Have you ever wondered what to you do when a shirt’s neckline becomes stretched out and starts gaping really bad? That’s what happened with this particular shirt I love so I decided to fix it. Keep reading to see how easy it is.

I made this raglan t-shirt in January of 2021 to copy another shirt I saw online. You can read all about that here. I loved it and wore it often. The problem is the neck band kept stretching every time it was worn and washed while the rest of the shirt was shrinking. It got so big that the neck fit over my hips! It was time to fix it.

Cut Off The Neckband!

I hate using a seam ripper. There was a lot of stitching on this shirt neck. The edges were finished together with my serger, the neck band was sewed on with a lightning stitch, plus I had top stitched it with my twin needle. So there was no way I was going to unpick all that thread. So I cut the neck band off by staying super close to the seamline. 

Take in The Shoulder Seams!

I needed the neckline to be smaller so at each of the 4 shoulder seams I used my clear ruler and some tailors chalk and measured over half an inch at the top then tapered it down to blend with the seam line. I cut off that little wedge of fabric and sewed it back together. This is what made the neck smaller. All that’s left to do is add a neck band or facing. 

Add a Neck Facing or Band!

Now that the neck was smaller I just needed to add a band or neck facing to help it hold its shape. A neck band is visible and has to be stretched to fit the neck of the shirt. A facing is turned to the inside of the shirt and only needs to be stretched a tiny bit to fit the neck of the shirt. The scrap of fabric I’m going to use isn’t an exact match to the grey fabric because it is made of different fibers. I actually like the look of a facing more so I decided to do that instead of a band. But first I need to measure the neck opening. 

For this facing I was using a polyester jersey knit that wouldn’t stretch out like the previous band. To know how big to make it I  subtracted 15% from the neck measurement. 

I sewed the two short ends together to form a circle and then attached it to the neck right sides together at the quartered points. Then I turned it to the inside of the shirt and topstitched it in place with a twin needle.

That’s literally it! It took under 1 hour. I tried it on and it fit perfectly. I could tell this one wasn’t going to stretch out like the previous one did. Now I can continue to wear this fun shirt with all my favorite outfits. Hopefully this will be helpful to someone with a similar situation. 

Happy Sewing!

Koe