Long Sleeve Shirt to Short Sleeve T-Shirt Tutorial

Sometimes I feel like I should change the name of my blog to “The Lazy Crafter” because that is so what I am. I am always looking for a short cut.

It was a crazy weekend complete with a wild wedding the night before when we needed to get the family up and running to catch Thomas the Tank Engine at the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad.

Only problem was my number on Thomas fan C2 did not have a short sleeve Thomas the Tank Engine shirt that fit.  Bad Momma. 

So what is a slacker momma to do?

Well cut the sleeves off a longer shirt of course.  Okay it’s not that easy, but pretty darn close. You will need:

·      Long sleeve shirt

·      Short sleeve shirt that fits well

·      Ruler

·      Scissors

·      Matching Thread  (Can Not Stress this one enough!)

·      Sewing Machine

·      Iron

Lay your long sleeve shirt out and Place your short sleeve shirt on top and line up the arm openings.

You could do one of two things here. You could guesstimate and add about a half an inch to wear the short sleeve you like lands and cut the long sleeve shirt there (lazy crafter way) or amazingly enough what I did was measure the top and bottom section of the sleeve on the short sleeve shirt (3 ½ inches and 2 ½ inches) add a half inch.

Mark ware you will be cutting. I was cutting the top portion at the four-inch mark and the bottom portion at the three-inch mark.

Turn your long sleeve t-shirt inside out at this point and iron the edge of your shirtsleeve up half an inch.

Turn your shirt right side out and get ready to stitch the hem of the sleeve. 

I am partial to a lightning bolt stitch on knits. It just works better for me. You should stitch the sleeve in two spots for a more secure hem. About 1/4 an inch up then again as close to the edge as you can get. It was 8:30 in the morning about five minutes before we were supposed to leave so you know what I only added one line of stiching to the hem. It worked out fine, but I am going back to add another once it is washed because the hem kind of rolls up. 

 It is also important to know where your bobbins are and use matching thread. I lost my bobbins, and yes that is pink in the machine. Oh well.

 Tour shirt is finished now go meet Thomas....

It was a fun day and the little man looked adorable in his new short sleeved Thomas shirt.

Happy Sewing!