Make a short shirt longer: Add ruffled hemline

What do you do when you pull one of your favorite t-shirts out of the dryer, only to find that it has now become a bit of of a mid-drif? Hmmm.

I tried to ignore the fact that it had shrunk in length and wore it anyway but found myself tugging at the hemline all day to avoid a belly flash. It isn't impossibly short, but short enough to bug me.

Enter: Ruffled Hemline. The answer to my how-to-make-a-short-shirt longer dilemma.


Okay, this is what it looked like before:

And this is what it looks like now:

A simple, yet stylish solution to add length.
No more tugging on my shirt to keep it down.
No belly flashes. Whew!

Have a short shirt that needs a little length? Here's how:

First measure your shirt all the way around. *Write that number down and double it. That's how long you need your strip for the ruffle to be. If needed, you can cut shorter strips and sew them together, like I did.

Decide how much longer you want to make your shirt. That will be your **width.
Cut up an old t-shirt into strips, based on your *Length and **Width measurements. I made my strips 3-1/2 in. wide and 48" long for front and the same for the back.

And P.S.? If you ever feel inferior and think the clothes you sew don't turn out perfectly? Look at this wonky seam. I knew this t-shirt always felt a little twisted. This is the laid flat. Whoever sewed this shirt was on crack.

Anywho, I cut a bunch of pieces for my ruffle, from a clearance rack white t-shirt (light weight)

FYI - for jersey, I use a ball point needle. Regular needles can make holes in your fabric.

After ironing the ruffle pieces I pinned/sewed them together to create one long strip.

And used a zig zag stitch to tack down the seamed edges.
(sorry, I had to improvise with this picture, the zig zag wasn't actually that wide, but you get the idea)

I ruffled the long strip on my machine.

Using the tightest tension

And longest stitch length

It creates the ruffle for you.

Next, I pinned it to the hemline of my t-shirt.

And sewed the ruffle on with zig zag stitch (gives jersey a little more movement), right over the gathered stitch.

Here's a close up.

Personally, I think it's even cute than the original.
But that's just me. :)

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