Tutorial: Men's to Boy's Dress Shirt

We have an interesting scenario in our house: My husband has a ton of white dress shirts that are in great condition except for the elbows. My son does not have many dress shirts because I hate coughing up $15 for a shirt he's going to grow out of so fast and will only wear on Sundays. A predicament if I didn't sew. But, since I do, I use all of those old white shirts and give them new life! Welcome, free little white shirt!

What you'll need for this project:

~ one old men's dress shirt (you can use whatever type of dress shirt you want to!)

~ thread

~ dress shirt pattern

~ buttons

The first two things I do when making a dress shirt is take all of the buttons off. That way I have buttons for the new shirt and I didn't have to spend a dime! Love that. The other step is cutting the shirt, along the seams, into all the different pieces. Like so:

Next, I press all of the pieces and then lay the pattern pieces out. My little boy wears about a size 3T.

Sleeves:

Fold the sleeve in half and place the pattern along the fold. You'll want 2 separate pieces. Set them aside.

Front and Back:

Now, I actually can't fit a 3T on the front of a man's shirt without covering the pocket. So, I take off the pocket. In my experience, I haven't had problems with the holes left by the stitches in the pocket once I've washed the shirt. I cut out 2 front pieces.

I do the same for the back, making sure to fold it in half and place the fold on the pattern along the same line. You'll want just 1 back piece.

The two pieces will look something like this:

You'll notice the fabric on the front piece (red) sticks out farther than my pattern. That's because I didn't feel like taping another piece of paper to the pattern to account for the button holes. 

Next, I like to make sure the shoulders and armpits are in similar distance so I don't end up with a funny shaped shirt.

With the extra material from the front and back I cut out my neckband x2, collar x2, and sleeve cuffs (if doing long sleeves).

Constructing the shirt:

I like to start with the button part of the shirt. I take the front pieces and fold under the edge twice then press. You can add interfacing here if you want, but for a little boy I prefer not to. You'll see in my picture where the fabric is folded over on top of the pattern. That's the extra space I was talking about and didn't put into the pattern.

Once you've folded under each side of the front, pin, and then sew.

I like to sew right on the edge of the fabric. At this point, I move on to the rest of the shirt and add buttonholes and buttons at the very end.

Pin, right sides together, the back to the front of the shirt at the shoulders. Sew. Set it aside.

Next I pin the two pieces of the collar together and sew (right sides together). Leave the bottom open. Trim off the corners, turn inside out, and press.Trimming the corners will give you a sharper corner.

Next, I take the two neckband pieces and turn up the bottom edge and press. Do not sew them together yet!

When both neckband pieces are pressed, I place the collar between them and pin along the top. Starting at one bottom edge, I sew up along the curve, along the top (making sure the collar is sewn in), and then down the curve to the edge.

You should have a collar and neckband when finished. The bottom of the neckband should still be opened. Press down the neckband.

Now that the neckband and collar are sewn together as well as the front and back, it pin the two pieces together. I place each corner on the neckband flush with the edge of the front of the shirt.

I then work my way to the back of the shirt. If you end up making the neck on your shirt bigger than your neckband, no worries. A lot of mens' dress shirts have a little pleat in the back. When you've pinned the pieces together, sew them together making sure to catch the top and bottom neckbands.

After the neckband is sewn to the shirt, pin and sew the sleeves. Once the sleeves are sewn on, sew down the sleeve and side of the shirt.

After the shirt has been completely put together, you've only got a few more steps: hem the sleeves, hem the bottom of the shirt, add buttons and buttonholes. And with that, you're little man is ready to strut his stuff!

Pattern: Little Boy's Dress Shirt

Sewing is something I like to do without store-bought patterns. The whole purpose of sewing for myself and my kids is to keep clothing costs low. When you add the purchase of a pattern it defeats the purpose! So, rather than spend money on patterns I make them up! Sometimes it takes a few attempts, but the more practice I get the better things turn out!

For Halloween this year, D-man wanted to be Woody from Toy Story. Halloween is my holiday. It's the holiday that allows me to show off my stuff! Anyway.....do you know how hard it is to find a yellow and red plaid shirt that is true to Woody's style? Believe me, it is. But, not that like that matters because I would have made my own, regardless.

So, to make a pattern for a dress shirt, or button down, or whatever you want to call it -- grab a similar shirt from your little boy's closet. Just make sure it isn't stretchy like a t-shirt or you'll end up with a shirt that doesn't fit. If you don't have a dress shirt, no worries. You'll just have to take measurements and use a t-shirt as your guide. 

The first thing I like to do is fold the shirt in half and tuck the sleeve under. This shape will give me my front piece for the pattern.

 When it comes to making the pattern, I will some times use construction, white wrapping, or painting paper. Whatever I have on hand and is big enough. In my pictures you'll notice that the standard 8.5" x 11" isn't big enough, but you can tape more than one piece together or make notes. Anyway..... with the piece of paper behind the shirt, you'll trace right along the edge of the material, careful not to draw on the shirt.

 Once I've traced the shirt front, I take a fat tipped marker and add another 1/4" for the seam allowance. If you zoom in on the picture you'll notice that I make a few notes. Such as adding length to the bottom and making the center of the shirt extend out so that I can make the button portion of the shirt. You'll cut two pieces from this pattern for the shirt.

 I then flip the shirt over and repeat for the backside. This piece of the pattern you'll notice that I did not add the extra seam allowance down the center. That's because that portion will go on the fold of the material.

 Next come the sleeves. I lay flat the sleeve with the shoulder and side seams as my guide for the sleeve shape. You can do all sorts of stuff with the sleeves, like make it shorter, longer, 3/4, cuffed, un-cuffed, etc. For the Woody shirt I actually made cuffs, but for the pattern in the picture I was going for short sleeves. Whatever you do with your sleeves, make sure to allow enough room at the bottom for a hem (unless you're doing a cuff). In this picture, the non-seam allowance portion will be placed on the fold of the fabric and you'll cut 2.

 After the sleeves I like to move to the collar and neckband. I lay the collar flat and then fold it in half. Saves paper. Trace the outline of the collar and add the seam allowance. When it comes to cutting fabric, you'll need 2.

 Do the same thing for the neckband. You will also cut 2 of these. 

That, in a nutshell, is how to come up with your own pattern for a button down/dress shirt. I'll have tutorials on how to put all the pieces together soon enough!

But, in the mean time, constructing my own shirt pattern has proved pretty well so far. Don't you think?

If you have questions on how I did something or want to share your own project as a result of this post or related posts send me an email!

sewmuchpotential (at) gmail (dot) com