Tight Sleeves How To Fix

Over a year ago I gave ThreadUp.com a chance, which is basically an online thrift store. I love buying second-hand when I can, and I ended up picking up this Ralph Lauren yellow plaid flannel shirt. Once it arrived and I tried it on, the sleeves were way too tight. I hate that! I don't recall the return policy, but I obviously didn't bother with returning it and this thing stayed in my closet for way too long. There is a way to fix these tight sleeves in order to comfortably wear this top again.

Before: Sleeves too tight, biceps too strong

During #alteritaugust 2018, I pulled it out and considered what changes I could make to make this wearable for me. I decided to change two things: get the sleeves to fit and change the collar. Just before this project, I had made a Kalle Shirt and fell in love with the band collar featured on View A (Closet Case Patterns), so I wanted to convert this into a band collar as well. If you love the Kalle shirt too, check out this refashion where I changed a men's shirt into a Kalle.

Flat lay of sleeve piece detached from shirt

Remove and Recut the Sleeves

The first step was to remove the sleeves. I simply cut as close to the flat fell seam as possible, along the bodice side of the seam. Then I cut along the sleeve seam and removed the cuff so the sleeve fabric lays flat. This is a cotton shirt without any stretch, so I decided to draft short sleeves from another woven top pattern I had in my stash. I fit the short sleeve pattern piece on the crosswise grain, using the flannel lines as a guide.

Short sleeve pattern piece overlaid onto long sleeve

Ease at Set the New Short Sleeves

Once I had two sleeve pieces, I basted a short line along the top of the sleeve cap so I could gather the fabric in order to adjust the size of the arm hole to fit to the bodice piece properly. I only wanted gathering at the top of the sleeve cap, so here you can see how much of the sleeve was gathered together by pulling the bobbin thread of the basting stitch.

I also took this time to hem the sleeves before setting them. Setting the sleeves is a little finicky, as you may have to gather more/less to make it fit in the arm hole. You can see the sleeves set with generous pinning, right sides together. Stitch the sleeves, finish the seams in your desired manner, and press the seams toward the sleeve.

Sleeve set and pinned right sides together

Collar Refresh

Now onto the collar. This was a pretty straight-forward change. The shirt had a traditional collar, with a cute band with a little extension for a button and button hole. The unpicking took some time, but basically I unpicked the seams that held the collar in place, while keeping the collar band in good shape. the band had the seam allowances pressed toward the inside of the band, so I re-pressed that, and pinned it together. Then I carefully topstitched along the top of the band.

Up close photo of pinned band collar — Collar removed and collar band pinned together, ready to topstitch shut

This shirt is so much more comfortable and wearable. I was able to fix the tight sleeves and they fit perfectly now. Here I've paired it with a handmade Leonora skirt from Seamwork Patterns, with the slash pocket option. In the spirit of #AlteritAugust, this was the perfect afternoon project to turn something that was just taking up space in my closet into something wearable and lovable. Sustainability is sexy!