sewing/altering shirts to be less wide

[darkoshi]

Because I like my clothing to be loose, I often end up with shirts that are very wide on the torso. Sometimes that bothers me when I look in the mirror, because the shirt, which may otherwise look awesome, sticks out in back or puffs up in the middle, making it look less good.

One quick fix is to use safety pins to pinch in the left and right sides a few inches up from the bottom of the shirt.

Another thing I've done is to sew a short inside seam on the left and right sides, angling inwards towards the bottom. That keeps it from billowing out on the bottom. But then the shirt may still be too wide and puffy on the top.

A better option may be to turn the shirt inside out and sew new seams for the entire left and right sides a few inches inward from the original seams. Extend the original sleeve-seam inwards a few inches, and then curve downwards for the new side seam. The problem I've had with this in the past, is that when the shirt is turned right-side out again, the fabric bunches up at the sleeve-to-side seam. That happened even if I cut off most of the excess fabric. The following page explains how to prevent the fabric from bunching up.

Sewing Tips – Clipping Corners and Curves.

The only difficulty then is how to sew the edges of the seam to prevent fraying, after having clipped the edges. I've been doing it by hand-sewing those parts, and sewing around the clipped edges, in and out, so that the new line of thread doesn't make it bunch up again.

So far, I've done that for 3 shirts.

I also hand-sewed belt-loops onto one pair of pants, and started sewing them onto another. Having a belt feels much more comfortable and convenient to me, than having only elastic or a drawstring at the waist. And I can clip things like my keys to the belt or to the loops.

Comments

[randomdreams]

Isn't the answer to 'prevent fraying' usually 'use a serger'?

[darkoshi]

But I don't have a serger and haven't ever used one. I was just reading about them before. They sound useful, but I think having to deal with 5 (or 4?) threads instead of only 2 would make using a machine even more complicated for me, and for the only occasional sewing I do, probably not worth it.

I usually fold the seams over, putting the raw edges on the inside, and then sew them closed. Sometimes by hand, and sometimes with my little mini sewing machine.

[randomdreams]

When I do that, I do the same as you: fold the seams over and sew them. That seems to work pretty well. I have a sewing machine that my mom used to sew her wedding dress in the 1960's and it was old then, and it's pretty fussy, but long straight lines, it seems to handle okay.