On the Mend: Downsizing a Dress Shirt

I’ve officially mended everything in my mending pile. Silver lining.

I had a couple of dress shirts that were just a bit too baggy for me to wear as dress shirts anymore, so I cut them down to size.

Literally, cutting is the first step. I took a “dress shirt” that fit me better, and used it as a template to cut off the sides of the shirt, sleeves and all. Make sure the dress shirt you’re altering is inside out. Speaking from experience, not a huge deal if you forget, but it is annoying trying to get everything to line up again. Then, seam down the new sides of your shirt.

Now to fix the sleeves. I cut off the old seem, trying to keep the same shape of the original cut. Then, using the same template shirt used to cut everything off, I used the sleeve opening as a guide to create a dart at the armpit of the sleeve, so it would fit in the new armhole. Unlike my dress darts, I do cut this dart after I check that it fits in the new shirt.

Turn the sleeve right side out, put it inside the altered shirt so the seams line up at the armpit, and stitch around the sleeve. Repeat for the other side.

Boom, a fitted shirt.

Anyone else having a mending March? Tell me about your projects in the comments.