Plaid flannel shirts are back ! It feels like high school to me when I see all this tartan in the stores. Of course, not many of us are wearing our washcloth with Doc Martens anymore ( remember those days ? ). I ’ ve purchased a few comfortable plaid flannel shirts, and I have one beef with them : flannel shrinks, so after a few washes the shirt still fits finely in width but ends up good a little besides short circuit. My solution ? Buy larger men ’ randomness shirts at the parsimony shop and take them in for the perfect match with a little extra length. today I ’ ll testify you how to take in a shirt the right way. It ’ s pretty childlike !

Take a spirit at the earlier and after of my flannel shirt. It constantly seems like I should fair be able to wear an outsize shirt and have it look cute – it surely looks cute when girls on television do it – but no, it doesn ’ thymine turn out that room. Oversized shirts just make me look, well, oversized. As you can see from the ahead photograph, the arms are excessively broad, the body of the shirt is besides wide, and the sleeves start besides far down on my shoulders .
I ’ ve seen batch of tutorials on taking in a shirt that tell you to good sew up the arms and back down the body – but you ’ ll actually get a much better match ( and more mobility in the arms ) with the method acting for taking in a shirt that I ’ ll display you today .
I like my new shirt – it ’ s just long enough to cover my rear when I wear skinny jeans .
How to make a shirt smaller
hera ’ s the right direction to take in a shirt ( or make a shirt smaller ) :
Lay your outsize shirt down on a flat surface, smoothing it out flat. Place a shirt that fits well directly on top of the larger shirt, making certain it is smoothed out wholly flat and not bunched up anywhere. Pull the sleeve inside the shirt as shown above so you can see the “ scoop ” of the armhole .
How to take in a shirt: cutting
Using the shirt that fits as a template, trim away the sleeves and excess on the sides to make the shirt smaller. BE sure to add seam allowance – more than I did would probably be good. ( For the best fit, you may want to add an extra half inch to the armholes on the back of the shirt only. As you can see, I didn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate do that, but it would have been a good idea. )
Trim away the excess on the other side as well, making certain they match .
Next you ’ ll want to cut down the sleeves. Lay your guide shirt on the crunch, this time smoothing out the sleeve. You ’ ll see that at the armhole seam the sleeve makes an s shape. It ’ mho crucial to smooth and spread that out equally much as possible, then use that as a guidebook for cutting your new sleeves .
When you cut new sleeves from the outsize shirt, don ’ thyroxine dilute through the cuffs. Most men ’ mho shirts have two buttons on the cuff so even if they are a little big you can just button them a act close and not have to worry about trying to sew them back together. Turn your sleeves inside out and sew them back together along the bottom. Turn the shirt inside out and sew both sides together .
How to take in a shirt: sewing
immediately all you need to do is set the sleeves back in. Leaving the shirt inside out, turn the sleeves right side out. Place the shirt and one sleeve as you see in the photograph below, making certain the buttons on the cuff are toss off toward the table ( if they ’ re up, you need to switch sleeves ). Slide the sleeve inside the armhole, as shown in the second photograph below .
Match up the raw edges of the sleeve and armhole, easing the material to fit. Pin well, then sew .
repeat with the other sleeve, press your seams, and your modern smaller shirt is fix to wear !
note : if you ’ ra looking for information on how to size down a traffic pattern travel to this post from Melly Sews, .
Want more sewing tutorials? Check out these posts:
20 free jersey patterns
easy swing dress blueprint
Swing tunic sewing traffic pattern for women
How to sew a half set skirt
20 sewing projects for beginners