- Welcome everybody, I am TockCustom.
And on this video we're gonna show you
how to tailor a button down
shirt just like we made
in our last video.
If you missed that, feel free
to go back and watch that.
Otherwise, if you have
some shirts that you want
to be a little bit more fitted,
we're gonna show you how
to do that right now.
And also at the end of
the video, I'll show you
how to do a long sleeve
dress shirt that has cuffs.
The steps are pretty much the same,
but I will show you what
is different with that.
Now, all you're gonna need
to get started is
whatever button down shirt
or dress shirt that you
want to tailor to yourself.
You'll need a sewing
machine, some scissors,
and some thread.
Alright, so our first step to
tailoring a shirt is we have
to put it on and button it up.
Now in this shirt, I wanna
bring it in about an inch
and a half on either side
so that I've got a much more narrow fit.
So we're gonna start at the
sleeve through the armpit
and all the way down to the bottom.
But before we do that, we have
to open our rolled hem
at the end of the sleeve
and at the bottom of our side seam.
So I'm gonna show you
how to do that right now.
Now we're gonna take about
an inch of fabric out
of this shirt on either side.
So I want to take out about
two inches of my rolled hem.
So I'm just gonna pop these stitches
and then lay this out flat.
So I've taken about an
inch off either side
of this center seam of our rolled hem,
and that should open this up
so that we can lay this flat.
I'm gonna end up ironing this,
and then we should be able
to see our nice raw edge.
And this is exactly what we
need to do on either sleeve
and the bottoms of our shirt.
So I'm gonna do all four
of those parts right now.
Alright, so I've got all
of my rolled hems open about
two inches on either sleeve
and two inches at the bottom
of each of my side seams here.
So now I'm gonna press
these that they're open
so that they're easier to work with.
Now, just so you can see
how this is gonna work,
I'm just gonna press this
open and then use my iron
to make sure this all lays nice and flat.
And this is really gonna help us
when we end up tailoring
these seams of our shirt.
Alright, so now you should have something
that looks like that.
And I'm gonna do this
with the other three seams
so that these are all nice
and open and flat like that.
Alright, so my hems on my sleeves
and the bottoms are all open
and pressed, so that lays flat.
So at this point,
we're gonna wanna turn
our shirt inside out
and lay it flat on our table.
Alright, so now I've
got my shirt inside out
and this is the end of my
left sleeve through the armpit
and all the way down to the bottom.
And you should be able
to see the raw edges
since we opened up that hem.
Now I want to take this in
about an inch on either side.
So I'm just gonna kind of eyeball
and mark this with white chalk.
I don't know if you can see this,
but this is just kind
of a reference for me
so that I know roughly where
my stitches are gonna go
and try to keep your fabric nice and flat.
So it should look like that.
I don't need to pin this at all.
I'm just gonna take this right
over to my sewing machine
and sew from the bottom all the way up
to the end of the sleeve there.
Alright, so we're at our sewing machine
and because this is a woven fabric,
we can just do a regular straight stitch,
which is a lot easier.
Now before we start, it's really important
that you line up the two raw edges.
If these are uneven like that,
it's not gonna come together well.
So you wanna make sure that the raw edges
of your fabric are perfectly flushed
with each other like this.
Now as I feed this into my machine,
I want to take out an inch of fabric
from where we did our original seam here.
So I'm gonna line up this stitch
with the one inch mark
on our plate right here.
So that's what we're looking to do.
Now I've got this all nice and flush.
Everything looks good.
So I'm gonna do a front and back stitch.
(sewing machine whirring)
And now all I have to do
is just follow this entire
stitch all the way down
to the bottom of the shirt
following this one inch seam allowance
from this black stitch right here.
Alright, now as I get close to the bottom,
I also wanna make sure
that the two raw edges
of fabric at the very bottom
are also perfectly flushed
so that we've got a nice even seam.
Finished with a back
stitch and cut my thread
and we are done with one side.
So now I'm gonna do the
other side real quick
and show you what happens next.
Alright, so now you should have something
that looks like this here.
So here was our original seam
and here is our new seam.
So normally I would just take this over
to my serger like we
did on the original end
and just serge the whole thing
and it would trim it and clean it up.
But I'm going to show you how to cut it
and do a zigzag stitch for those of you
who don't have a serger.
So what I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna trim this
so that the raw seam is
about maybe half an inch
or so from our new seam
that we just sewed.
Alright, so we've got our seams trimmed,
and this is a good length
for us to work with
for a zigzag stitch.
And again, when you use a
serger or an overlock machine,
it's gonna lock all these up
because with any woven fabric,
you're gonna get loose threads like this
if you just lightly tug on it.
We don't want that.
So I'm gonna show you
how to clean this up without a serger
so that you've got nice
clean seams on the inside.
Now the first part of overlocking
with a zigzag stitch is
you have to figure out
where your zigzag stitch
is on your machine.
This has a digital touch screen,
so I know this is my zigzag stitch here.
And what I want to do is I'm
gonna modify the zigzag stitch.
So this tells me how wide
the stitch is gonna be,
and this tells me how long
the stitch is gonna be.
So I want this to be as wide as possible,
which I think is seven millimeters wide.
And I'm gonna keep this at
about 1.6 millimeters in length
and you'll kind of see how
that looks as we do this.
Now that we have our zigzag
set the way that we want it to,
the way this is gonna work
is we're gonna do one
stitch off the fabric
and then one stitch on the
fabric but I want to start on.
Currently my needle is on
the right side of my machine,
so I'm gonna use my hand
wheel to go all the way down
and when this comes up,
it's gonna snap to the left like that.
So now what I want to do is
our first stitch is gonna start
on the fabric,
and I'm gonna use my
hand wheel to make sure
that the second stitch is going
off the edge of that fabric.
When I go all the way down,
it should just barely be off like that.
So as I do a front stitch
and a back stitch, I'm gonna
go all the way off the edge,
almost off the edge.
Alright, so as I follow the
seam, what's gonna happen
is every other stitch is gonna
go off the edge of the fabric
and it's gonna lock any frayed
or loose threads to
the inside of that seam
so that it stays nice and clean,
kind of like an overlock machine,
but much more simplified.
And I'm gonna just go all
the way down from the edge
of the sleeve all the way down
to the bottom of the shirt.
Alright, so as I get to the bottom,
I'm gonna cut my thread
and you should have something
that looks like this.
And this zigzag is going to keep all
of this raw fabric from fraying,
and it doesn't look quite
as pretty as a serge seam,
but it will keep your fabric from fraying
and you're not gonna get loose threads
or not nearly as many if
you didn't do this at all.
So I'm gonna clean this up a little bit
and then I'll show you what's next.
Alright, so when you're done,
you should have something
that looks like this.
And I know it looks kind of messy,
but all I need to do is just
trim off any bulk right there
in any loose threads.
And if I pull this real tight,
the hem should actually kind
of start to reform by itself.
And I'm just gonna kind of tuck that in.
And then I'm gonna press this with my iron
and it should just kind of
line up with the previous hem
that was in there before
we took it apart like that.
Okay, so I'm just pressing
our rolled hem back into shape
just like it was before we
opened this up and tailored it.
And I'm just gonna do a start
and back stitch here,
stitch across the rolled hem
and end here by doing another back stitch.
And that's gonna close that up.
We're gonna do this on both the side seams
and both the sleeves
and then we are actually done
with tailoring our shirt.
Okay, so here is how our new hem looks
as we just kind of
restitched that together.
And I'm just going to
trim any loose threads
that we have from the outside first.
And then I'm gonna flip
this and look at the inside.
And I'm gonna trim any loose
threads from the inside.
And when you're kind of recovering
or repairing stitches,
it's usually a good idea
to use some kind of a fabric glue.
So I'm gonna use some fray check here.
And I'm gonna put a couple of
drops there where we started
and ended those stitches.
Alright, so now that we got
some fray check on there,
that's gonna look nice
and clean on the inside
and the outside, just like that.
And it's not gonna fall apart in the wash
or anything like that.
Alright, now before we try
on our new tailored shirt,
I did mention that I was
gonna just quickly go over
how you would do this with
a long sleeve dress shirt.
And I'm not even gonna do a full demo
'cause I don't need to.
But if you were tailoring
a long sleeve dress shirt
like this with a cuff,
you would do everything exactly the same
where you unhemmed the bottom
and then you're gonna stitch
up through the armpit here.
And then when you got close to your cuff,
what you would do is you would
follow this one inch or so
or whatever you end up tailoring.
And then as you get close
to the cuff, you get closer
and closer to your original seam
and you're just gonna blend in
with the original seam about right here
so that it's completely seamless.
You'd end up trimming out any
extra fabric and then serging
or zigzagging over that
raw edge like that.
Now after you've tailored
your dress shirt,
if you find that the cuff is still too big
around your wrist, all you'd
have to do is take your button,
pop out the stitches, move
it in about half an inch
or an inch, or however much you need
to resow your button a little
bit into the cuff right there.
And everything is gonna work
out perfectly just like it did
with the other shirt
that we just finished.
Okay, so as I try this on, I can tell
that this is fitting a lot better.
It's not quite as dramatic
as the t-shirt that we did,
but as I look at my sleeve,
my armpit, down the flank
and around the hips, it
feels a little bit tighter
and more narrow.
So if it looks like I'm wearing
a custom handmade tailored shirt,
that's exactly what I'm wearing.
Hopefully this helped you
guys tailor your own shirts
or dress shirts.
If you have any questions,
please let me know in the comments.
Otherwise, thank you so much for watching.
Thank all of you for your support
and I will see you in the next video.