dear ladies,
i have a question that i would very much like suggestions or help on. my son has several rtw shirts that he needs the sleeves hemmed . actually, the shoulder seam is about an inch and a half past his shoulder and i wouldn’t even have to hem the sleeves if i could figure out how to redo the shoulder area. the reason the shirts are too big is because he likes the length of the extra large shirts–which are too big in the shoulders for him. does anyone have any suggestions how to do this or books i could look at for ideas? thanks so much for your help. kay1
Replies
If the shirt is also too large through the chest it's possible to take out the sleeve, open the underarm seam and make a tracing of the armhole on the shirt. Use the tracing as a template and recut the shirt to shorten the sleeve. You also have to cut the same off the shirt body b/c the measurement has to be the same as on the original shirt or the sleeve will not fit. This might make it too small through the chest and underarm though, so measure carefully before you start to cut. Good luck.
I've seen some shirts made w/shoulder pleats (as if to take up the extra, off-the-shoulder fabric), which would make the sleeve the proper length. For my own blouses, I don't care how far the shoulder seam falls down onto my arm, but I can handle really long sleeves if I move the buttons on the cuff over to make a tight fit. Of course, I'm no fashion maven like I was as a teen LOL!
As I haven't sewn anything complex for a while, I am trying to imagine how removing a sleeve and redoing would be the easiest solution. I must be missing some basic concepts :-(
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