Frumpy Shirt Refashion and Tutorial

Ever realize you haven’t posted a guest post?  This was one from Cheri’s blog, I Am Momma—Hear Me Roar, during her Refashionista even last fall.  Thought I’d bring it on home!

I found this thrifted shirt that was too big and a bit frumpy, and turned it into something that I love. The tie-neck was what appealed to me initially so I kept that feature and got to work on the rest.

I’m sure there are more correct ways of altering a shirt to fit, but here is how I do it every time. First, I needed to take in the sides and the arms were a bit too large as well. I like to try on the shirt and get an idea how much I need to take off. Remember that it is always better to sew little by little—I’d much rather not have to unpick! You can see how I curve the stitching so that I will get a better fit around the bust and waist.

Try it on and see if you still need to take it in a bit. I needed to and so I just stitched with my pressure foot edge along the already-stitched line. This way it’s little by little and I don’t end up taking the shirt in too much. Repeat on other side of shirt.

Now for the shoulder seams. It was too large on the shoulders, so I took the top of the sleeve and sewed about a 1/4” stitch from the original seam.

You can see I only sewed about 2”- 3” down either side of the middle of the shoulder. Since I’m not sewing too far in, the sleeve will still have that nice gathered portion at the shoulder.

Next we’ll do the sleeves. I cut off the bottom portion first. Then I cut a 4” piece of the sleeve to use as the cuff. So you’ll have two pieces now for the sleeve cuffs.

I figured out where I wanted the cuff to fall and measured around my arm to make sure it would be big enough.

I pinned the cuff where it needed to be sewn to fit my arm, and zig-zag stitched the edge after cutting off the excess (next 3 pictures).

I folded each cuff in half so the wrong sides were together, right sides out, still forming a circle.

I tried on the shirt again and took note where I wanted the shirt to fall, minus the cuff portion and cut off the excess fabric.

See how my cuff is smaller than my sleeve?

I sewed a basting stitch around the arm-hole and gather by pulling on the strings until it is the same size as the cuff.

I pinned the cuff onto the gathered portion, matching up seams and placing the raw edges together evenly.

I stitched 1/4” and zig-zag or serge the edges to help control fraying.

And there you have it! A really easy way to refashion a shirt. It looks much better now!
Even better belted.

And my favorite—with a cardigan and belt!

Such a quick and easy refashion!  So next time you see a shirt that has great fabric or great details, don’t pass it up because the fit isn’t right or it’s too big.  Chances are you can work with it for a few minutes for something great!