One of the common issues with many tops is that they are too long and end on an unflattering point, or just are not proportionally great for you. I talked about ruching up the sides in this blog post where you can sew or use shirring elastic to do so. Today I want to share a different option that can be done easily even without a sewing machine.
This is for who needs a way to ruche their shirt sides to shorten the hemline a little and/or has minimal sewing skills and/or no sewing machine. It can be done by hand or machine.
Cut some soft and preferably sheer (mesh spandex is fab) strips (the softer and sheerer, the better). You can use masking tape to measure out and cut the strips instead of trying to mark and cut evenly. Just dampen the fabric to remove the tape when you're done cutting so it doesn't get pulled out of shape.
On the wrong side of your shirt, mark an inch up from the hem (or just use the top of the hem as your mark for the bottom of the strip). Your strip length should be from about your waist to the top of the hem and just cut two same length strips now so they are even on both sides of the shirt.
You will be sewing three vertical rows over the sheer strip on both side seams. One up the middle over the original seam and a row on each side of that. See the picture where the red stitching is.
Leave the top and bottom edges of the sheer strip open! Get a cord, yarn piece, string (I like soft ) that is about four times longer than the sheer strip and tie it to a small safety pin. Thread the cord down one little tube your stitching formed, across the bottom, and up the other side leaving long "tails" for tying. Pull both ends of the cord and tie where you want! This is infinitely adjustable and if you leave the tails long enough, you can even wear it without any ruching or as much ruching as you want. This also has the advantage since you may not know beforehand how much ruching you want in it.
More tips on Where to end your tops
