Tutorial: Quick Refit for a Too-Big Top

I recently received the top on the left from a friend. It's shapeless style, combined with the fact that it's a size too big, wasn't very flattering, as you can see, though I love the detailing at the top.  Really, I just wanted it to be narrower, and that's where this tutorial comes in; you can see the before and after above. This kind of fix is worth remembering, especially if you often pass up tops because they're a bit too bulky. Obviously,  if you're having trouble with fit in the shoulders or bust, you might need a bit of additional tweaking, but for an easy fix, these steps should help you out. 

1. Lay the top out flat, making sure the bottom edges, underarms, and shoulders are matched up, and over the top, lay a shirt that is of a similar material. Mine are both t-shirt knits, so they have a similar stretch. Match up the underarms of the two shirts.

2. You can see that I've pinned around the edges of the white shirt, creating a line so it will be the width of the red shirt. Again, since my shirts are both knits, they're pretty stretchy, and I don't have to be too exact. Here's a closeup of the pinning.

 

3. Remove the top shirt, and go stitch down the line of pins. After the first side, it doesn't hurt to try the shirt on quick- being careful of the pins. Make sure it's starting to fit right. If you don't like it, now's the time to use the seam ripper and try again (I did!).  Make sure you follow the curve of the underarm. If this seam is too angled, you'll have ugly, uncomfortable puckering. Here's a picture of the underarm of my shirt; I know the seam's a bit difficult to see, thanks to the matching thread!

4. Do the same for both sides. When you've done this, try it on. Is it better? I had a good 2-3 inches of excess on the sides, so I went ahead and trimmed them off.

And here's the after shot again. Okay, it's a little wrinkled right now, but a vast improvement, I'd say, and definitely a much more wearable top.