Tank Top Refashion

My mom is a big shopper - she always seems to have something new to wear.  And yet she is one of the wisest people I know when it comes to handling money.  Her secret?  Thrift stores.

I used to be so embarrassed as a kid when mom took me shopping with her at Goodwill.  But now I'm really grateful that she did!  She instilled in me a love of bargains and the understanding that I don't need/deserve brand new clothes any time I want them.

Now, the only problem with this scenario is that my mom always seems to find things that fit her perfectly and I... don't.  Especially shirts.  One of the things I'm really excited about with my new sewing skills is being able to change some thrifted items to make them fit me better.

My first attempt was with this tank top.  I loved the color, print, and especially the crocheted section at the top.

I also loved the length of the shirt.  But I didn't like how billowy it as.  The gathering at the chest was just horribly unflattering and the rest of it billowed out like I was wearing a pillowcase and standing over a fan.  Not so attractive.

 Basically it was just too big.  Here are the steps I used to make it fit (leaving out the trial and error and retries that happened along the way):

1.  Using my seam ripper I took the crocheted portion off of the cloth but kept the whole crocheted piece intact.  I also took off the binding around the neck line and arms holes and saved it to reattach later.

2.  I turned the non-crocheted portion in-side-out and folded it in half so that the side seams were lined up.  Then I took a well-fitting tank top (folded in half) and traced the shape onto my fabric using tracing chalk.

3.  I cut out my fabric, unfolded it, and stitched my new side-seams together using a straight stitch.

4.  After double checking to make sure that front and back of the shirt were even, I pinned the binding back onto the arm holes and neckline and sewed it on.

 5.  Then I serged down the length of the side seams to reinforce them.

6.  Finally I reattached the crotched portion on to the front and back using a "lace" stitch.

It sounds simple but I made a ton of mistakes along the way.  Poked holes in the binding fabric, got thread caught in my machine (multiple times), poked myself in the finger, etc.  But in the end it was totally worth it because I love the way it turned out!  It fits well now - no more pillow case blowing in the wind!