Originally posted July 1st, 2011 by Brenna, in collaboration with Rosalind. Last edited May 5th, 2025. While we no longer carry Sock Dreams logo t-shirts, so many people found this tutorial useful, that we thought we'd bring it back!
We love our Sock Dreams logo tees, but with the weather (finally!) warming up for us here in the Northwest, the classic squarer t-shirt shape that was so great to layer with is starting to seem a bit much. Time for a little bit of custom fitting. Dreamer Rosalind has a pretty quick medium difficulty DIY just for you.
You’ll need a sewing machine or access to one (or really great hand-sewing skills!) and the following tools:
- A t-shirt that you love the fit of that's the same thickness as the one to be fitted
- A t-shirt that needs to be fitted (works best with a shirt that’s at least a size too big)
- Sharp fabric scissors
- Pins
- Something to mark with (the blue in the picture is tailor’s chalk, we just used a white eyeliner pencil!)
- Something to measure with (optional)
Are you all set, and all ready? Let's alter that shirt!
First, turn both shirts inside out. Now, lay the t-shirt that needs to be fitted out flat, making sure any seams are straight and it’s more or less free of wrinkles. Then, take the t-shirt that fits well and lay that on top, matching shoulder seams. If you want to be precise about how centered everything is, measure it.
Now! Pin through both layers of the lager shirt, following the line of the smaller one, and making sure that you’re smoothing the fabric as you go—big wrinkles can cause problems. Be careful with those pins! Match arm seams where you can.
With what you’re marking with (we’re using a white eyeliner pencil, which are about a dollar at most drug stores), outline the shape of the t-shirt that fits well onto the shirt that needs to be fitted. Extend any lines that go beyond the fitted shirt. Use a ruler or any other straight edge (like scissors) to keep your lines straight.
When you come to the sleeves, you’re going to have to eyeball it a little, especially if the shirt you’re outlining has a cap sleeve. Don’t stress too much though! You’ll get a chance to make the sleeve just the length you want later.
Okay, you’re all marked up! Now, simply put the smaller shirt aside, and get ready to sew.
Now, just go sew along the lines you’ve drawn! Go on, do it!
Done? Okay. Try it on (inside out, since you’ve got all that extra fabric) and make sure everything fits okay. Now is the time to sew it a little bit tighter, or take out your stitches and resew it looser. Once you've got it right, trim off your excess fabric and put it on right side out. Now you get to look in a mirror and decide what further alterations you need to make.
Rosalind decided to shorten the sleeves, deepen the neckline, and, though you can’t see it, ended up shortening the shirt some too. Remember, t-shirt material can be cut without hemming, which is one of my favorite things about it!
Of course, this is one of the more basic t-shirt DIYs you can do, there’s a whole world of shirt modding out there! While some of the resources we enjoyed in the 2000's and 2010's are now basically defunct, you can still find a lot of ideas with searches like "t-shirt alterations" and "t-shirt reconstruction"!
Have you modded your tees? Are you in one of those tropical states where you’ve already moved on to tank tops—ooh, if so, have you modded your shirt into something cute and sleeveless? We always love pictures of how you rock our products on social media!
