So my son had a tear in a perfectly good long-sleeved shirt.  Its a very nice shirt, so he asked me to repair the tear. But its one of those repairs that is hard to pull off without threads and stitches showing.  Since the weather was warmer when this occured, I decided to cut off the sleeves and make it a short sleeved shirt.

This is a basic sewing skill that anyone can master.

First I pressed the shirt so that I could see both sleeves and the tear.  Next, I lined up the sleeves, cuff to cuff and underarm seam to underarm seam.

Cuffs lined up….

Then I decided where I would cut the sleeves.  I made sure to leave enough sleeve on the shirt to have a nice wide hem.  The tear was too close to the shoulder to have as wide a hem as I would have liked, but I left about1 1/2 inches. I measured the length from the cuff to the cut line and made marks on the sleeve with a pencil so that I would cut each sleeve the same length.

Cutting the sleeve…..

Once it was cut, I pressed under 1/4 inch all around each sleeve.  You could stitch this in place bbut if you are pressing it, it will hold and you don’t really need to stitch it. This turned up area just gives your work a finished look and keeps the raw edges of the fabric from showing when you turn up the hem.

Then I pressed under a 1 inch hem and stitched it. You could stitch a hem like this by hand or on a sewing machine. I used a blind hand stitch.