Holy Tank Top Batman – This Needs Refashioning!

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There’s this little store in a town about twenty minutes from where I live that has a rack at the back where they place their clearance items which are priced between $1 and $5. Whenever I’m in the area I stop in to check out that rack and I’ve found some amazing things. Just before I left for my summer vacation I found this grape purple tank top with a gathered front and a blousy silhouette that just needed a little TLC before I packed it for the trip.

front of tank top

 

 

Holy back!

Close up of holy back 🙁

 

 

The back was riddled with holes. Fortunately all the holes were in the upper section so I carefully cut the bias binding around the armholes and around the back right at the edge of the stitching so that I could use it as ties for the halter I was planning to turn this into.

cutting away the seam binding

 

 

Once the seam binding was trimmed away from the top I cut the back straight across from the bottom of one armhole to the other. The pic below looks as if I’ve cut away the front also, but what you’re seeing is the masking tape that I used as a cutting guide.

Removing the back - no more holes!

 

 

When I tried the halter on I could see that it sagged almost to my waist in the back, which looked cute but would make wearing a bra impossible. The solution was easy. I have a collection of those clear elastic pieces that manufacturers sew into garments to keep them on the hangers, but which no matter how much you tuck and fuss with them end up sticking out of your clothing. I always cut them out and save them for my refashions. In this case I just turned the edge of the back down to make a casing and used a safety pin to drag two of these clear stretchy pieces (stitched together) through the casing. Stitched the elastic to the top on one side, tried the top on and safety-pinned the elastic on the other side after gathering the back so that it would stay where I wanted it to.  Trimmed the elastic, sewed the casing closed and I’m almost done.

Last step was to sew each piece of seam binding that had been trimmed from the shirt to the seam binding at the neck line to make a long tie for my new halter. After looking at the before and after pics I’m glad this top had a holy back which forced me to refashion it. I think the front is much more feminine as a halter than it was as a tank.

front of new halter

back of new halter

 

 

Done!

Rolls Royce Halter Top

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It’s summer so you’ll be seeing a lot more t-shirt refashions coming out of the Irish Attic. It’s hot in Southern CA and it will be hot and humid in Michigan, the two places I’ll be this summer. So t-shirts will be a wardrobe staple, but there’s nothing that says they have to be the same-o-same-o boxy crew-necks that or fitted v-necks that I see all over the place.

This isn't my t-shirt but I found an exact replica on-line.

 

I bought this t-shirt when I was out and about one day and the weather turned way too hot to be wearing what I had on. I stopped into a Target store to grab a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and went on my way. While I really did like this t-shirt I was just not into the basic crew-neck so out came the scissors … I must apologize for the lack of “during” pictures but I once again got so excited that I grabbed the t-shirt, started hacking and sewing and was done before I thought that I might want to post this as a tutorial. I’ll try to make up for the lack of pictures by giving you all a very detailed tutorial.

I started by cutting a straight line thru both front and back of the t-shirt just below the neckband. Then fold the t-shirt in half lengthwise and mark where the center front is. Smooth the t-shirt out flat on your work surface and mark a line from under the sleeves to the center point. I rolled my rotary cutter down the line and off came both sleeves leaving me with a triangle shaped top portion. Flip the shirt over, mark and cut a straight line from the bottom of the armhole, or since the armhole is now non-existent cut from the bottom of the triangle on one side straight across to the other side taking care to cut only thru the back layer of the t-shirt.

At this point you can cut the hem off the bottom of the t-shirt to use for your binding or leave as is and use a contrasting fabric as binding. I left my hem intact and used a white t-shirt, cut into strips for my binding. You can choose to finish your t-shirt the easy way or the hard way. I chose the hard way because I really liked how the laced binding would look, but it takes lots more of your binding fabric and a bit more time. I snipped very small holes about 1/2 inch from the top, approximately 1/2 inch apart and all the way across the back of the t-shirt from side seam to side seam. I measured how much binding I would need to bind the back, up the armholes to meet in the middle of the shirt and have enough to tie behind my neck in a bow and added and extra foot to give me enough for the lacing across the back. I marked the middle of my binding and the middle of the back of the shirt and started lacing from the middle of the shirt until I reached the side seam, gathering the back slightly as I went. Then I pinned the binding to the armhole and up to the top of the triangle. I did the same on the other side, crossing the binding over the 1st piece of binding at the top of the triangle. Tried it on, adjusted the lacing to make sure there was no gaping, sewed the binding in place from the bottom of the armhole to the top of the triangle.

The easy way would be to skip the lacing and pin the binding to the shirt, gathering the back of the shirt so that there is no gaping when wearing the shirt. Try it on, make your adjustments and then stitch in place.

And this is what you’ll end up with …

front view

I’m not showing the back view because I can’t get a good pic of it today. I’ll try to get a better pic and post it later. The lacing is just an over and under thing. Experiment with it and you’ll find your Zen.

Option 2 – Tank Top

If you shy away from halter tops you can easily make this as a tank top by eliminating the step where you cut straight across the back. Make a small hole 1/2 inch from the top of the triangle at the back only. Start your binding at the top of the back of the shirt and around the armhole crossing over at the top front of the shirt. Put the shirt on and slip both sides of the binding thru the hole at the back and tie.

 

 

 

 

Repurposing Luggage

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Decorative Storage Containers

I was in the process of changing out my seasonal household items, going from summer to fall, and was on my way to the store to purchase those big plastic bins with lids. I got to looking at them and the cheapest ones were still between $8-$9 each! I considered what I had at home and it occurred to me that I have many pieces of large luggage that are just sitting there empty. Now I still want to use my luggage to travel with but I can certainly pick up used luggage at garage sales and thrift stores to store my seasonal decor in. My only qualm was how to clean the used luggage both inside and out before feeling safe to bring it into my home.

Samsonite says:

“To clean soft sided luggage, we recommend spot cleaning with a mild soap such as dish soap and water. If this is not successful, try a product used for spot removal on clothing such as Spray ‘n Wash, or a foam type cleaner used to clean car mats or automobile carpets. If the luggage has an odor, use a vinegar (1 part) and water (5 parts) mixture. This may take the odor out but the luggage will then need to be aired out for a few days. Also, we recommend placing charcoal in the luggage for a day or more (depending on the strength of the odor) and closing the bag. The charcoal will absorb the smell.”

Well that will help to clean my luggage but I’m still not confident that it will sanitize it, so back to Google to see what I can come up with.  One traveler recommended sanitizing the inside and outside of suitcases with a hand-held steam cleaner. Apparently the heat will be hot enough to kill any bugs and germs. I like that solution. In fact I think I’ll steam my new/old luggage using the vinegar and water solution.

I made sure to buy luggage that would fit in with my decor so that I could hide my stored items in plain site. I plan to put all of my winter items inside four suitcases and stack them beside a small sofa to use as an end table. If you don’t want to bother with having to find “pretty” luggage you can always slide them under the bed or stow them in the garage.

Game Storage

Storing some of your favorite board games in a piece of luggage makes it easy to take to game night at a friends home.

Traveling Toy Show

Store children’s toys in one of your luggage pieces. It will fit under the bed and you can grab it and go when needed.

Boxy T-shirt Made Over into Cute Workout Tanktop

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I have a bunch of these t-shirts from the Spirit Run race and I get new ones every year. They’re the typical event t-shirt, boxy crew necks that are unflattering on one and all.

I don’t even like wearing them to sleep in. I don’t feel pretty in these t-shirts and I want to feel nice even when I’m just lounging around the house and so I began to look at these t-shirts to see how I could refashion them into something that I would enjoy wearing.

This first one I decided to make over into a workout tank top. Well, I would wear it to work out in where I live in Southern California, but when with my family in Michigan it’s fine to wear with jeans around the property. It was a very simple makeover. First thing I did was to fold the shirt in half vertically so that the shoulder sleeves touched on the left side and half the Spirit Run logo showed on the right side.

With a piece of chalk and a ruler I drew a line from just below the armhole to the edge of the ribbing at the neck, leaving the neckline intact. I whipped out my trusty rotary trimmer and cut away the sleeves along my chalk line and then up around the neck line a bit.

Sleeves begone!

sleeve closeup

Alas, I cut too deeply and was showing WAY more skin than I wanted to. What to do? What to do? I started playing around with some bright blue ribbing that was leftover from another refashion and was ecstatic to find that it would work perfectly to fix my scissors-happy mistake. I think the end result is even better than if I hadn’t had to use the ribbing to fix things.

I safety pinned the ribbing to the too large armholes stretching the t-shirt to fit the ribbing which caused it to be gathered and therefore smaller and less inappropriate.

Safety pins are much less prickly than straight pins when trying garments on.

I basted the ribbing to the t-shirt then stitched it on with a wide zig-zag machine stitch. Removed the basting stitches and VIOLA! – new tank top!

If I get a few more workouts in maybe I'll pose for you all in my new tank!

Close up of the neckline and armhole trim.