DIY Sweetheart Bandeau Top [with link to tutorial]

Strapless tops were never one of my favorite pieces of apparel. I was a bit self conscious about my shoulders and since most of them were tight fitting, it made me dread my lower stomach pooch.

This summer, I've been looking for new pieces to wear and I found this tutorial by fake-leather via Pinterest. It looked pretty simple and I tried it out on a spaghetti strap tank I already owned but never wore.

The verdict?

I LOVE it! I've made 5 of them in different colors! The tops look especially cute with skirts and a big belt so it hides my stomach pooch quite well.

There are a few steps not covered in the tutorial that I'm going to run through.

I started with this coral colored tank:

In fake-leather's tutorial, it doesn't seem like her top had a built-in shelf bra. I really hate shelf bras with a passion and despite looking high and low for a tank that DID NOT have one, all I found were ones WITH shelf bras.

So, I'm going to show you how to cut out that shelf bra and take off the straps! All you need is a pair of sharp scissors, a steady hand, and patience. 

First, find the side seams and pick which ever side to start cutting.

Next, start cutting from the bottom where the elastic is. Cut along the seam and then veer off either left or right. Your preference.

From here, just cut carefully around the upper part near the top elastic all the way around. Be careful and try not to cut the fabric on the back side or you'll have holes show up when you wear it. A good way to prevent is to take it slow and keep your hand under the bra to make sure the scissors are between the shelf bra and tank fabric. 

After you've finished that, you can cut straight across on the front of the tank (see fake-leather's tutorial) but don't cut the back straps yet! I've found if you just cut it off, it's left with these irritating "nubs" that will dig into your backside when you wear it and makes it 100x hard to sew through on your machine or by hand.

So, take your seam ripper or your scissors and carefully find the threads that hold down your straps and snip them ONE AT A TIME. 

Do this for both straps and now you're just left with the strapless tank body to finish! Follow the rest of fake-leather's [tutorial] and you're on your way to a cute sweetheart bandeau top for summer!!!

Here's how mine turned out! (Disregard the dusty mirror and stomach pooch.)

Clothing Recons

More crafts ahoy! This time I went through my older sister's closet for old t-shirts she doesn't wear anymore. I found 2 cute shirts and decided to make one into a halter and the other into a cute ruched-side tank. Many of these designs were inspired by Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt.

Here's pics of the white ruched tank:

Front-->
Side view of ruched side-->

Here's pics of the yellow halter:

Front-->
Back-->

The white tie is made from a strip of another white t-shirt I re-coned. Hrrmm... that reminds me... I have to get pics of those too. :P

And finally, here's the last recon item of the day! A Pacman skirt made from 5 different t-shirts. It should have only been made from 3 t-shirts, but I was having trouble finding 2 exact sized black tees and plain red tees. I found the black Pacman tee at a Goodwill store, one panel was made from a black tee my friend gave me, and the 4th panel was cut out from a black tobacco promotional shirt my dad had. (He never wore it anyway.) The red band was made from 2 separate red tees. If I had a better pic, you can see that they are 2 different color reds. One tee was from my college tee and the other from an old high school Homecoming tee.

Pics:

Front-->
Close-up on Pacman ghosts-->

Well, that's all the sewing I've done for now. I'm currently working on sock arm warmers and I have to finish my U-shaped butt pillow. I'm hoping I can make a faux Harry Potter Gryffindor scarf tonight, but time is slim and I must pack for my month long trip tonight. ^^;