A Sewing How-To for Father’s Day – Recycling Hubby’s L/S Shirts into Short-Sleeves

Have you ever accidentally ripped a favorite long-sleeved shirt and had to throw it away? My husband ripped through three shirts this past winter and they were otherwise still in great condition ~ except for three torn left sleeves. I thought about trying to recycle them into short-sleeved shirts to give them new life…

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What caused these rips?

We figured out that Mr. Ethereal leans on his left arm a lot as he sits at his computer working at his job. Over time, this causes undue stress on the outer upper left sleeve and these shirts tore.

Okay, so now that we knew what caused these rips, Hubby needs to correct his sitting style so no more will get damaged ~ especially since one of these shirts is only a few months old. 🙂

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Changing long-sleeved to short-sleeved

I began by pressing the sleeves of Hubby’s favorite short-sleeved shirt which he has worn a lot the past couple of years.

Begin by:

• Measure the length of the inspiration shirt’s upper pressed part of one sleeve from the armhole seam (where it is sewn to shirt body) to the finished end of the sleeve.
• Measure the lower underarm length the same way.
• To these measurements, add 1 1/2″ to turn and sew under creating a finished edge.

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Cutting the sleeves

• Transfer the measurements from the inspiration shirt to the torn shirts with the extra 1 1/2″ added. I began with the upper longer length first and created a small cut.
• After transferring the lower sleeve part’s measurements, create another small cut.
• If your shirt has straight lines as my husband’s shirts did, cut the rest of the sleeve off along those lines and cut the top and bottom of the sleeves SEPARATELY. This is so the sleeve will look correct once sewn.

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Press and sew the sleeves

• Turn each sleeve inside-out. Line up the pressed sleeve top and bottom inside out.
• Use a small pillow or a “sewing ham” and press-under the sleeve cut edge 1/4″ all the way around each sleeve.
• Bring down that pressed edge and turn this edge down 1 1/8″.
• When sewing along the edge, sew in 1/8″, using the inside left edge of the opening of a sewing machine’s presser foot as your guide. The distance from the opening’s left edge is 1/8″ from the needle, so as the needle sews through the cloth layers you will have a clean stitched seam.

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You’re going to have to cheat…

You may have noticed that that you couldn’t exactly press the whole sleeve under 1 1/8″ all the way around… because…

Along the underneath part of the sleeve, along the sleeve seam, you will have to “cheat” the sleeve turn-in to about 7/8″ in order for the sleeve to lay correctly when worn.

This is just something you learn as you sew. 🙂

Sew it down following the same presser foot guidelines and sew in at 3/4″ to finish (just here at the main underarm seam). Stretch the body of the sleeve as you sew this narrower part of the sleeve. The rest of the sewing is in about an 1″ from the final sleeve edge, turned outward.

Sewing tips and tricks

• As you get ready to sew, start at the top of the sleeve and work down to the underarm seam. Flip the sleeve around and sew the opposite part down to the underarm seam on that half of the sleeve. Yes it will show on the outside when worn but create the best stitching as you can. Rip out any parts that snag and resew as needed.
• The reason you do this is so that the sleeve pulls evenly when you wear it. I’ve spoken of this before in some of my other sewing posts. 🙂

Turn sleeves right-side out, press them along with the rest of the shirt.

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C’est finit!

Your shirt is finished! I actually was talking to my mother-in-law as I pressed under the edges of one of these shirts and then sewed the new sleeves. This was an easy project, other than the cheat part.

Mr. Ethereal is very happy with his Father’s Day present of newly recycled short-sleeve shirts. 🙂

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Happy sewing,