Hello everyone,
After high school or college, you may not be sitting on loads of money, but I'm pretty sure that you'll be sitting on loads of old T-shirts. I think I have a drawer (or 2,, or 3) full of T-shirts from my college sorority years. It was great while I was an undergrad, and I was all about wearing those and showing our sorority some love, but when you have a new shirt for every single event, man, they sure do add up! and while they were a great item to throw on when you're an undergrad,, well, let's just say that I don't find myself wearing those T-shirts to my grad school classes and performances! haha
I know I can still wear some of them around the house--for sleeping or exercising, and etc--but the thing is that majority of them are boxy T-shirts that are simply too hot to wear in Houston... too much material!! I very rarely find myself reaching for T-shirts when I could be in a tank top, or a loose fitting sleeveless shirts instead, especially when I'm exercising. So, I decided to perform some DIY magic on some of them, with a little help from Pinterest, to see if I could turn them into shirts I would reach for when I'm not attending classes.
All you need for this project is an old T-shirt and scissors.
I would recommend picking a T-shirt that isn't too baggy--basically any activity T-shirt that you used to wear should work--and that doesn't have writing across the chest. Because we're going to be cutting the neck area and cinching the back for a more fitted look, if the shirt has a writing across the chest, it is going to look like the writing is just below your chin by the end of the project. If you don't mind the look of that, then go right ahead!
So here is my T-shirt of choice. An old recruitment shirt from 2009. I know, I feel so old right now,, meh.. haha Anyway, notice how the design is at the bottom of the shirt, and not across the chest.
Lay the shirt out on a flat surface like so, and start cutting! I wanted it to resemble a tank top, so I cut the sleeves off first, about an inch away from the seams, making sure to cut the bottom part more (you're going to need the room because you'll be cinching the back). For the neck, I just left about an inch of fabric for the 'sleeve' of the tank top, and cut a scoop neck shape out. You don't have to cut the bottom, but I did since the shirt was quite long on me, and I wanted to keep the 'curving up edges' look uniform throughout haha
Then, turn the shirt over and cut the back parts of the sleeves and the neck area more. The reason I took the sleeve area in more was because this shirt wasn't super big on me, and therefore I didn't need the 'cinching' in the back to be very extreme. If you have a larger shirt, you can make the sleeves cut less extreme (leave it similar to how you cut the front) and that should make the shirt fit more snugly. The reason for cutting the neck area deeper is so that when you cinch, you don't have a whole lot of fabric leftover around the cinched area.
Then, using any ribbon or leftover fabric from your shirt, cinch the back together, and voila~!
A new tank top!
I wore it to our cherry picking adventures with a bandeau, and it was so much better than wearing a stuffy old T-shirt!
and here's the back picture with the cinching. I used the scrap material from the shirt to tie the back together, so you can't really see how it's tied, but I just simply double knotted it. You can be fancy and make a bow if you want, but since I'm going to be using this
I hope you have fun experimenting with your own old T-shirts! The best part about this is that because these shirts were not being worn anyway, you don't have to have any fear of 'ruining' a good item of clothing! And chances are that you have more than enough of these shirts lying around, so you can experiment until you find the right fit and cut you're looking for. Nothing to lose, and so much to gain! =D
I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday, and thanks for stopping by!!
--Janny
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