Altering Men's Shirt Sleeves From Long to Short

By

over and over

you may have to taper and reshape the hem to fit, usually I measure 10" from the shoulder draw my hem line with chalk, leave a 1 1/2 hem hem allowance to be turned under once for a nice finish. You can then judge if you split the seam if you can make it fit, press the hem allowance up. It usually works just fine.

By ybergh (Guest Post)

Thanks Peggy.
I have certainly appreciated the pointers. I will face the 6 shirts on my 'to do' pile with a bit more confidence ;}

By Peggie (Guest Post)

The only solution for this is to use part of the cut off fabric to widen the new short sleeve. Cut a triangular piece to fit in the seam line, it will widen the sleeve and look like a design element. No one will be the wiser.

By ybergh (Guest Post)

Thanks for the pointer 'Jean in GA'.
I will use it...along with the thought,
When the sleeves are tapered, such as with dress shirts, (the part you are turning up will be narrower than where you will be attaching it) you take in the seam allowance on the line where you will stitch the hem in place.

By Jean in GA (Guest Post)

I did that when my husband's long sleeve shirts got grease on the bottom of the sleeve. I just took one of his "store bought" short sleeve shirts and laid it flat on top of his long sleeve shirt and cut about 1 and 1/2 inch too long. Then machine stitched the long sleeve shirt. He couldn't even tell that I had done it.