shorten a shirt dress

How to Shorten a Shirt Dress

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dress

I recently bought a shirt dress to wear with boots as a fun fall work outfit but of course it is too long, about 2 inches too long. I knew I needed to shorten my shirt dress. This was going to be tricky for me because of the curves at the bottom. I usually only work with straight lines because my lack of patience usually gets the better of me when trying to work on a curve. But after a long afternoon with Rusty whining behind me from lack of attention I managed to get it to my desired length.

Here’s what I did:

Stood in front of a mirror and figured out how much fabric needed to be taken off the bottom. I pinned the length and then stood up straight to make sure that was my desired length.

shorten a shirt dress

chalk marks

Next I unbuttoned the shirt and laid it out, right side down, and with my chalk pencil, I marked a lot of spots up to the desired length of the dress. Then,  I also marked about an inch below that to serve as a cutting line.

shorten a shirt dress

two rows of chalk

It’s now time for my most time-consuming part, the hem! I needed to clip a couple of spots on the curves in order for the fabric to lay flat. Little by little I rolled over a ¼inch of fabric and then another ¼inch of fabric and pinned. I made sure to put the pins in to where I could sew with them still in the fabric so I’d have one less thing to worry about. And after all of that work, carefully, put the dress back on to make sure it is at the desired length.

http://www.covergirl.com/collections/nfl-collection/chicago-bears

lots of pins

Sew time! Slow and steady with some patience, wins the race because it is a tiny hem and there are curves, it’s best to go slow.

Try on one last time. Good? Press. Now I have a dress that will be perfect with flat and boots this Fall!

shorten a shirt dress


yoga pants

Shortened Yoga Pants

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yoga pants

This always happens when I buy new pants. They’re too long and these new yoga pants are no exception. I was a little worried about altering them because my experience with stretch fabric is next to zero. There was that one time when I used lycra for Rusty’s lions mane. But these pants needed to be about three inches shorter if I was ever going to get any use out of them. And let’s face it, when I say use, I mean lounging around my apartment, not working out in a yoga studio.

yoga pantsI folded and pinned the pants so they were the proper length while they were still on me. I changed and then measured the in-seam and the folded part to make sure that the lengths of each pant leg were even. Also, to see how much length, 3 inches, needed to be taken from each leg.

Next, I removed the pins and turned the pants inside out. I then carefully measured and cut 2 inches from each pant leg.

yoga pants

I then folded over ½ inch of fabric and pressed and then another ½ inch and pressed. Then I pinned the folds into place.

yoga pants

Rusty was not impressed by my cutting and ironing skills. I gave him a stretchy collar but he was even less impressed with that.

yoga pantsI placed my pins so they could be quickly and easily removed as I was sewing. I realized that although my machine can use a double needle, I don’t have two spools of thread in the same color. So that option was thrown out and instead I used a stretch stitch function my machine, a triple zig-zag stitch. I definitely had to pull out my user’s manual to make sure I was doing it correctly, very glad I kept it.

yoga pants

I stitched both legs using the edge of the folded fabric as my seam guide. I then pressed the seams.

yoga pants

I have crazy flip-flop tan lines on my feet. :/

I turned the pants right side out, put them on, and enjoyed my shortened yoga pants by watching TV and cuddling with Rusty.


hem shorts

How to Hem Shorts and Pants

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My husband needed his shorts hemmed. They were about an inch too long and it’s almost summer, well it’s May we just aren’t having summer weather yet, his shorts needed to be completed. The measuring and pressing part of hemming them is the most important part of this process. It is with most but usually I don’t pay too close attention but with it I needed to be precise.

Step 1. I needed to figure out what the desired length was and then turn the shorts right side in.

hem shorts

Step 2. Seam rip the bottom of both legs

Step 3. Press the bottom of the shorts and measure and mark desired length.

Step 4. Measure about an inch and a half below your desired finished length and cut off excess fabric.

Step 5. Fold over about 1/4 of an inch and press

hem shorts

Step 6. Fold over about 1.5 inches and press

shorts, pants, hem, shorten

Step 7. Sew your new seam as close to the edge as possible, I moved my needle over to the left and used the foot edge as my guide.

Step 8. Press again, flip right side out and press again.

Step 9. Repeat for the other leg.

hem shorts

inside finished seam

hem shorts

ready to wear close up

hem shorts

ready to wear

 

 

 

 


altered men's suit jacket

Altered Men’s Suit Jacket

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My husband bought a $30 suit jacket from Target that was too big for him, mainly in the waist. We decided it would be a good project for me to work on since I’ve never done any tailoring or altering of men’s clothing except for the hem of pants. So I attempted at creating a great altered men’s suit jacket.

1. First thing I did was have him put it on and I pinched the fabric to fit and then pinned it. Then I unpinned it because I got his undershirt :/ and re-pinned it.

2. Then I marked the place where the pins went into and out of the fabric just in case a pin fell out with a chalk pencil. I did this on the lining of the jacket as well.

men's altered suit jacket

pinch and pin

3. I measured in between the dots and marked the measurements on the jacket, with a fabric chalk pencil, and on a piece of paper. These measurements are what I needed to take the jacket in by. I did this on the lining of the jacket as well.

men's altered suit jacket

my measurements

4. I then got out my handy seam ripper and separated the lining from the back of the jacket. I just did the bottom of the jacket and up the closest seam line on the side of the jacket.

altered men's suit jacket

lining pulled back

5. With the lining up and out of the way, I ironed the seam so it was no longer open. Then from the seam I measured and marked half the distance that I wrote down and because the measurements were slightly different in some locations I did this at each site of where a pin was and connected the dots. This starts with no measurements at the top because the shoulders fit so the line in a diagonal down the back of the jacket increasing as it goes to the bottom because the waist of the jacket is what was too big. I pinned the layers together and sewed down the chalk line, cut off the extra fabric and ironed the seam open. The first time I did this, I had a notch of extra fabric at the collar and had to redo it. 

men's altered suit jacket

mark and sew

6. Repeat step 5 for the lining.

The last couple of steps is figuring out the tail and reattaching the lining to the jacket.

7. For the matching the lining to the tail I just kept folding and pinning until I had what I thought looked acceptable.

altered men's suit jacket

all sewn up

8. To reattach the lining to the jacket, I am sure there is a machine stitch way, like a blind hem stitch possibly, but I decided to hand stitch it with a slip stitch, I own a book called Teach Yourself Visually Sewing and does a great job illustrating how to do it. The stitch mimicked the rest of the lining to the jacket pretty well which is another reason why I picked it. I then ironed the lining and now the jacket is a great fit!

altered men's suit jacket

finished!