How to Tailor a Button Down Shirt - Beginner Level Sewing Tutorial - Tock Custom

- 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.