Make a Workout Tank from a T-shirt
While I love dressing up and making cute outfits for special occasions, most of my laundry ends up being workout clothes. In these summer months, it's hard to want to wear T-shirts instead of tank tops and lately I feel like I've been running low on tanks. I like to wear them to yoga and when I’m running. Also, I’m not a big fan of running in t-shirts because I’d much rather have a racerback tan than a farmers tan (because I’m vain), plus tanks are so much more breezy! These hot days have been killing me and I just don’t have enough tanks (without doing laundry every other day) for yoga and running right now. Rather than go out and spend money (which I would love to do ), I figured I’d get by with some tanks made from tees!
A few years ago I did the Enchanted 10k in Disney World with my hubby and sister, and hubby never wears the princess-y workout top we got with the race, so I decided to make it into a running tank!
First I grabbed a tank I liked the shape of, and got cutting. I liked using my rotary cutter, because I could leave the shirts flat on my cutting mat, but scissors will work just fine, too. Also, try the shirt on a lot while you’re making cuts. You might find that fewer steps result in a shape you really like!
- Lay your T-shirt down flat, and lie your tank on top of it. Either mark where you’re going to cut with a pencil or tailor’s chalk, or just use your rotary cutter and cut off the sleeves and neck. (You could leave the neck, but I prefer a lower cut for a workout tank.) You might be done! See what you think of this shape.
- Take your cut up T-shirt, and fold it in half the awkward way - so you can see your side seams. This helps you keep your cuts consistent/symmetrical on the right and left sides. At this point, I made the neckline lower and the racerback more pronounced. You could also make your armholes larger and lower in case you want a bit of breeze on your abdomen.
- Keep trying on your shirt and repeating step 2 until you’re happy. You can err on the side of caution and make lots of minor adjustments - you can always cut away more fabric, but you can’t put it back!
- Optional - stitch up the arm holes and neck hole. Using a binding stitch, you can quickly go around each hole to keep the fabric from fraying. However, most t-shirt fabric doesn’t really fray much, so you can skip this step as long as you don’t mind how it looks. If you really want to go crazy, you could always create a neckband or use some stretchy bias tape and give your tank a more finished look. This of course takes more time, makes you take out your sewing machine, and just might not be necessary for a quick tank you’re just going to sweat in.
- A fun touch would be to accentuate the racerback shape by tying a bow around the fabric at your back - I did this to wear to a 5k fun-run with a friend.
Keep in mind that this won’t fit you snugly like other tanks you might already own. I think some of the charm in a garment like this has to do with it’s roughness, and the fact that your sports bra will probably be showing a little. Plus, you’re mostly just going to be sweating in it. No one will care if it’s perfectly tailored to your body.
Happy Sweating!
