How can I shorten and sew my t-shirts?

Question

I'm a short guy. But I love to shop at Abercrombie, Hollister, and the like. However, their idea of a "small" is not anywhere close to my idea of a "small" (their "small" looks like a "large").

Anyway, I want to shorten my shirts to better fit me. Is there a certain way to do this? Do I need any special threads? Will a regular sewing machine work?

Answer 1

Here you go:

Leave it 1/4" longer than you would like. Cut it there. Turn it 1/4" toward the inside and sew it with the machine, not too tight of a stitch, all the way around. If you stitch it too tight, it screws everything up. Stitches come in different sizes, like font on a computer: 8, 10, 12, etc. This way, no matter how you hem it from here, you won't get frey threads coming out. That is hem #1. Then, fold it up, inside, not out, where you want it to be and pin it with straight pins going up and down, (head to toe), not across. You will notice that if you pin it too tight or use too many pins, it will not be smooth. It will scrunch up and that is how it will look sewed. It is usually a good idea to iron it at this point to make sure that is how you want it to look, as ironing it with the pins in is a good indication of what you will get when you are done.

The question becomes whether or not your machine can sew a "blind stitch". If it can, then use a normal size blind stitch and sew it up, remove the pins. If not, then you have 2 choices. 1 )Hem it by hand, with an inside blind stitch where you pick up only a couple of threads on the side that shows and the inside, moving along at about l/2" per stitch. Won't take long at all. Start at the side seam so it won't show when you do the last stitch and tie it off. 2) Straight stitch it on the machine, but it will show.

Important: if you don't take the step of cutting it off first, you'll end up with too much fabric and really lousy looking shirt. Any normal thread like Coats and Clark will do. Don't use the cheap stuff. They have labels that tell you what fabrics they are best used on. None of this is a hard as it may sound. Once you get the hang of it, you can do 10 in a night. good luck!

One last thing, if you sew it by hand, don't try to use enough thread to sew the whole thing at once or you'll make a mess of it - it gets tangled. 1/2, side to side, will be enough to keep it from doing that.

Answer 2

with a scissor, cut your shirts on the size which you like then sew the ends of what was cut off by a hand sewer of sewing machine. the best thiong which will do is go the tailoring shop, have it cut to your size and let them sew it as you wish. give the tailor shop the necessar pay or compensation

Answer 3

If you want clean looking clothes then go to a tailor because they maybe able to do a better job than yourself. I'm not saying that you are incompetent, just that you are inexperienced and it's better to leave it up to the professionals.