How to Cinch the Waist of a Shirt

Choose any shirt/top you would like to tailor.

Flip the shirt inside out and put it on.

Gather the extra fabric around the waist and push a pin through the sides of the shirt to make it more form-fitting to your torso.

Do this for both sides of this shirt.

Carefully remove the shirt and use a white chalk or marker to draw the curve of the waist.

Pull the thread through the eye of the needle to begin stitching.

Tie the end of the thread into a knot by looping a hole through (as shown in the picture) and pull it tight.

Repeat this step 3-4 times to create a larger knot, until a visible knot forms at the end.

Start by pushing the needle through the back of the shirt to the front, sewing together the two layers of fabric.

Thread the needle back through the front of the shirt, roughly 1 cm apart from the previous stitch.

Thread the needle through the back of the shirt and bring the needle back to the opening of the previous stitch you made, threading it through the same hole and creating what looks like a loop.

Repeat this back stitch until you reach the end of the curve you marked previously and form a continuous line.

To end the stitch, place the needle under the last stitch on the back side of the shirt.

Pull the needle until a loop forms, and leave a small loop (don’t close the loop all the way).

Pull the needle all the way through the small loop.

Repeat again with the smaller loop on the right side and cut off the excess thread.

Repeat steps 5-14 for the other side of the shirt.

Cut along the excess fabric outside of the stitches.

After cutting off the excess fabric on both sides, the shirt should look similar to the second picture.

Flip the shirt back to the outside and try on your new cinched in shirt.

You're done!