DIY T-shirt Tank Top

I spend about 1 hour of work each day browsing Pinterest for fun things (please don’t tell my boss), and I came across a do-it-yourself tank top out of a t-shirt.  Brilliant!  I mean, when I’m lounging around the house I like to be in a t-shirt, a sports bra, and athletic shorts or yoga pants or whatever.  But sometimes, the sleeves or the neck of a t-shirt will bother me and regular tank tops are too snug, which makes them uncomfortable for lounge time.  LBH, when I’m loungin, I don’t give a crap what I look like.  Long story short, I decided to try to make one of my t-shirts into a tank top for lounging around the house, working in the yard, or maybe wearing when I play sand volleyball.  I made one, I wore it, and now that’s all I wear!  Seriously, on a scale of 1-10, the comfort level of my t-shirt tank top is a 10.  How did I make this glorious t-shirt tank top?  Well, I’m so glad you asked!  Follow along to make your own t-shirt tank top!

First, I found a t-shirt that I didn’t really give a hoot about.  Then, I grabbed a pair of scissors from the knife set in my kitchen (side note: Calphalon knives are the bomb).  This t-shirt was my gift for participating in the 2010 Light the Night Walk in Dallas.  Its a medium and I usually wear a small, so I figured if I screwed up my project it wouldn’t matter because I never wear this t-shirt.

Instead of cutting off the sleeves separately, I decided to fold the t-shirt in half (hot dog style) so that all of my cuts would be symmetrical.

Now it’s time to slice off those sleeves!  I made my first cut at the top of the shirt, about 3 inches from the neckline.  I cut down in a slightly curved line until I got to the side of the shirt, about 2 inches down from the armpit.

Then, I cut off the neck line.  I started about 2 inches below the neckline in the center of the shirt and cut upwards in a slightly curved line until I reached the top of the shirt and was flush with the neckline.

Hey!  It looks like a tank top now!  If you unfold the tank top and lay it flat, you will have something that looks like a tank top your Dad wore during the family beach vacation in 1994.

To give the t-shirt tank top a little more flare, I tied the back of the tank top straps together.  You certainly don’t have to, but it makes the tank a little more feminine.  I didn’t bother to look for anything fancy to tie my straps together with, mainly because my craft boxes are underneath a giant mound of crap right now because we are still unpacking.  Instead, I cut a sliver of fabric (about 1/2 inch thick) from one of my discarded t-shirt sleeves.

I cut an opening in the fabric sliver so that I would have a straight piece of fabric to use as my strap tie.  Please excuse the obnoxious glare from the fluorescent lights in my kitchen.

Then I flipped my tank top over and bunched together the two straps on the back.  Hey – there is Slyder!!

And then I put the shirt face down on my kitchen counter (back straps still bunched together) so that I could tie them.  I tied my knot about 4 inches down from the top of the tank.

Wow.  That picture looks like a giant blob.  Let’s try that again.

I tied about 3 knots, but I suppose you could tie as many as you want.  I decided to leave the excess fabric from the tie and let it hang down to give the tank top a little more character.

Ta-da!!  It’s a t-shirt tank top!!  The whole project took about 10 minutes and is S-U-P-E-R easy!  Excuse me while I model my backside for you.  Disregard the color and wall paper trim in my master bathroom.  Painting is a priority on our house to-do list 🙂

Anywho, throw on your favorite sports bra and your t-shirt tank top and you are good to go for a weeknight or weekend of house-loungin’!