February 26, 2014

Tutorial: Turn a Plain T-shirt into a Fitted Tee


 
 
 
 
 


 
Skill level: Beginner    Time: about 30 minutes   

1.       Find a fitted shirt in your closet that you like.

2.       Turn inside out the shirt you are adjusting and the shirt that already is fitted.

3.       Lay them on top of each other as shown.  Because this is jersey fabric, you will never get it to lay perfectly flat with no wrinkles, so just do the best you can. 

4.     Using a marking pen, chalk, pencil, or whatever else you can find, trace the sides of the fitted shirt onto your shirt that needs adjusting.  Don’t trace the sleeves just yet.




5.       The line for the sleeves takes a bit more thought.  Sleeves of an ordinary t-shirt are cut much different than the fitted tee.  I like to take my side line up to the point of my fitted tee’s armpit.  Then I draw a line from that point to the edge of the sleeve, trying to keep it parallel to the sloping line of the top of the sleeve.



6.       Take off the fitted tee, and pin your original shirt to make sure the fabric won’t slip around.



7.       My machine has a “slant over edge stitch” made for stretchy fabric.  If this isn’t an option, you can use a zigzag stich, a straight stich using stretchy thread, or just a straight stich with plain thread. 


 
8.       If you have my stich option, keep in mind that depending on the way you start sewing you want the straight line to follow your traced line and the flaring slants to be on the outside.


9. Sew up both sides!  At the shoulder seam, just hold it down and sew over it slowly.

 

 
10.       Try the shirt on inside out, just to make sure everything looks right.  (And I hope it does, because that’s a lot of thread to pull out if you need to! Arghh)

 
11.       Trim the excess material close to your new hem line.


12.       Turn right side out and enjoy!

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