My sons have started tee-ball this year, and were excited to get their “jerseys”, which are one-size-does-NOT-fit-all t-shirts. My guys are pretty little, so the shirt fit something like a dress.
I think a too-big t-shirt is cute and all, but wanted to size it down a bit so it fit better. It was pretty easy to do!
First, I got a t-shirt that fits him well, and turned it as well as the too-big t-shirt inside out. I laid out the too-big shirt with the fitting shirt on top, lined up at the collars and tops of the shoulders.
I traced the fitting shirt onto the too-big shirt with a fabric marking pencil. I took the fitting shirt off and pinned along the marks, as those were my sewing lines and I didn’t want them to shift during sewing. I did trace the bottom of the t-shirt, but that is NOT a sewing line – that’s going to guide me during hemming the shirt.
I sewed along the white lines and then with the shirt still inside-out, had my son try it on to make sure I had the fit right.
When I was confident it fit well, I trimmed off the excess fabric about 1/2″ from the seams. For the hem, I cut it about 1.5″ longer than my fitted t-shirt, to give me room to turn it under and stitch it.
Once it was hemmed, all that was left was to put it on and enjoy! Here he is with a much better fitting shirt.
I’ve done this with a few of my own t-shirts. I’ve gotten a lot of free (BIG) t0shirts that I never wear, but started making them more fitted and I’m happy with the results. I’ll have to post some pictures of my own shirts, as the difference is much more noticeable than in a little shirt like above. :)