Taking in a huge sweater with just two seams!

A while ago I wrote a tutorial on how to take in a t-shirt to make it fit better. In order to do it, you need to take the sleeves off and trim down those and the main bodice piece before reattaching the sleeves. But what happens when you have a shirt -- or a sweater or cardigan, as was my case here -- with sleeves that are already the perfect length? You use the "cheating way" and take in the sleeves and sides with just two seams!

First off, you put on the sweater (or shirt or whatever upper body garment you have that is too wide), inside out. Pinch the fabric under the armpit and put a safety pin where you want the new armpit to be. (The red dot in this picture shows more or less where my armpit actually is.)

In one go, you stitch from the sleeve to the new armpit, turn the fabric, and continue down the side until whatever point you want to stop slimming down the garment. (I took it in down to my butt.) If the fit is good, trim the excess fabric, fold the garment in half so you can mark where to sew the second side (as seen in the above photo) and sew the other side. I highly suggest using a walking foot if sewing bulky sweater fabric!

Again, trim the excess fabric and clip the corner in the armpits.

To keep the trimmed edges from fraying, sew down them with a zig zag stitch (again, preferably with the walking foot). Iron the edges on low heat with a protective ironing cloth to get rid of any waviness from the zig zagging.

And in a flash, your maxi cardigan (or sweater or t-shirt or blouse or shirt) fits you great, without smothering you in excess fabric! Yah! See Cucicucicoo for the full tutorial with all the details!

P.S. By the way, the shirt I'm wearing in the pictures above is another refashion: Reverse Appliqué t-shirts!