. Super easy.
The last step is to iron your bottom hem (and your sleeve hems if you did those). Then you can try on your shirt for a final picture! (Or just try it on if you're not taking pictures like I was. XD)
Moved to a new spot in an attempt to get better lighting. Not sure how well it worked, but hopefully you can tell the shirt fits way better.
And that's it for today! Hope you enjoyed this little crafty/how-to post, and I'll see you next time I post!!
~Anna
That's so cool! I should try that on some of my oversized shirts.
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