Altering clothing and numbers

17 years ago

I'm 22 and a guy. My problem is, my shoulders seem to need me to buy medium sized shirts to get the sleeve starting in the right place, whereas I excercise pretty much every night and so am thin enough that the rest of my torso seems to need a small size. For instance, the shirt I have on now fits my shoulders pretty well, but has about 25 - 50% more room in it than I need, so it tends to look baggy at the back - even though it's supposed to be fitted.

I've never tailored clothing before (I know what darting is and can restitch holes in my trousers without completely messing them up), but would like to be confident enough to take some shirts apart and refit them to be a bit more accurate.

Rehemming for length I don't expect will be too complicated and I know there are a couple of questions here I can read on that. But doing things like altering the profile of a shirt I could really use help with - for example, if you're going to cut darts into things, where should they end, how wide should they be etc. I expect this can all be done by eye if you're a tailor, but I know that there are also clothing equations / formulas to help calculate where things should be. Does anyone have any helpful links with such information on them or, if not precise formulas, simply information about where cuts should be made, what shape etc?

I suppose I'm in the lucky position of having material spare in my clothes, as I can unpick the stitching and remove some rather than trying to add it.

I still have all my old school shirts at home, so next time I go back I think I'll get busy on them as practice.

Thanks and happy christmas!

John

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Comments (2)

empress
17 years ago
Hi, John. You're on the right track thinking about darts. But it really does not have to be as complicated as you may think. Starting with a couple older, less valuable shirts, and having a friend help if you can, you can probably figure out what needs to be done with only a couple trial shirts.

Begin by carefully marking the center line down from neck to shirt bottom as well as a line perpendicular to that one at your natural waistline.

Here is where you can act like an experienced tailor and eyeball where you would like the darts to be placed. Start with a mark at the waistline and away from the center line about 1/3 of the total distance between the center and side seam. In other words, if the distance between the centerline and the side seam at the waistline is 9 inches, you would make the mark on the waistline at 3 inches away from the centerline. Mark both sides the same way. The instructions from here on will apply to a dart on each side of the centerline.

That mark will be widest part of the dart. Fold or pinch the fabric at that point and pin. If you've got a friend helping, you can do this with the shirt on and save putting the shirt off and on as you try to estimate how big the fold should be.

With the shirt on, also mark where the very bottom of your shoulder blade is.

Now you can taper the fold from the pin at the waistline up to a point ending a couple inches below your shoulder blade; the exact location is up to you. Also taper from the waistline down about 4 to 6 inches, depending on how long the shirttail is. You may also wish to make this line slightly angled rather than parallel to the centerline. You may wish to slant the top of the dart very slightly away from center.

The widest part of the dart should be approximately 3' to 4" long before any real tapering is noticeable. About 1" below the waistline and about 1.5" to 2" above the waistline, depending on how long your torso is.

You would do a similar process in the front, but the darts should be much smaller, not nearly as deep as the back and not nearly as long.

After you've adjusted the pins and tapering to suit you, mark where the pins join the fabric, remove the pins, fold the darts with the fabric right sides together, baste and press.

You should now have a shirt that fits pretty close to what you hoped for and can make adjustments to perfect it. Unless you purchase many shirts of the same style from one manufacturer, you will probably need to repeat this process for each shirt individually, depending on how particular you are about the fit, until you actually can eyeball at least to the point of basting.

Good luck!
xstpenguin
17 years ago
Hi John

If you want to know more about shirts, how they are made and how to get them to fit better, I'd recommend David Page Coffin's book. He goes into great detail about every aspect of shirts, from the cotton fabric, through fit and style.

It is listed as an advanced sewing book, but it really depends on the reader. You might find lots of useful insights that would let you remake shirts. And it might inspire you to start doing your own custom made shirts - you wouldn't be the first man to make his own clothes because shop-bought doesn't fit!

Good luck!!
AJ

Here is a link that might be useful: Shirtmaking book.
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Altering clothing and numbers

Comments (2)

empress

xstpenguin

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