Tying in to my first Style It Chic! post from yesterday regarding the denim work shirt as current closet staple, in this post I’m going to show you how to fix that denim shirt you stole from your guy – or thrifted – into something that fits you properly.
As many of you know, I love finding both my materials and base items for my DIYs at the thrift store. I’m always searching out the biggest, baggiest shirts (so I have tons of material to work with!) for my shirt re-cons. Thus what I find is rarely pretty, and rarely fits. It’s always the potential for a remake that gets me so excited.
So what to do with those shirts that you find – that you want to wear yourself – but aren’t quite your size?? You’re going to be keeping the sleeves and the length, let’s say, but why doesn’t the shirt look like it fits right? And what to do?
Can you tell what it is that’s making my shirt look too big in the above photo?
This brings me to my first Fitting Tip, the most critical for making your shirt look like it’s the right size:
I cannot stress this one enough. This is what makes the difference visually between “she’s wearing her boyfriend’s shirt” and “she’s wearing a cute shirt that fits her.”
We’ve all tried on a guy’s shirt before, right? And, invariably the seam connecting the sleeve to the shirt (called the “armscye seam”) will be hanging off our shoulders, lying somewhere on our upper arms.
This is a DEAD GIVEAWAY that your shirt doesn’t fit you!!
Even if the body is un-fitted, loose-fit, billowy tunic, whatever…if this seam is in the wrong place on your body then it will look like it is the WRONG SIZE FOR YOU!
When looking at yourself standing normally, this seam needs to be as close as possible to traveling straight up from your armpit to your shoulder, in a straight line. (Raglan or set-in sleeves are different, and there is a little variation to be had when you’re dealing with a blouson, caftan, or loose blouse or dress but in general this seam needs to be in that basic area.)
The closer this seam is to going straight up from your armpit – the more fitted and chic the garment will look. Even a t-shirt will look flattering and feminine if the sleeves are attached to the body at this line.
The body is far less important than this armscye seam in Fitting Tip #1. There are more variations when it comes to the shape and size of the body piece, so words like always or never aren’t very useful here. Again, in general if the body is too loose right at the underarms, the piece will look big and billowy on you, even if the armscye seams are in the right place.
So how to re-fit your shirt?
You Need:
*seam ripper
*marking chalk
*pins
*scissors
*sewing machine & needle for the fabric in your shirt
*thread matching the topstitching thread in your shirt
*mirror
1. Remove both sleeves by opening the armscye seams. Do not rip or cut through either the sleeves or the shirt body. Often button-down woven shirts have topstitched seams, so you’ll have to go through both rows of stitching to pull the arms off fully.
Remove all the little messy threads from your ripping.
All ready to go!
2. Try the shirt on and button it up. Looking in the mirror, mark where your shoulder seam SHOULD be, by drawing a straight line up from your armpit to your shoulder. Mark at the shoulder. (Note: I actually did this prior to taking off the sleeves, but it’s probably more logical to mark the seam after removing the sleeves.)
3. Take the shirt off and lay flat. Add 3/8″ to the outside of the mark on the shoulder. Draw the new armscye by mimicking the shape of the old one. Copy the marks to the other armscye as well.
4.
Cut off the excess fabric.
5. Try on the shirt again, buttoning it up and putting it on inside-out. Now the vest-like shape of it should look right – at least at the shoulder area. Pin at one side to make it more fitted.
6. Take off the shirt and mark at the pins. Remove them. Draw a line of “best fit” to connect the marks your made. Copy your markings to the other side as well.
8. Sew along the lines you drew and trim the excess. Now the shirt should fit your body properly. (I’m wearing a shirt underneath, so it looks like it’s very fitted in the photo above, but it’s actually loose when I wear it as a single layer.)
9. Now that the shirt fits you in the body, it’s time to reattach the arms. Turn the shirt inside-out and place one sleeve inside it, right sides together. Pin the armcap of the sleeve to the armscye of the shirt, all the way around.
10. Sew the sleeves to the body. If necessary, topstitch both armscyes on the body side to re-create the finished look of the original shirt.
And you’re done! The manly shirt (or too-big women’s shirt!) should now fit you pretty well – and not look like you just stole from your guy’s wardrobe.
With this method it’s unfortunate, but the sleeves will end up slightly shorter than those of the original shirt. It really can’t be helped, which is why I try to find my big shirts with too-long sleeves if I can.
In some cases, when you go to re-attach the arms you will find that there is too much excess fabric in the sleeve cap to fit into your smaller armscye. You have one of two options:
1) Make the sleeve smaller by sewing the sleeve seam closer together. (not pictured, but it’s pretty self-exaplanatory)
2) Match the sleeve seam to the shirt body side seam while pinning, and gather or ease the excess fabric at the sleeve cap to create a “puffed-sleeve” look.
When altering this particular shirt, I used Method #2 and ended up with sleeves that are slightly puffy at the shoulders.
This can be done with anything that has the sleeves set incorrectly for your frame: t-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, button-downs, dresses – anything!! Hope this expands your options when shopping at the thrift store and alerts you to fitting issues before you buy something that doesn’t fit you well!
xoxox
Carly
Carly,
I am so happy I found your blog! I've been following for about a year and yours is one of the fashion blogs I find the most value in…fun, practical and inspirational stuff all rolled into one. Thanks for posting such great stuff!
Rebecca
Thanks so much. I've always been too intimidated to alter shoulders, and at the same time I hate droopy shoulders. This is the clearest, simplest explanation I've seen.
Informative. Live it!!!
Style while roaming in Manori Beach
Reminds me of a big argument I had with my friend in Paris when I opted for a knee high boots & he was like 'Where will u wear in India?'… Still a knee high boots is a must in wardrobe, dont u think so?
Style while roaming in Manori Beach
Oh, I love how you styled it in the middle, in the last photo! Excellent post – I often see fantastic prints in old men's shirts… this is helpful. Now only if I could sew!!
nice job. I would have totally just put darts in it, lol because arm holes ALWAYS frustrate me …as do waist bands and zippers. yuck. So nice job!
Wow, such a detailed post! That's awesome!!
http://thechicaddict.blogspot.com
Great tut! The process looks less scary than I thought too! Bonus.
Have had my eye on one of hubby's shirts for a while now, so will definitely be using this. Thanks.
Or, you could just buy a shirt that fits you?
great job! Love it
xx
wonderful!
Thanks to providing
Scarves Scarves
Thank you so much for this tutorial!!! My husband isn’t a large man but has a rather large neck so when we get him dress shirts to fit his neck size they are GIGANTIC on him everywhere else. He’s been asking me to alter his dress shirts and I had no idea how to go about it.
No problem!:-) The one thing to keep in mind, though – when you re-attach the sleeves – is that the arm-holes may become a lot larger or smaller when you take in the sides of the shirt, and you may have to re-situate the sleevecaps to fit properly. You definitely don’t want to add any gathers or pleats at the tops of the sleevecaps when doing this for a guy (as I did) since it looks really feminine…the sleeve ease (if it exists) should probably be down in the armpit area to allow more ease of movement, and hide any gathers that are created so the shirt doesn’t scream girly. Good luck with it!!:-D
Thanks for this tutorial! I’ve been looking for one the whole day on how to raise the armhole area and this is the most informative by far with all the step by step photos.
I have some questions though… in the three photos where you say “Re-draw armscye to shoulder pin, add 3/8 to the outside, and cut off the excess,” I noticed that you didn’t cut off the front and back part exactly the same. There’s a bit of material from the back sleeve still showing through. Was this deliberate? So the back part should be left a little bit wider than the front you cut off?
Thanks for the help!
Hi JC! Lovely to see you here!
Yes, cutting the front and the back differently was absolutely deliberate!:-) If you look at most shirts you have, or any patterns for shirts in general, the shape of the armscye on the back bodice is fairly straight up-and-down (except for a small curve right at the armpit area); whereas on the front bodice piece there is a significant curve at the underarm area that extends forward a bit. This is to allow freedom of movement, since our arms spend most of the time moving in a forwards arc, and not backwards, and you need the extra fabric at the front of the sleeve cap to accommodate. Kathleen Fasanella, a patternmaker and consultant who has written THE how-to bible for starting a clothing line as a designer-entrepreneur, details this patternmaking issue in her book and on her blog a great deal. Her site is a great resource for those “how do I…?” or “why does this fit like this?” questions and definitely check it out if you’re interested in patterns and fit!
Good luck!
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I still refer to this tutorial all the time.
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Love it. you look great!!! I’ve been doing this all wrong!
Thank you so much for this great tutorial!!! I have been trying to alter all these mens shirts I’ve found at yard sales and the shoulders always turn out so weird! I am definitely going to try out your method!
This is great! I just got a shirt that I’m wearing in a rodeo next weekend and it’s way too big. Will certainly be trying this.
I’m a thrift-store shopper and keep finding blouses w/ fabric and colors I LOVE… in the XL section. I’m a S or M, depending. But I’m also a sewer, which leads me astray. I have developed a pile of tops, which wait next to my sewing maching. This article is perfect and the most detailed one I have found, so I am ready to give it a try. I plan on using a blouse that fits the way I like as a measurement for the sides & the arm width. Setting the sleeves will be the challenge I think, as they are huge in width. But hey, got to start somewhere! THANKS SO MUCH for this great step by step article!!!
You’re welcome! When the arms are so much larger than the body of the shirt, I’ve found that sometimes I’ve had to sew a line from the cuff to the armpit *inside* the original sleeve seam, at a sharper angle towards the armpit, to make the sleeves slimmer. It’s a good idea to place the sleeve cap around the armscye to mark how much excess width the sleeve had before sewing it. Hope that helps you get a jump on all the thrift store refashioning you have – sounds like fun! Good luck
How do you draw the armscye correctly? Where do I start? And is there a proper measurement?
Tried this on a man’s Pendleton wool shirt to fit me. Altered shoulders,side seams and length. Also made sleeve width smaller. I used one of my shirts that fits to get sleeve width and length, pit to pit meas. and torso length. Thanks for your advice.
You’re welcome! Hope your shirt turned out well!