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Skinny-fying a hand-me-down

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a photo and just a few words.

making a shirt skinnier

Sometimes previously-owned shirts have gotten short and wide, and cutting them down to a smaller size fixes the problem handily.

The shirt on top, which fits Sonia, is what I used to help me pattern the reshaping of the hand-me-down shirt.

You may notice that I’ve already done something to the top shirt to extend its life. It used to have long sleeves (the faux-layered look), but they were made of very thin fabric that sprouted premature holes. So, I cut them off, and only when the shirt is inside out can you see the remnants of the former sleeves.

(Sonia just layers it with a long-sleeved white shirt when she wants to wear this in the winter.)

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Joshua’s 365 post: Jellyfish!

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Emily

Thursday 9th of January 2014

The arm holes seem to be in very different places on those two shirts--how do you use the top shirt as a pattern in that case? Do you make the bottom one skinny but curve back out to the arm hole?

Kristen

Thursday 9th of January 2014

I actually sew all the way up and make the arm skinnier too, if that makes sense.

Lili@creativesavv

Thursday 9th of January 2014

One of my daughters is very slim and we encounter this problem with thrift shop t-shirts frequently. I do the same thing with the shirts she finds that she likes, take them in along side seams.

Kristen -- Do you cut off the excess fabric in the sides? I've been leaving the fabric in the shirt (after taking in the seam, does that make sense?), for fear that the side seam would begin to come undone. I don't have a serger or anything fancy for a machine, so the best that I can do is overcast cut edges with zigzag. Advice?

Kristen

Thursday 9th of January 2014

Yep, I do! If the fabric is knit, as it was in this case, it won't unravel. If it's woven fabric, then you'd want to zig-zag the edges.

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