T-Shirt to Tank Top - Very Pinteresting!

I've seen these t-shirt turned tank top tutorials on Pinterest and wanted to take a shot at it myself.  I'm a little stubborn and like to look at the finished product and figure it out for myself, so here are the directions I came up with.

Being the mother of boys gives you lots of opportunities to collect lots of boxy boys' t-shirts as the kids outgrow them...yes, I'm now smaller than my 14 year old!

I always liked the idea of this Superman tee, but it wasn't flattering with the high crew neck and boxy fit.  I could always use new work out tanks, so let's do this thang...

I found a tank top I liked and used it as a guide for the front:

I cut out along the arm holes:

Here is the back:

I folded the front to the inside so I didn't cut through my "pattern tank" while cutting the back of the t-shirt.  I allowed the center of the racer back to be a little thicker than the example (I left the center strip about 4 - 5 inches wide):

Here is the tank after it was cut:

Using a 5 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch strip of the sleeve, I made the gathered detail on the racer back.  Simply gather the material in the center of the back by pinning the ends of the strip together like this (I placed the strip longways and pinned the short ends together):

Sew like this (I used the edge of my presser-foot as a guide for the seam):

Now you can see the strip pulling the back of the tank into the center with the seam to the outside, pins removed, here:

Let me show you how to magically turn this seam to the inside using my favorite Vine app:

 

This was my first attempt and I was a little messy with the scissors, but it took me less than 15 minutes from start to finish!  I see lots of fun tanks in my future!

Do you like T-Shirt Rehab projects?  Check out some of my archived posts for more fun ideas here:

Bleach - Stenciled T-Shirt

Easy T-Shirt Necklace

Ombre Heart T-Shirt

Rosette T-Shirt

Layered Cut-Out T-shirt

Block Printed T-shirt