Tuesday, March 8, 2011

How to add stretchy straps to a tank top to lengthen it

Today's post is brought to you by the motto "If you cut it up, it will come" Summer that is! I am "D", "O", "N" ,"E", done with the cold!!! I was chatting with someone who originally lived here but now was in New England and they made a snarky "oh you are having weather" out there comment. I don't live here to have "weather"!!!! Come on mother nature work your magic!
A girl can dream of wearing her little fun tank tops and skirts can't she? I pulled out some of my summer tanks and while I love this gray tank for the studded details it is a bit short in the waist so I thought I'd lengthen it at the top straps.
Pretty easy, I just cut along the top seams.
Next to make some new and improved long straps I went to the scrap stash and found a nice chunk of gray t-shirt that had enough fabric to use for new straps.
I cut the sleeves open and after a few passes under the Simplicity Deluxe Rotary Cutter at the 2.5 inch setting I had 4 new straps for my tank. (After I first trimmed off the sleeve hems.)
In keeping with my new "trying to do things more rock n' roll" less rigid I opted for a crazy top stitch to sew the new t-shirt strips onto the tank.

Try as I might to be all irregular about this I ended up with almost perfect 5 point stars by the 4th strap. I just can't do things with out some order creeping back in after repetition sets in.
I would like to note I used my zipper foot because I had to work around a metal stud under the top fabric which I later trimmed so as to expose the stud underneath.
All that was left to do was try on the tank and have some fun tying the straps different ways! This was my favorite with a knot tying the front strap to the back seam and the back strap at the front seam. I tried bows at the shoulder and a few other places but the knots with the double strap effect seemed to win.

Happy cutting all y'all!

2 comments:

Cyndi L said...

Stefanie, you are soooo clever! I'm also in New England so it may be awhile before I can wear something like this, but it never hurts to plan ahead :-)

Eileen The Artful Crafter said...

What a clever solution for all those crop tops I have that are now too short. Thanks for the great idea!

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