Things You'll Need:
- T-shirt
- Scissors
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Step 1
Lay the T-shirt out flat on a work surface so that the front of the T-shirt is facing up. Smooth out the T-shirt and make all the seams straight and even. Line up all the edges of the T-shirt, especially along the shoulders, sleeves and sides.
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Step 2
Begin carefully cutting along the side seam at a bottom edge of the T-shirt. Cut through both the front and back layers of fabric so that the seam is neatly cut off from the T-shirt fabric. The goal is to cut as closely to the seam with the scissors as possible. Obviously, once the seam is cut out, the T-shirt piece will be slightly smaller than it originally was, but this can be adjusted by adding in a seam allowance. Cut along the side edge up to the point where the sleeve intersects with the side. Repeat on the other side edge of the T-shirt.
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Step 3
Cut the seam under the sleeves in the same fashion as the sides of the T-shirt were cut. When you are finished with this step, you will have a T-shirt separated at the sides but still sewn across the top of the shoulders. Use the scissors to cut the seam where the sleeves are attached to the T-shirt. Cut in the same fashion as you have previously been cutting. The last seam to cut through is the top shoulder seam. Cut across this seam on both sides in the same fashion, cutting across the neckline so that you have separate front and back T-shirt pieces. You should now have a front T-shirt piece, a back T-shirt piece and 2 sleeve pieces.
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Step 4
Remember that if you will be using these T-shirt pieces as a pattern, you will have to adjust the size of the pattern pieces by adding approximately 1/2 inch to each piece to compensate for the fabric that was cut away when you removed the seams.
