Is it possible to make shoulder area bigger in a football shirt

flea72

Actually how long as he been wearing it. You say it was ordered in the summer, tbh i wld expect a teenage lad to only get a few months out of a top as they grow so much. Or you cld try the shrunk in the wash route with the company that supplied them?

cjj_2

Thankyou flea, will look at cutting the logo out.
I appreciate your advice.

littlepinkbiscuits

I had to do something similar for OH. He is part of an official supporters club for our local rugby team and the official logo covered shirts which were ordered were too small (and from China so not returnable:mad:). He takes XXL and it wouldn't touch him so I had to cut up the side seam, then along part of the sleeve and add a 4 inch panel of matching sweatshirt fabric on both sides, tapering off at the elbow as the shirt is long sleeved. This freed up the chest and shoulders. I was asked to do some others and just cut the whole side seam out on the short sleeved shirts and added a 4 inch piece along the whole side and sleeve, hope that makes sense.

cjj_2

littlepinkbiscuits wrote: »

I had to do something similar for OH. He is part of an official supporters club for our local rugby team and the official logo covered shirts which were ordered were too small (and from China so not returnable:mad:). He takes XXL and it wouldn't touch him so I had to cut up the side seam, then along part of the sleeve and add a 4 inch panel of matching sweatshirt fabric on both sides, tapering off at the elbow as the shirt is long sleeved. This freed up the chest and shoulders. I was asked to do some others and just cut the whole side seam out on the short sleeved shirts and added a 4 inch piece along the whole side and sleeve, hope that makes sense.

Aww thankyou so much for this. So there is hope :j
I have 6 shirts to do and if I cut off the transfers and glue onto new shirts I'm looking at a cost of £270 :eek: I havnt got that sort if money for this lol. I have 4 short sleeve and 2 long. Would you mind if I pm you if I need any more advise please ? Thankyou again littlepinkbiscuits.

Evil_Olive

littlepinkbiscuits solution is a good one, not too fiddly and probably the least noticeable in-wear if you can't get hold of perfectly matching fabric. Be aware though that it will increase the size of the whole garment. When a teenage boys shoulders fill out, the rest of the torso tends to stay pretty slim, giving an inverted triangle type shape, so the top could be pretty baggy in the body afterwards.

An alternative, that will leave the fit around the body as it is now, is to cut a slit over the top of each shoulder - from front to back, going across the shoulder seam at right angles, and insert a diamond shaped gusset. You'll want the slits pointing towards the nipple. A slit about 5-6 inches long in front and same in back will probably be about right (so, 10-12" long gusset) - though the more width you are adding, the longer and more tapered the diamond shape will have to be. As long as you use a piece of fabric that's a reasonable colour-match, it should end up looking like a deliberate part of the design.

You can test how wide/long the diamond gusset will have to be by cutting fairly short slits first and pulling the top of the sleeve to the correct place at the edge of the shoulder, then gradually cutting the slits longer until the shirt sits right. Your gusset will have to be the same shape/length/width as the hole that creates, plus extra for seam allowances etc.

I've used this method with success on quite a few vintage garments that had very narrow shoulders.

It also works the other way round - to make too-wide shoulders narrower by making a diamond-shaped dart instead of inserting a gusset. A good cheat if you don't want the hassle of unpicking and re-attaching the sleeve top so that you can shorten the shoulders.
Sorry about the carp drawing - did it in MS Paint just now as google image wasn't forthcoming with anything suitable.....

cjj_2

Wow Olive, thankyou for the detailed reply. I shall study this and decide how to proceed