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Long Sleeves to Short in Ten Minutes or Less

May 27, 2011 By crafterhours 22 Comments

crafterhours-long-sleeves-to-short

So K has this shirt. It’s just an Old Navy tee with long sleeves. She loves it and was set on wearing it outside one morning when the forecast was for sun and 90 degrees. I said “how about we make it short sleeved?” She blinked for a moment and smiled. “Oooooh-kaaaay!”

So here’s what we started with. K doing the slow-exhalation-when-will-my-shirt-be-done thing.

I hacked the sleeves shorter. A little longer than I’ll need in the finished product, but I needed something to hold on to as I pull this under the presser foot. Two strips of 1/4″ elastic the length I want the new sleeves to be.

Turn the shirt inside-out. I ironed a crease into the shirt sleeves so that I’d have a line to follow while stitching. You could also use a water soluble pen to mark it. The machine part is kinda impossible to photograph without three hands. Start by tacking the elastic at the starting point and once it’s securely attached to the shirt, pull the elastic out to meet the end of the shirt sleeve and hold those together firmly. Stretch stitch down the length of the elastic. You’re basically pulling from both directions and also watching to make sure you’re not catching any other parts of the shirt in the stitches.

Since K was quite literally breathing down my neck, I didn’t bother trying to finish the edges.

I’d been thinking about doing this to a few boxy-sleeved tees of my own. Now I realllly want to do it. So quick to do! It makes winter clearance racks/thrift store winter stuff a little more interesting when it’s 90 outside.
Completely unrelated to cute sleeves, we have an update about Skirt Week Prizes. First of all, as far as crafty prizes go, they’re pretty awesome. Second of all, we’re going to wait until Tuesday to post the sponsors as we still have a few that need to get images to us. Please don’t spend all weekend moping. Enjoy your holiday! And when you need a pick-me-up to escape post-holiday-weekend-blues, we’ll be all over it.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: clothing, refashion

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Comments

  1. Laura says

    May 27, 2011 at 7:45 am

    What a cool idea ~ literally! ; I especially like the idea of turning some of the really cheap long sleeved shirts I see on clearance into new shirts for summer.

    Laura @ Come Together Kids

    Reply
  2. Karin says

    May 27, 2011 at 7:53 am

    Nice! Hacking sleeves shorter is something I already did a couple of times, but I never thought of using elastic. Now I am thinking about doing not only this, but making some poofy sleeves too. Fun!

    Reply
  3. Laura @ ON{thelaundry}LINE says

    May 27, 2011 at 8:27 am

    I am going to spend my weekend moping. It’s all on you. No, not skirt week… our weather? it’s like raining and 12 degrees Celcious for the next five days. Um, it’s nearly June, Weather, let’s try keep it together, shall we? I keep reaching my witchfingers towards the longsleeves for projects like this and then recoiling with a hiss as I look at the miserable weather outside the window.

    Reply
  4. Susan says

    May 27, 2011 at 8:54 am

    Awfully cute! Even a mama could renew a T with that idea!

    Reply
  5. Rebecca says

    May 27, 2011 at 9:39 am

    What a cute & simple fix! I love it and may try it on some of my shirts. Thank you! I’m pinning this idea.

    Reply
  6. Emily says

    May 27, 2011 at 10:44 am

    LOVE it! I want to do it to some of my shirts too. :)

    Reply
  7. Ellen Mallernee Barnes says

    May 27, 2011 at 11:13 am

    I love how simple and perfect this idea is! Thank you!

    Reply
  8. Erin says

    May 27, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    great idea! i did something similar to a too big shirt of mine except i used elastic thread and did one row of shirring down the sleeve, it looks the same as your daughters sleeve on the outside.

    Reply
  9. christine says

    May 27, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    Thank you. Just this morning my daughter wanted to wear her long sleeve rainbow dress but it is just too hot. I am going to do this so she can get another season out of it.

    Reply
  10. Kate S. says

    May 27, 2011 at 5:48 pm

    Very cute! I was just playing around with this elastic trick the other day. Looking forward to skirt week! I have a couple of skirts that I am planning to make so it will be great!

    Reply
  11. patternpatti says

    May 27, 2011 at 11:35 pm

    Love, love, love it!

    Reply
  12. Alia Dalwai says

    May 28, 2011 at 8:35 am

    Hi!

    I follow your blog! I really like your posts! Good job!

    Could you please stop by my blog too?

    Alia
    http://aliascreativelife.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  13. sara says

    May 31, 2011 at 6:26 am

    What a clever idea ;) makes me want to hit the clearance racks!! Thank you!

    Reply
  14. michael ann says

    May 31, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    awesome idea! i never thought of making the sleeves cute, haha!

    also, just saw your skirt week post and am SO excited to get sewing! well, once i get home from work… ;]

    Reply
  15. Sara from Sara vs. Sarah says

    May 31, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    That’s such a great idea; here in Arizona, we don’t have much use for the long sleeve tee this time of year — and I love the rouching that the elastic adds! Thanks for the idea :)

    Reply
  16. Ali says

    June 3, 2011 at 1:11 am

    Oh, I am about to do some sleeve hacking for my daughter. Only problem? Raglan sleeves. Not sure the elastic would work with those.

    Reply
  17. Rebecca says

    June 9, 2011 at 9:45 am

    Thanks for a great tutorial! I have cut the sleeves off of two of my daughter’s shirts so far and mentioned your tutorial in my post about it.

    http://searchingoutsimple.blogspot.com/2011/06/quick-fixes.html

    Reply
  18. Jenni says

    June 26, 2011 at 9:17 am

    Do you think this would work if I used elastic thread (used for shirring) and made two lines in the sleeve?
    jkrachow@yahoo.com

    Reply
  19. crafterhours says

    June 26, 2011 at 9:27 am

    Jenni– yep, I think so.

    Reply
  20. Anonymous says

    March 13, 2012 at 9:48 am

    It’s also great for the long sleeves that are a little too long.

    Reply
  21. Jenny says

    May 2, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    I just tried this and it worked. Thanks!

    Reply
  22. Robin says

    July 24, 2014 at 3:12 pm

    I’ve both gathered and shirred sleeves to get this same look, but I have to say, I love this idea MUCH better. I think you just saved me lots of headache in future projects.

    Reply

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