How to DIY women’s clothing to be masculine

[u/FakeBirdFacts]

This post is targeting trans masculine people, but the information can be useful for all trans people.

Muscle shirts:

Women’s shirts tend to be tailored to show off curves, cinching in the middle and having tight sleeves. An easy way to convert them to be more masculine is by cutting them into muscle shirts. This may not work for all women’s shirt, and varies on a few factors. Cutting the sleeves off makes the shirt fit looser, and cropping it slightly helps the shirt look boxier. The deeper you cut the sleeves, the more masculine it can look. However, if you wear a binder or trans tape, it can be visible in the muscle shirt. Here is an easy tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-aaMwI7L5M

Upsizing a shirt with side panels:

Some women’s shirts are too small or fitted to be converted into muscle shirts. With these shirts, you’ll want to upsize them with side panels to fit properly. Either color match with a similar fabric to the shirt you want to upsize, or use a contrasting fabric to create a unique shirt. Generally, for a fitted shirt to be more masculine, you’ll need to cut it straight and add a square panel. Here’s a tutorial: https://seamwhisperer.com/side-panels-shirt/ This tutorial keeps the shirt feminine, but is useful for understanding side panels.

Saving a shirt design as a reverse applique:

There are some shirts that you just can’t save, even when you love the design. A way to save it is to turn it into a reverse applique for a different piece of clothing. Here is a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlcTKvpLmBw

Upsizing jeans with side panels:

Similar to shirts, you can upsize jeans using side panels to give them a better fit. Here’s a tutorial: https://nyhandmadecollective.org/blog/2009/04/how-to-refit-old-jeans-with-side-panels.html

Bonus, here’s video I found detailing how to convert women’s patterns into men’s patterns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hnjiWBbKKw

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[u/FakeBirdFacts]

Most DIY tutorials are targeted towards women, and a lot focus on converting men’s clothing into women’s clothing. Finding the inverse is almost impossible, so I decided to put together easy techniques I know so other people can use them and wear the old clothing items they don’t want to throw away.

[u/apolloinjustice]

thank you for this!! these are great resources

[u/FakeBirdFacts → u/apolloinjustice]

Of course! Honestly I wish I could have added more, like a tutorial on how to convert certain long summer dresses into men’s shirts. Very doable, but not for beginners and does not have an easily followable tutorial.

If someone wants to do that: essentially you’ll rip apart the dress at the seams and use it as regular fabric. Then you’ll use a men’s shirt pattern and follow like normal.

[u/galactossse]

This is so cool!

[u/Pest_Chains]

Makes me wanna go thrifting rn. Also makes me wish there was a subreddit focused on men sewing clothes, masc ppl with sewing machines idk. I'm just getting into it and hemming & cropping are huge game changers!! Thanks for these resources OP

[u/JamieBartlet]

These are some awesome tutorials, thank you for compiling them ❤️