Sewing Saves the Day: Football Jersey Fix

Make a football jersey bigger
Hi there Today I'm kicking off a new sewing series on my blog. It's called Sewing Saves the Day! Today I'll show you how to fix a football jersey. One of my favorite things about sewing is that I can use it to fix problems, make my kids dreams come true, and just make my life easier in general. Mostly I feel like these practical projects aren't very blog worthy topics because I may not use pretty fabric or the finished results aren't very visually interesting. But there are so many times when sewing really does save the day.  So I'm going to start sharing them. For my first practical project I want to share a football jersey fix.

How to make a football jersey bigger

Since the word on the street is that I know how to sew, I frequently have people ask me if I can help them out by sewing something for them. I don't always say yes but when really the only way for them to fix a problem is with a sewing machine, I have a hard time saying no.  For instance my neighbor needed me to help fix a football jersey. He stopped by with his son's Football practice jersey that just wasn't big enough for the poor little guy to get his arms in.  He was already in the biggest uniform available so we brainstormed a little on what we could do fix this. My lawn edger broke a couple of weeks ago and I'm trying to sell my house so he's going to edge for me for a couple of weeks and I'm going to fix his son's uniform. Win Win, right?
Make a football jersey bigger

Add a side panel of performance stretch spandex fabric

I ended up adding a 3" stretchy panel at each side seam and I think it turned out great so today I'm showing you how I did it. First I unpicked the hems on the sleeve and the bottom edge.
unpick the seams


Unpick a serger seam by cutting it off

Then, instead of unpicking the whole side seam I just cut off the serged edge. It saved a ton of time.


We picked up some performance stretch spandex and I cut a 3 inch strip that was a little longer than the side seam. I serged along one end.

Then, with right sides together I sewed it on to each side seam aligning the serged end with the unhemmed edge of the sleeve.

 At the bottom, I just cut off the excess and serged along that end as well.

How to hem a football jersey

Then all that was left to do was hem the sleeve and bottom again. I used a double needle on my regular sewing machine.to do that. I also experimented with using the "Wooly" nylon in the bobbin. Its a fuzzy thread that's slightly stretchy. This brand calls it Bulky nylon.

Hopefully the stitches won't pull out as easily when the hem gets stretched.

And there you have it.  A pretty quick fix and now he can easily get it on and off.

I love it when sewing saves the day!!

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9 comments:

  1. That is genius! And looks so fantastic too! Well done!

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  2. What a great series! It's the everyday things that save us. Great save!

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  4. Hi Susan, this is such a great idea! Thank you for sharing.
    I'm in a bit of the opposite situation at my house. We have a football jersey that is too big. Shrinking didn't work, so I've decided to remove the solid strip that runs along the side. The trouble is, it runs partially up the back shoulder before connecting to the top/front shoulder section. I'd hate to cut and resize the shoulders and sleeves but it's looking that way.
    What kind of modifications or pattern do you recommend?

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  5. Instead of taking out the panel I would just sew a new side seam from the sleeve to under the arm. Lay the shirt flat while inside outta find where to place the side seam. Ignore the paneling and treat it as if it wasn’t there. Do you think that would work with your situation?

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  6. I accidentally cut a good size hole on an authentic nfl jersey.. how would I fix that?

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  7. Thank U for showing us how to make a jersey larger, n not smaller. My Gson, is in HIS first year of football. He is a big guy, who wears a 4X. They only have 2X. Can I still use the same technique? If so, how much would I need to add to make it fit right?

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