Tutorial Anyone Can Sew: Shirts Tutorial (All-Sizes, Pattern Free)

Now Up: Vests and jackets.
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So you made your resin child some jeans from the Jeans Tutorial I posted. However, now your boy/girl needs a casual top to go with his/her casual pants. That's what this is for! This tutorial is ideal for t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, tank-tops, v-necks, or anything else you can imagine! If I am unclear or confusing, please let me know! I am still kinda new to this tutorial thing! Warning: I am not a professional! I have no idea how you do this the "correct" way; I just made this mess up through trial and error ^-^;...

I understand that many of you already know how to make tees. However, if I am to continue posting tutorials, such as jackets/vests/etc., you need to understand my basics. Afterall, I use this method for everything I make!

You will need:

• Material (a jersey knit with some stretch is a good choice; pretty much anything your own shirts are made of)
• Matching thread
• Scissors
• Pins
• Tape measure
• Iron + ironing board (optional- just makes things a lot easier)
• Doll- Today Suke will be assisting us!
• Human (preferably you)

One: Measure your doll from the widest point on their torso. Measure from beneath one armpit to the other armpit (or from the side of one hip to the other); do NOT use the measurement of entire waist. If you have a large busted girl, her widest point will probably be around her boobs. However, Suke's widest point is her hips, which measure 3.5 inches.


Two: From the top of your doll's shoulders, measure the length of the torso to the point at which you want your shirt to end. Suke's measurement will be 5.5 inches.


Three: Add 1/2 an inch to the measurement you found in step one (the width). Add one inch to the measurement you found in step two (the length). Cut out two pieces of material using these dimensions.


Four: With the right side down("right side" means the print of the fabric that will be visible once garment is complete), fold the bottom end of the material up 1/2 inch for the hem. Iron it so that the hem remains in place or just pin it in place (I do both!).


Five: Repeat step four for the other piece of material.


Six: If you want a baggy looking shirt, skip this step. Drape one piece of material over your doll. Your doll's body should have some curves. Leaving your self at least 1/4 an inch for a seam, trim away sides of the material so that the line follows your doll's bodyline. Do NOT cut past the armpits.

Your piece of material should look something like this:


Seven: Cut the sides out of the other piece of material (I just lay one over the other and cut it out using the original as the guide). You will now have two pieces of material that look like this:


Eight: Drape one piece of material back over your doll. This is the step in which you decide white type of neck you want. I am making a v-neck shirt. However, you can make a regular tee, a scoop neck, or a wide neck shirt. Just cut whatever shape you want the neck to be while the material is on your doll.


cont. in next post

 

Nine: Now you are going to cut the arm holes out. With the material still on your doll, find the joint where your doll's arm meets his/her body. If you look at your doll naked, you can see that the shoulder joint makes a "C" shape from the front. You want to cut that exact shape out of the material. TIP: I don't cut right up to the joint; I cut it so that I have about 1/8 of an inch extra so that I can sew the sleeves on later. Just use the joint as a guide.






Ten: Cut the other sleeve in the same manner described in step nine. TIP: I cheat! Instead of doing step nine again, I fold the material in half lenghtwise so that I can use the first sleeve as a guide for the other hole.


Eleven: You want to cut the sleeve holes out of the second piece of material. Lay the piece you have already cut on top of the uncut material. Then, just cut out the sleeves holes, following the first piece as a guide.


Twelve: Next, you want to cut out the back piece's neck. If you made a regular t-shirt neck, just cut out the same shape of the front. If you did a v-neck like me, you don't want the back to be V-necked too. Making sure the piece you are cutting out is the same width as the front neck opening, cut out a gentle curve from the back.

Note that the two neck openings, though differents shapes, have the same widths and match up when layed on top one another.


You have made your basic pattern shape! Hooray! If you want to make a lot of t-shirts, I suggest you tracing out each piece so that you can skip the first twelve steps next time and cut it out correctly the first time!

Thirteen: In this step you are making your collar. Measure the length of each neck opening. This might be a bit tricky to get just right, so I always cut a good bit extra. Cut your material twice as wide as what you want your collar to be. Then, iron the material in half (width wise).

NOTE: If you are making a a normal t-shirt neck opening, a scoop neck, etc., you will only have two pieces for the collar. I am making a v-neck, so I cut out a piece for the back and a piece for each side of the front (resulting in three pieces).

Fourteen: This part gets a bit confusing (especially since I didn't get any good pictures of it-oops). Lay one of your torso pieces out in front of you with the right side up. Line up the collar piece with the rough edge of the neck opening. Pin in place. Do this for both sides. If you did a V-Neck like me, just pin each side of the front in place and then pin the two pieces together where they meet in the middle. Are you still confused on this part? Checks out the FAQs and Tips section for nifty diagrams!


Fifteen: Now you will begin sewing! I sew on a sewing machine, but you can easily handsew this (if you are patient unlike me). First, sew the bottom hem that you pinned up in step four. Do this for both pieces.


Sixteen: Next, sew the collar on. Hint: When you have correctly sewn on the collar, you will not be able to see any stitches.

Note: I have a lot of collar hanging off the edge of my neck opening because I cut my collar pieces too wide.

Seventeen:Repeat step sixteen for the back piece. You should now have two pieces that look something like this:


Cont in next post

 

Eighteen:With the right sides together, place the two pieces of material together, lining up the edges so that they are even. By doing this, you are connecting the front of the shirt to the back.



Nineteen: Sew these pieces together on both sides.

You now have a functioning neck! You can even put it on your doll to see!

And what it should look like so far:


Twenty: Next you will start on the sleeves. Lay your shirt out right side up. Measure the distance between point A and B. This will be the width of your sleeve piece.

Next, measure the length you want your sleeve to be. Suke wants her sleeves to be about 1.5 inches long. Add about 3/4 an inch to your desired length.


Twenty-One: Using the dimensions from step twenty, cut out a sqare of material. This will be your sleeve. NOTE: You are free to make your sleeves flare or taper however much you want as long as the top of the sleeve measures the same as the measurement of point A to point B found in step twenty. Lay the sleeze piece beside the half circle you cut out of the shoulder of the shirt. Using that as a guide, trim the top of the sleeve piece so that it forms an arc that fits perfectly inside shoulder of the shirt.

Hint: Trim as little as possible to maintain that same length of your sleeve.

Twenty-Two: Using the piece you just made as a guide, make an identical piece of material for your other sleeve.


Twenty-Three: Hem each sleeve up 1/4 an inch.


Twenty-Four: This is the other tricky part. Just follow my lead!
Lay your shirt right side down (this means that the ugle wrong side will be what you see when you look down at it). Place your sleeve right side down beside it. Match the corner of the sleeve to the corner of the sleeve hole.


Starting at that corner, pin the sleeve and the shirt together. When you do this, you want the right side of the shirt and the right side of the sleeve to be pinned together and all that you see is the wrong side. The sleeve and the shirt should line up perfectly so that each corner on the shirt matches up with it's respective corner on the sleeve.


cont. in next post

 

Twenty-Five: Sew the sleeve to the shirt from the wrong side.


Twenty-Six: Repeat steps twenty-four and twenty-five for the other sleeve.


Twenty-Seven: This is your final process! You just have to sew the shirt together! You will start with the sleeves; so from the edge of the sleeve up to where it meets the shirt. Make sure you get to the very edge or you will have a hole in the armpit that you will have to sew close by hand X___X (I haven't done that before *cough cough*). After both sleeves are done, you will sew the sides. Start at the top where the sleeves ended. Start from the end of the sleeve stitch and go straight down, following the curve you created in step six.
Sew in order of my nifty diagram!

Sewing the sleeve

Sewing a side


Edit: Flying Carrot (of doom!) had a great idea and suggestion for this step

And it works! So listen!

Twenty-Eight: Turn you shirt right side out and put it on your happy doll!


Thank you so much for viewing my tutorial! If you have any questions at all or you are having trouble, let me know (either here or pm) and I will do all I can to help! I welcome all suggestions and pictures *wink wink* I love you all!

There is now a printer friendly copy up courtesy of cinwills in posts 52 and 53 on page 3!

 

FAQs and Tips
Where can I find small a small print with some stretch?
Mind you, your t-shirt doesn't have to be super stretchy! Not all of my human ones are at least. You mainly just want something that gives a little bit. Are you having trouble finding material? Look in the baby aisle! They oftentimes have good basics like plaid, stripes, etc. in a smaller scale. The red shirt was made from a baby t-shirt and the black and white shirt was made from baby pants (they stretch). You can also look around the women's underwear aisle. They usually have some fun prints in a pretty good scale. Plus, it usuaully comes with a wonderful complimentary color around the top band and legs that you can use for the collar (etc). The leopord print shirt on Clementine was made from underwear! Note: One pair of undies is enough for a MSD sized doll; an SD probably needs two pairs, but I can't be sure *looks down at SD-less family*

A suggestion from the wonderful Fenris:

This is perfectly true as well! The black and white shirt (worn underneath the low cut green shirt) is a jersey knit from Hobby Lobby. I liked it so much that I bought a couple of yard of it!


What kind of stitch are you using?
Okay, I am about to sound real dumb... I know nothing about what things are called... Let me see... I use a regular stitch (it looks like like this ---------------- see what I mean?). My sewing machine (like most the I have seen) allows you to set your stitch length on a scale of four. I put mine on three. Anything smaller, I find, is harder to sew with without bunching up the fabric. When I am done sewing, I use a Zig-Zig stitch to serge my edges (especially where the shirt meets the sleeve). I told you guys I wasn't a professional ^^;

Finally, you guys get a real tip courtesy of the genius margikins!

There, that should help many of you! Thank you, margikins!

Do you ever have problems with the machine eating your material?
Why yes, yes I do. While I admit I had more trouble when I was using my cheap Singer (I now have a Necchi something or another), I do occasionally have that problem (I actually had to remake a sleeve for this tutorial because my machine ate the corner of one and returned it mutilated!). The reason why it does this is not the machines fault; we are sewing much smaller pieces than the machine was made to sew. So when you are sewing the tiny hem on your tiny sleeve, the machine's clamp thingy isn't holding down both sides of the material, resulting in it eating it. Fixing the problem: I have found that if I don't start sewing right up to the edge, my machine doesn't inhale my project. I actually start sewing about 5 cm in. Once my machine gets a couple of stitches made, I use my "go backwards" button and get to the very edge that way. Then, you are free to continue sewing to your destination! Oooh... I hope that made sense...

Angelys has an ingenius technique to fix this:

I would have never thought of that! Genius, genius I say! Some of you may care to try that (I, however, freak out at the feeling of newspaper *shudder* It's sooo gross!) I imagine you can use magazine pages though... Hmm.. Thank you again! I shall try this!

The only thing I don't quite get though, is the neck part. I don't exactly understand how the neck goes on.
Your confusion is perfectly justified! Considering the fact that is didn't get any decent pictures of this step, I created a wonderful diagram to help! Fear my Paint skills- fear them!

As you can see, you have the right side of the shirt staring at you. You can also see the collar piece, which you folded lengthwise.

I am lining up the rough edge (not folded) side of my collar with my neck opening. The right side of the fabric is still facing up.

I pinned in place and sewed along that edge. When I take those little pixelly pins out, I will flatten the collar so that the seam goes on the inside!

Hope that helped you guys!

I don't like taking my doll's head off each time I take off their shirt. What should I do?
I too have to take my doll's head of sometimes for shirts with smaller neckholes. However, I still even take my girls' heads off for wide neck shirts in order to protect their face-ups (particularly Clementine's becuase Quilibet did an amazing job and I don't want to ruin her ^_^). If you would like to remedy this, make the following changes:

Instead of cutting two pieces using the measurements given in step 3, cut only one. This will be your front piece. Take the measurement you found in step 1 and add an inch. Take the measurement you found in step 1. Add one inch to the measurement you found in step 2. Use these dimensions to cut out another square of material. This will be your back piece.
Before trimming the edges on the back piece, cut out the neck hole. Then, cut a slit down the back of the shirt. Fold each of the edges under 1/4 an inch and sew in place. Then add snaps or velcro for closures. Then you can continue the tutorial, starting with trimming the edges to curve with your doll.
I hope that made sense!

​

 

Gallery
You can see pictures of all my girls' clothing in my gallery posts ^____^

all shirts made using this technique (by ragdoll)


The sweetest shirt I have ever seen by wonderful MaddPuss (used with permission)


Amazing shirts by superamy7 (who is amazing.) (used with permission)


Beautiful shirt by the wonderful angelys (used with permission)


Great shirt made by the even greater imhitomi (used with permission). She added faux long sleeves to it in order to create that layered look!


Seriosuly cute shirt made by the oh so talented Mika86 (Used with permission) The skirt was made with an altered version of the jeans pattern XD~!


The sweet wezlart made this hoodie using this tutorial! She followed these directions, adding a pocket and a hood in place of the collar!

Adorable itty bitty shirt by Oizys (used with permission). The tiny little pants were made with the jeans tutorial!


Hello Kitty! top by the nifty Mika86 (used with permission). Her awesome skinny pants made with the jeans tutorial!


Classy version by the charming CheapNeasy (used with permission)


Itty bitty puki dress by the amazing siruveru (used with permission)


Smexy sweater by the wonderful Sparrow (used with permission)

 

Gallery Continued


Adorable turleneck by the most sweetest wezlart (used with permission)


An adorable tiny shirt by the adorable NyuNyu (used with permission)


Cool top by the immensly talented hisuiyui (used with permission)


Cute babydoll top by the darling ryog (used with permission)


Adorable flirty dress by the awesome gelfling9uk (used with permission)


Trendy mini dress from the trend-wise Korofel (used with permission)







All three of the beautiful tops above are by the very talented (and patient to have hand sewn that all @_@) Higashi (used with permission). The black hot shorts were made using the Jeans tutorial!


Simply gorgeous version of the t-shirt tutorial by the amazing fenris (used with permission)


Stylish striped top by the way-too talented weird-doll-grl (used with permission) Pants made using the pants tutorial!


Sleeveless version (by ragdoll)

 

I feel so love ^___^ Thank you guys for all the wonderfully sweet comments! I really do adore you all!

To everyone who posted a question, you can find the answer in the FAQ section that immediatly follows the gallery (thanks to Xyria for that idea ). Ooh, I am getting organized!

And Ladybug_123, I would have never thought of that! (I graduated school with a 101.7 grade point average, but that doesn't mean I'm smart ^^) Thank you for the suggestion! I will deinitly do that for the next project.... Ooh what will it be? You'll see, everybody! Keep an eye out!

 

Thank you everyone! I really love getting all this feedback ^____^ And I can't wait to see pictures of your shirts! I have gallery space just waiting for them!

Sooo... any specific requests for what's next? I have gotten a few for hoodies and vests... and quite a few for jackets... is there anything else someone is just itching to see?

 

There are not enough smilies to express my love for you all! lol Thank you guys sooo much!

But the actual reasoning for posting this is to let you know that I have added a couple of tips to the FAQ (courtesy of you guys). If you have any other tips that you would like to share, post them here and I will make sure they get posted up!