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’!
Looks like a nice design of a shirt for an evening of sand volleyball as well!
easiest way of explaining this I found anywhere! took my 2 minutes! awesome thanks! 🙂
My pleasure, Natalia! Thanks for viewing 🙂