How to Make a Shirt From Fabric
If you've had your eyes set on a specific shirt but can't buy it right now because it is too expensive, consider designing your own custom-designed shirt using the fabric of your choice. Creating your own shirt is not as difficult as you might think. All you need is the right tools and supplies to get your shirt into formation and to follow a few simple steps.
Things You'll Need
- Fabric
- Shirt
- 2 sheets of pattern paper
- Tracing paper
- Tracing wheel
- Marking chalk
- Scissors
- Sewing machine
- Straight pins
- Ruler
Instructions
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Choose your fabric and select a shirt form that you want to make. You can go to your local fabric store to choose a variety of fabrics that you wish to use to create your shirt. Then choose a shirt formation that you desire to shape your fabric. If you have an old shirt that has the formation that you like, use the old shirt to trace out the pattern onto your pattern paper. You can also go to your local fabric store to buy already-made sewing patterns.
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Make a pattern of your new shirt. Lay an existing shirt onto the pattern paper to create the front pattern for your new shirt. Use your hands to straighten out the shirt to trace your pattern and then use straight pins to make sure the shirt will stay in place on your pattern paper. Now that you have your pattern in place, start tracing.
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Place tracing paper underneath the shirt or pattern you're going to trace. The tracing paper may have chalk on one side. The chalk part will lay on the pattern paper. Then use a tracing wheel to move along the tracing paper to draw along the sides of the shirt or pattern.
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Trace the the markings that you just made with your tracing wheel using a chalk marker. Then use your ruler to draw 1/2 inch to 1 inch for the seam of the shirt that you're going to make using your chalk marker. Once you're done with the front part of the shirt, create the back part of the shirt and the sleeves the same procedure.
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Cut out the pattern paper. Use scissors or a rotary cutter to cut out the shape. Once you're done, then use pattern paper to create the sleeves, if necessary. Then place the pattern paper that you just cut out onto the new fabric. Use straight pins to pin the pattern paper onto the fabric to keep the pattern paper from moving. Cut out the shapes.
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Start sewing. Create a 1/2-inch seam by creasing both ends downward with your hands for the shoulder, the sides and the collar, and then sew it with the sewing machine. Line up the front and the back part of the shirt together and use your sewing machine to sew the shoulders of the shirt, the sleeves and the sides of the shirt. Line up the top of the sleeve with the body of the shirt and then stitch it up with the sewing machine, if necessary. Cut off any excess threads and you're done.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit seamstress image by Denis from Fotolia.com
