How to make a women's shirt out of a men's shirt?

Almost every man in his wardrobe has a pair of shirts that he never puts on. Usually it’s either ceremonial shirts purchased for a special occasion, or gifts that did not appeal to you. Or, perhaps, the young man prefers to dress informally and many shirts do not need him.

Experienced needlewomen and zealous housewives know that an unnecessary men's shirt is an excellent material for creating something new. From it you can sew household items, as well as new clothes for a child or for yourself.

Today we will tell you about how to give a new life to a men's shirt, turning it into a women's one.

To change a man’s shirt into a woman’s blouse or shirt, you will need a standard set of sewing accessories, namely:

• cutting scissors;
• wax crayon, a piece of soap or a marker on the fabric (washable);
• tailor meter;
• threads to match the fabric;
• needle;
• safety pins;
• sewing machine;
• overlock for edge processing (optional);
• material for inserts (if necessary).
• accessories and decor: buttons, braid, beads, elastic bands, etc. (optional).

If you attach a little imagination and recall the basics of needlework, then an ordinary, unremarkable men's shirt can be turned into a stylish piece of women's clothing. Read more about each of the possible rework options below.

Most models of men's shirts have a straight or slightly fitted silhouette, so they sit on the girls very freely. Our task is to make the shirt effectively emphasize the figure, so we need to properly fit it.

To do this, we will take the following steps:

• reduce the width of the shoulder;
• make tucks under the line of the chest;
• tighten the sleeves;
• reduce the width of the shirt itself.

We try on a shirt, mark the place where the new sleeve armhole will be located. We draw an armhole and cut off the sleeves along the outlined line. Then we shorten the sleeves to the desired length and again pin into place. The hole that remains in the armpit area, while you do not need to touch, just try to make it as narrow as possible. Then we attach the sleeves to the armholes.

We turn the product to the wrong side. We draw the contour of the future tuck - from the line of the chest to the sides of the shirt. There should be one triangle on each side. Fold the tucks along the contour and fix them with pins. Then we sweep and do the fitting: if the tucks are in place, we sew the seams on a typewriter, cut off the excess fabric and iron the tucks with an iron.

We again turn out and try on a shirt. We note how much width should be removed from the sleeves and from the shirt body. We lay out the product on a flat surface and draw new contours. On the contours we cut off all unnecessary and chop off the edges with pins. After fitting, we sew on a typewriter and iron all the seams.

Men's shirts are usually quite long, as they are designed to be tucked into trousers. However, many girls prefer shortened models that barely reach the hips. We will talk about how to give a men's shirt a comfortable length for you.

1. It’s usually not enough to remove the extra length, you almost always have to narrow the shirt, so the first thing we do is to unhook the sleeves and unstitch the seams on the sides. With sleeves, we do the same as in the previous master class.
2. Then we outline the new contours of the shirt, draw the recesses in the back and front. We fasten everything with pins and do a fitting. If the shirt fit, we sew the seams on a typewriter, cut off excess fabric and iron tucks. After the next fitting, we sew the seams on the sides.
3. By narrowing the product, you need to determine its future length. To do this, we again try on a shirt and mark a new length with a margin for edge treatment. Cut the hem, bend and process the edge with a sewing machine or overlock.

If you are a fan of the cowboy style, and you have at your disposal an unnecessary men's shirt in a cage, it's time to make a new thing for yourself in the spirit of the Wild West.

1. We make a fitting and outline new contours of the product. On the chest of our shirt there will be frills, so if there are pockets or other decor in this place that may interfere, it is better to immediately chop it off.
2. We chop the product with pins along the contours. If necessary, we make tucks under the breast, just as demonstrated in the first master class. Cut off all the excess, leaving an allowance for seams.
3. We cut off the sleeves and draw a new sleeve armhole. Cut the sleeves to the desired length and sew to the armhole. If at the base they turned out to be too wide, you need to pick them up a bit, giving additional volume.
4. Getting down to frills: from the excess fabric we cut out several strips of the same size. Manually sew each strip, then pull the thread so that the frill is gathered in an accordion. We pin frills to the shirt and sew on the machine using a zigzag seam. We cut off the collar of the shirt - not the whole, but only the part that is above the rack. Instead, we sew one of the frills so that it is located on the inside of the collar.

A true woman can look flirty and sexy even in a man’s shirt.If you want to modify this item of clothing, make it more feminine, we can advise you to sew a stylish top out of a man’s shirt that exposes the shoulder line.

• We try on a shirt, see how deep we want to make a cut. We make marks on the shoulders and on the chest. We lay out the shirt and draw the contour of the neckline. In this case, a few centimeters of fabric should be left to the edge.
• Cut off the top of the shirt along the contour. If necessary, we also remove the excess length and shorten the sleeves.
• In the cut edges we will sew in an elastic band or elastic tape - this is how we get a shirt in a rustic style, which is also called a "peasant woman". We measure and cut the right amount of tape for the top, bottom and sleeves of the product. Sew the ribbon on a typewriter, after stretching the fabric, so that later it gathers in beautiful ruffles.

You can turn a strict men's shirt into a flirty and elegant item of women's wardrobe by slightly changing the shape of the sleeve. For example, voluminous sleeves flashlights look very impressive. Converting a regular sleeve into a "flashlight" will not be difficult at all.

1. We unfasten the sleeves, but we do not touch the seams on the shoulder girdle yet. Then we determine the desired length of the sleeves. Flashlights can be both very short and long enough. We will make mittens of medium length - slightly above the elbow.
2. Cut the sleeves to the desired length. We apply them to the shirt and draw new contours of the sleeve armhole. Flashlights should be voluminous, so before you sew the sleeves to the armhole, you need to pick up the upper part.
3. We turn the sleeves so that the cutouts on the cuffs are on top, and sew them in place. We changed the location of the cutouts in order to provide ourselves with greater freedom of movement, otherwise bending our arms would be completely uncomfortable.
4. If the cuffs are narrow and it is difficult to fasten them, we simply twist them, carefully iron the fold and alter the buttons to a new place (stitches for this, as a rule, are already provided).

To experiment with the decor, altering a man’s shirt in a woman’s, you can endlessly. Almost any structural element of a product can be changed beyond recognition - sleeves, collar, shoulder line, etc. For example, shirts with cutouts on the shoulders look very beautiful and unusual.

1. We try on the shirt, then we lay it out on the table and draw the contours of the cutouts. The cutouts should be the same, therefore, after we made a cutout on one shoulder, fold the shirt in half and draw a second cut along the contour of the first. Then we cut off the excess material.
2. The edges of the slices should be processed. You can use any available method for this: walk overlock over them, sew them over with a sewing machine or manually, or sew them with braid.

• If the shirt is so long that it completely covers your hips, it would be more appropriate to remake it in a dress of a shirt cut that can be worn with jeans or leggings, and in hot weather - just like that.
• You can make a fashionable loose-fitting top on straps from a men's shirt by completely cutting off the upper part from it and forming a V-shaped neckline, unbuttoning the upper buttons. Straps can be made from cut off excess fabric.
• Cutouts on the shoulders and upper chest are now very relevant. But if you are embarrassed to completely expose these parts of the body, complement the cutouts with lace inserts made of lace or guipure. The material for the inserts can be in the tone of a shirt or a contrasting shade.
• From an unnecessary men's shirt, in addition to a new thing for your beloved, you can also make: a pillowcase for a sofa cushion, an original kitchen apron, a soft toy and many other things useful in the house.