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[imurvillain]

I'm playing a crossplay. I'm a very slender female and I found a men's dress shirt that would be perfect for this outfit. However, it's very large. I'm very unfamiliar with sewing and I was interested to find out what limitations there are as far as tailoring this dress shirt. Can a big baggy men's shirt be made to fit me? Or are some things just impossible? I'd really like to use this shirt and I called a few tailors, but everyone told me they need to see it first. Well I haven't purchased it yet and I don't want to unless I know it can be altered for me.

What has your experience been to make things fit? Thanks!

[thelovelysin]

Are you unable to buy a size down? Also just how baggy are we talking about here? And how fitted did you want the shirt to be?

[rubyspitfire]

take your chest measurement bound and buy a shirt in that size. it's much easier than trying to tailor something

[shonen_jidai]

Assuming that you cannot find this same shirt in a smaller size, you could take in the shirt a few inches along the side seams. A simple way to do this would be to find a male friend who is close to your size.

Then put the shirt on him inside out and with your fingers pinch enough fabric along the left and right side seams to get the fit you want. Use straight pins to hold the pinched fabric in place. Then put the shirt on yourself, still inside out and pinned, to check that the general size is good for you. However do not be tempted to pin it further to fit your shape. Since you are crossplaying a male character, you want to maintain the male shape of the shirt.

Once you're satisfied with the adjustments, sew along the line of pinned fabric to create the new left and right side seams. If you can't use a sewing machine, it can be easily done by hand with simple straight stitches.

Finally, try the shirt on again. If everything is good, then you can cut off the excess fabric along the new left and right seams.

The sewing for this is pretty simple, so some basic sewing tutorial videos on YouTube should be enough to get you through that part.

Good luck with your cosplay!

[Ion]

Are you just looking for something like a plain button-up Oxford shirt? If so, have you tried looking in the boys' clothing section? The larger end of the kids sizing spectrum will comfortably fit smaller adults. If you cannot find anything in regular department stores, check places that sell school uniforms where Oxford shirts are standard fare.

I used to cater weddings and the smallest mens shirt size was still too large for me but I had to buy in that size so every employee matched. Boys shirts however fit much better. It is worth a try.