Why are t-shirts made soooooo looooooong?

Hi there

Here's one of life's most important questions?  Why do manufacturers of t-shirts make them so long?  Souvenir T-shirts, especially?

The first time I went to America on an extended trip, I desperately wanted to buy souvenir t-shirts.  In the end, I left the States without buying even one   I'd tried on dozens.   It wasn't because the shirts weren't cute/pretty/colourful/or symbolic, it was because all the t-shirts were far too long for me.  They were either modelled for giraffe-like super-models.  Or men.

I am, in old language, 5ft 1in.  I used to be 5ft 2in - I guess you grow shorter as you grow older...

On my last trip to America, I was determined to buy a Las Vegas shirt.  I settled on one from the upmarket souvenir shop at the MGM Grand.  A blue shirt with a glittery multi-coloured lion's head on it.  I had sneakily tried this particular shirt on the year before and abandoned it because of length.  It came down to just below my knees.  This time, I determined to make it shorter.  I would cut off about six inches, then re-hem it approximately another two.

But I am so tired of chopping off bottoms of  t-shirts and having to re-hem them (sloppily) by hand.   Over the past couple of years, there have probably been about 7 shirts in total.   To add insult to injury, I can't sew.  I sort of do an uneven back-stitch tacking sort of thing and I get completely lost whenever I reach a seam.  At school, my mother did my Clothing homework for me, and she got 2 out of 20 from the teacher for the attempt at  pyjamas!

Oh, and it's dresses, as well.  In the shop, the hem often flounces around me on the carpet  and it looks like I'm standing in a puddle.  If I chopped off the ankles of trousers, I would lose all sorts of added prettiness, like buttons, ribbing, cuffs, bands, designwork..

Well, no more.  You hear me, you manufacturers' of  t-shirts?   New Zealand, America, Hong Kong - I don't care where you come from or where I purchase your t-shirts.   Short ladies (and surely there's more of us than sky-high models of 6ft tall) are on the verge of revolting.

I can be very revolting when pushed..

Here's the MGM shirt that I have chopped the bottom off, quite jaggedly I admit with rather blunt scissors, then hemmed up not-too-well.   I'm too ashamed to let you see the stitching.