DYI – copycat your favourite shirt! By Djongi

1., Copycat your favourite shirt! Turn inside out the fabric, also your shirt, lay it on each other. I folded the fabric in half, becase the body of my shirt is made out of one piece so I don’t have to match it later; My shirt is an assimetrical one! I used 2 m of fabric, pins and my sewing machine!

2., Pin it all around Pin, pin, pin….. Mark the original shirt line with a special marker, or chalk, a dried small piece of soap, or just a simple pencil – all around. Make sure the fabric is not wrinkled…..

3., Cut it out! Take the scissiors and slowly cut it around I left from marked line around 1,5-2 cm

4., Sleeves The sleeves on my original shirt are attached separately, so I follow the original patten and mark my fabric on both sides as this…

5., Time to sew now! Before you start, make sure to mark the neck line & the arm holes somehow (we will not sew ther the pieces together!). I usually put on both sides on the fabric some sign…. Sew around…… I use straight stitches….

6., Both fabrics are attached now This is one of the arm holes. Here I will later on attach the tiny parts.

7., Sides This is how my new shirt looks like on the sides. I have enough space to make a security zig-zag still, because I do not have an overlock machine.

8., Zig-zag…….. I use for the sides approx the middle of the scale

9., Zig-zag the sides…. I want to do a perfect job, so I do both materials separately. From the sewed-in straigh stich, approx 1 cm. You can see I still have some material – this could be cut off later.

10., What we have till now? We have a cutted out, sewed around almost ready NEW favourite shirt! With red arrows is marked what I have sewed together till now.

11., Cutting out the bottom part of the sleeves I measured how long they are…. As you see, these are made of one part, they have onlyone hem on the side … I will do the same!

11., Bottom sleeves From the leftover fabric I will make the small sleeves Always check you are folding the right way – turn it out, you can mark the back part….

12., Pin, cut and mark where will they be connected to the body – I simply use arrows….

13., I have 2 cutted out sleeves now!

14., Safety stitch again…. Put your machine on zig-zag again. Go around on both sides – one will be connected to the body, the other will be at the wrist….

15., Wrist side of sleaves Fold fabric like on the picture, pin it! I will make a nice finishing of the sleeves, just like on the original one! Change the machine to a straight stich, where my finger points (a tiny bit close to the zig-zag) will be the first straight stitch. Sew it around on both sleaves you have!

16., The nice finish of the sleeves When the first one is ready, make another one (on the other side of the zig-zag) You will get the same as on the picture from the right (front) side of the material. Optional: you can simply make one zig-zag and fold two times – this I did’t wanted to do, because my fabric is a cotton, elastic kind and it may turn too much, twist, and it won’t be nice looking….

17., Neck line I layed the original shirt underneath my new one – to keep the same shape of the neck line and I pinned it around, carefully.

18., Preatty neck line…. I did the same as with the end of the sleeves….

19., How to connect sleaves with the body…..? Ok, this is not that hard! We have this: on the left side is the body of the shirt, and the right one is the sleeve….

20., Attaching… Turn inside-out ONLY the sleeve! Make sure both hems meet on the top when you push both parts totally inside each other – I always check the marked lines…. Where my hand is, there will be both materials sewed together. On the small sleeve piece - what is almost inside the bigger one – the sticking out part is where approx my elbow will be, this means the part that is inside now is where my wrist will be. Make one try before you sew it together: pin it temporary, turn it out and you will see….

21., Attaching ready! This is what you see:

22., A tricky part…. When you attach it, watch out to sew it together only till where my finger points. If you go further that this point, you won’t be able to fold back the material, and make the finishing stitch nicely…

23., How to pin the sides… First pic: top material to one side; second pic: the tiny one to the other…

24., Body+sleeve attaching Sew together both materials, follow the line that you marked The attached sleeve will be in a constant use, so I decided to make a security stitch with a zig- zag on my machine – and this time I sewed together all the materials = the body and the sleeves in one, attached to each other. I made even something more, I went 2 times around!

25., The devis is in the small details! I love my original shirt, but I always mark my new clothes which is the back part ;) I use other fabric, make a small tag and attach it, to the proper back part!

26., Final cut! When ready, lay your NEW shirt, and cut out the sticking small sides. Make sure you leave a bit, if you may have to fix it, or just re-enforce any side to be able to do it! I usually leave around 1 cm, if it flees a bit, I still have place to add a new security stitch!

27., Ready!!!!!! As you see, this is a multiple kind of shirt, you can wear it with jeans, or a skirt! The sleeves could be folded up, or simply wrinkled up. The neck could be anywhere – in the middle, on the side. The body part could be straight, twisted etc…. Before you wear it, need to be washed out, so the fabric – if you pulled it too much – will go back to it’s place.

I hope I could help! I started to sew for fun, and looking always for something unique to have… I remember that since years I always had to take something to fix – and got fed up! I can do it too! I have found a simple Singer 8280 and surprised myself for X-mas. I have learned few basic things from my best friend – thanks Vivi!, from the internet and from looking at my clothes…. I always miss tutorials with good details! If you make one, think that others could learn something and that you can help too! Enjoy it, don’t rush… take your time and have fun! Create something that you like, if you wear it and others ask where you got it from, be proud of yourself that You made it! Take care ;) Djongi