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!