Making Dev Conference T-Shirts Flattering To Wear

Free T-Shirts at dev conferences. Great for blokes, baggy and unflattering if you're not a bloke. Here's how to give them a bit of shape.

Jenny List

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Description

If you work in tech, you will fairly quickly amass a heap of t-shirts from dev conferences and other events. Great logos, evidence of your exploits, but if you're a woman they're very often baggy and unflattering bloke-shaped sizes. This project shows how to take in a male-fit t-shirt to a more flattering profile.

Details

I'm taking a t-shirt, in this case one from the JQuery Oxford event in 2012 that I've never worn because it's too baggy, and taking it in at the sides to give a more form-fitting and flattering shape.

To do this I'm setting it up on a tailor's dummy and pinning it to the shape I want it to be, then using my overlocker to remove the excess fabric and create side seams.

This project is easier with a tailor's dummy and an overlocker, but there is no reason you can't have a careful friend do the pinning while you are wearing the t-shirt, and also no reason why you can't use a conventional sewing machine and cut manually if you find another way to finish the cut edges.

Components

1 × t-shirt in a baggy and unflattering bloke shape.
1 × pack of dressmaker's pins
1 × dressmaker's dummy or willing model
1 × overlocker or sewing machine
1 × Suitable thread

Build Instructions

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1

Step 1

Take your t-shirt, have a good look at its design, and identify its centre line.
2

Step 2

Turn the t-shirt inside out, and place it on the tailor's dummy, or on your willing model. Line it up very carefully so that the centre line is exactly central, and ensure the shoulders are sitting straight and in alignment.
3

Step 3

Pin the t-shirt to the dummy down the centre line to ensure it keeps its alignment. If you are doing this on your model, either do your best in the next steps to ensure it doesn't lose alignment, or if you can, pin it to any clothing they are wearing underneath it.