How to Shrinkify a Too-Big Shirt Using Just One Seam – A Guest Post

This week the theme is Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Fashion! For your sake, we decided to consult with some readers who know waaaay more than us on this subject (Kendra, for example, can’t even sew on a button successfully). Today’s post is from Dwija, all about a simple sewing technique to tailor a shirt to your size.

I love, love, love me a bargain.  Woo!  I kinda get the chills just thinking about some of the amazing things I’ve found at Goodwill and the Salvation Army over the years.  I mean, there’s just something about finding a great bag or pristine pair of jeans for less than a venti latte at Starbucks that truly sets my heart aflutter.
I am what some may call obsessed.

Obsessed with saving money!  Obsessed with living on a budget!  Obsessed with not looking like a trash-nasty lady who’s only obsessed with saving money and living on a budget! Anyway, as I’ve been a thrifter for years and years and years and years and years, I’ve come up with some quick fixes for taking a snazzy Goodwill find and turning from “meh” into “hey!”.  You know, like the straight-legging your jeans thing?

Today for your viewing enjoyment (I sound so fancy):

How to Shrinkify a Too-Big Shirt Using Just One Seam

Here is our specimen, a ruffle-front Ann Taylor Loft blouse…

I know.  Not cute.  It’s shapeless and baggy.  It’s too long.  The neck hole is enormous.  Also I have no head.

But the brand is quality and the price was right ($3) and I loved the colors and print and detailing.  Plus, button tops are great as non-nursing-nursing-shirts.

So can this shirt be salvaged?  Let’s give it a try.

Step 1: Turn the blouse inside out.  
Put it on.  Use clothespins to “pin” the fabric in a row down your back, taking up as much of the extra fabric as you need to.  This will give it shape in the waist AND decrease the size of the neck hole:
Please excuse the awful photos.  Proof that I really did do this with no help, so I know you can too.

Step 2: Remove the shirt (hey, when I do new stuff, I need directions to be specific, so I’m being specific!).  
Lay it on a flat surface.  Using a pencil, draw a line down the back connecting the clothes pins (like dot-to-dot).  This is where your snazzy new back seam is going to go.

Step 3: Replace your clothes pins with straight pins.

Step 4: Try your shirt on again before you sew or cut anything!!! If it doesn’t fit the way you want it to, repeat steps 1-3 until it does.

Step 5: Sew where the straight pins are, from the neck aaaaaaaaaaalll the way down to the bottom seam, removing the pins as you go along.

Voila!  You’re done.  One seam.  Shirt fixed.

Now if you also want to make it shorter (optional), you can hem the bottom up as much as you need to.  No cutting- just fold it up and sew.

Then your $3 Goodwill shirt will have gone from this:

To this!

You can also see this top “in action” as part of a complete outfit by clicking here.

Have you ever altered anything yourself?  Would you be willing to give this a try?

Dwija Borobia lives with her husband and their five kids in rural southwest Michigan in a fixer-upper they bought sight-unseen off the internet. Between homeschooling and corralling chickens, she pretends her time on the internet doesn’t count because she uses the computer standing up. You can read more on her blog house unseen. life unscripted.