Resizing a t-shirt in 10 minutes

Today, I'm going to do a short tutorial to show you my most used refashioning technique; using your favorite t-shirt to make a large shirt fit. I recently bought this great red shirt for a couple of dollars, planning to paint a wonder woman logo on the front, (my second-most used refashioning technique which I will show you next time.) but it was a little big despite it's claiming to be a small. I liked the shape of the neckline, though and the material was comfy, so I decided to just fix it.

To do this you will need a large shirt, a shirt that fits well, and sewing supplies. I used my serger, but it works just as well with a regular sewing machine.

 Step 1: Lay out your large t-shirt inside out, matching the front and back at the bottom. Try to get the side seams to lay flat, but don't force them; it's more important that the front and back are smooth. Lay out the well fitting shirt on top the same way, matching the shoulder seams to the larger shirt. 

Step 2: Cut the bottom shirt 1" to 1/2" away from the side seam of the top shirt. Cut the whole side seam, including the sleeve.

(If your sleeve is huge, this method may put your shoulder seam down your arm. I would recommend following the method I use in this post for very large sleeves. Just ignore the part about gathering the sleeves and adding ruffles. Instead of pleating the sleeve you can either stretch the hole a little to fit, or cut the sleeves to size using your well fitting shirt as a pattern.)

Step 3: Sew or serge down the newly cut edge of your shirt

Voilà! Your 10minute shirt refashion. Very easy. Now go try it on, and maybe wear it several times before you finally decide that it's time for superhero action!

Speaking of red things though,  I just finished the coolest skirt, and it has an awesome story.

I had a particular skirt in my closet that I really like the shape of, and I was going to use it as a reference to make this skirt, but my mom saw me getting out the tracing paper, and reminded me that my grandma had made the skirt, and ... we probably still had her pattern! So I excitedly got out the patterns, and sure enough I got to use the very same pattern as my grandmother. There are a few small differences, (mine has pockets, and she moved the zipper to the side) but I think they look very much alike.

 Have you ever had an exciting moment when you felt close to an ancestor you haven't met?