In today’s post: Learn the right way to take in a shirt so you can make a large shirt smaller and still have it look great!
Plaid flannel shirts are back! It feels like high school to me when I see all this plaid in the stores. Of course, not many of us are wearing our flannel with Doc Martens anymore (remember those days?). I’ve purchased a few comfy plaid flannel shirts, and I have one beef with them: flannel shrinks, so after a few washes the shirt still fits fine in width but ends up just a little too short. My solution? Buy larger men’s shirts at the thrift store and take them in for the perfect fit with a little extra length. Today I’ll show you how to take in a shirt the right way. It’s pretty simple!
Take a look at the before and after of my flannel shirt. It always seems like I should just be able to wear an oversized shirt and have it look cute – it sure looks cute when girls on TV do it – but no, it doesn’t turn out that way. Oversized shirts just make me look, well, oversized. As you can see from the before photo, the arms are too wide, the body of the shirt is too wide, and the sleeves start too far down on my shoulders.
I’ve seen plenty of tutorials on taking in a shirt that tell you to just sew up the arms and back down the body – but you’ll actually get a much better fit (and more mobility in the arms) with the method for taking in a shirt that I’ll show you today.
I like my new shirt – it’s just long enough to cover my backside when I wear skinny jeans.
How to make a shirt smaller
Here’s the right way to take in a shirt (or make a shirt smaller):
Lay your oversized shirt down on a flat surface, smoothing it out flat. Place a shirt that fits well directly on top of the larger shirt, making sure it is smoothed out completely 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 guide, 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’t do that, but it would have been a good idea.)
Trim away the excess on the other side as well, making sure they match.
Next you’ll want to cut down the sleeves. Lay your guide shirt on the ground, this time smoothing out the sleeve. You’ll see that at the armhole seam the sleeve makes an S shape. It’s important to smooth and spread that out as much as possible, then use that as a guide for cutting your new sleeves.
When you cut new sleeves from the oversized shirt, don’t cut through the cuffs. Most men’s shirts have two buttons on the cuff so even if they are a little large you can just button them a bit tighter 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
Now 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 photo below, making sure the buttons on the cuff are down toward the table (if they’re up, you need to switch sleeves). Slide the sleeve inside the armhole, as shown in the second photo 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 new smaller shirt is ready to wear!
Note: if you’re looking for info on how to size down a pattern visit this post from Melly Sews, .
Want more sewing tutorials? Check out these posts:
Swing tunic sewing pattern for women
How to sew a half circle skirt
20 sewing projects for beginners
Keri says
TLDR: just altered x3 shirts perfectly! They look great!
My first ever try and I’m amazed and full of confidence! I am a caregiver and smocks new my size are SO expensive, I go through one a day! So I buy whatever I can find at a thrift store. And I look frumpy and unprofessional but most of my clients aren’t cognitive so I got away with it. Until the overage of fabric actually got in the way yesterday during training. How embarrassing!! Your tutorial seemed to be the most functional and didn’t require cutting up a well fitting shirt either (?!)
I am still not sure what to do with the overage of fabric around the shoulders. I tried to spread it out among the pit area, if i could do it symmetrical it would look so great on or near the shoulders.
I got so confident that I also gave darts under my natural bust and it gave the garment the finishing touch.
There was one problem I had, one of the smocks had an a-line and it became tifjt in the hips, so I slit up the sides 4 inches and hemmed the flare it looks purposefull!
I’m going to ALL the size racks now, not just mine. This is so fun! I haven’t been confident about seeing on this scale in.. well forever! I’ll be sure to follow the site. Thanks more than you can imagine for helping me in more than one way.
Joanna Yong says
I know this is years later but hoping I can get a reply.
I have a couple shirts (I think they’re mens) I’m trying to resize to one of my old favorites that fits well. My problem is that when I get everything spread out to cut off the too-big sleeve and down the side, the armhole from the old shirt extends into the sleeve of the big shirt. I have too move the old shirt down an inch to get the armhole off the big shirt’s sleeve. Any ideas of what to do?
Otherwise, this is a great idea and very helpful tutorial. I really hope I can make it work because I really need some more shirts, my old ones are wearing out.
autumn says
Probably your best bet will be to just cut the armhole a little bit bigger (so it comes down lower) so you can avoid cutting into the sleeve on the bigger shirt. If you do that, you will also need to cut the top of the sleeve a little bit bigger as well so it will fit when you sew it back into the armhole. The will result in a little roomier fit under the arms than the shirt you are using for a pattern, but hopefully it will still work. Good luck!
Keri says
Oh! that’s why my arms had an excess of fabric upon reattachment. I tried to spread it out under the pit area, where it wouldn’t be as noticeable. I am neither skilled nor patient so I could have done better but by the 3rd shirt it was unnoticeable.
Lastly it’s not that hard to take a sleeve off and try again. I sewed the sleeve on wrong side out on my first reattach attempt, and i got it off without trouble to try again.
Debi says
What an excellent guide! Not only are your photos easy to help visualize, but your wording could stand alone! Well done! This definitely has helped me ?