Drab2Fab T-2-Tank Tutorial

Today's tutorial is using a .50 cent t shirt from a thrift shop and turning it into something fabulous!

Bree had an orthodontist appointment wednsday and she had a little spending money so we headed to Target. They had some of the cutest embellished t shirts which made me think how easy they would be to make. So we then headed to the thrift shop to find some t's to embellish. If you have children you know plain, unstained, nice looking t's are hard to find at a thrift shop so I turned to the next best thing. Men's t shirts. I knew that she would be wearing these under a jacket or cardigan so it didn't matter if it had writing on it. Most of it wouldn't be seen anyway. So I found about 5 shirts to play with, this turquoise being my favorite but it had a logo on the back. No biggie if it's going to be worn under something, just turn it inside out. :) Here is a step by step tutorial on how to turn a drab 50 cent thrift store t into a fab embellished tank. Of course if you wish to turn it into a tee all you have to do is add sleeves to make it a t shirt.

Here's the before and after:


Here is what we started with...


then I took one of her tanks and laid it on the shirt and cut around it...


leave the neckline untouched just cut around the tank leaving enough for the seam allowance. I had to cut this a little bigger since she's growing out of this tank...


this it what it should look like after you cut around it. The neckline is left as it was originally. The shirt will be sewn where the inside fabric will be the outside fabric...


on the front of the shirt which will be the right side of the fabric, put some iron on interfacing on so it will give the fabric more stability...


next I cut 1" strips left over from the bottom of the tshirt to make ruffles out of...


then spread the shirt out and figure out how to arrange the embellishments. I ended up not using the white rosette trim but used the white sheer fabric instead...


I sewed a basting stitch on the ruffles, ruffled them and then sewed them down...


for the white flower I ruffled a 1" strip of the white sheer fabric then arranged it in the shape of the flower and sewed it down...


here is a picture of what I used to make the flower and what it looked like after it was sewn on...


I then decided that it needed some petals so those were sewn on after I added the flower. I should have added them before the flower...


after you are done embellishing you will sew the tank together, WRONG SIDES TOGETHER...


then use a stretch stitch to hem the edge, make sure it stretches or it will break when you pull it over the childs head...


this is what a stretch stitch on my machine looks like...


and this is the finished product, I didn't finish the armholes because she will be wearing it under something...


here is what the stretch stitch on the hem looks like...


here is what the back of the tank looks like, you can barely see the logo and where I cut the tag off...


here is some close ups of the details. I added some glass buttons that someone gave me in a box of old sewing supplies and you can see how the shirt is sewn inside out, the logo is on the inside...


Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy this tutorial!!