Fiasco turned New Adventure

The other day I decided to try something new and spray paint a t-shirt. To find out all about it go read Spray Paint Fiasco and get a good laugh at my DIY fail. Well being a true DIYer I couldn't just toss the shirt. I decided to try something else I've been thinking about and take this shirt and make a tank top out of it. I didn't think I could make it any worst then it is so I just went for it.

This is the shirt I started with. I started off getting an old tank top of mine and using that as a guide. I just laid it on top of my shirt and started cutting. I made the straps bigger then the one on the tank so I could do something with them.  Then I decided to cut out the top of the shirt and make it deeper and more circular.

Sorry I skipped some steps with the pictures, it was late and I just wanted to see if this would work. So this is the basic picture of the cut of the shirt. Ignore the right side, I didn't think about the fact that I should be taking pictures until I got to this point.

To make the strap you need to cut three slits as deep as you want the strap to be. Make them all even and cut both sides of the shirt. If you know how to do a 4 strand braid you could also do that here.

Then you will take the strips you have cut in your hand and braid them just like you do hair. Don't braid them very tightly just a loose braid that stays together.

You want to make sure that you pull each strip all the way through and make sure it braids on both sides of the tank. Doing this it should braid the front and back at the same time. It takes a little bit to get the hang of it but just go with what looks right to you.

After you are done with one side it should look like this. you want to take the tree straps and wrap one completely around the other two at the top. Then you will get out your handy dandy needle and thread.

I just grabbed a needle that had thread on it and started sewing, I went over the meeting of the two sides pretty good so it would all stay together.

This is what it looked like and I knew I needed to do something with the straps in the back because it was to loose like this.

So I cut out the back a little more and make it more narrow.

Then I turned the shirt inside out and started sewing the braids together on the back. I started out about an inch below the braids and then just sewed up until I ran out of thread. Really its a personal preference on how far up to sew.

This is what it looked like after I was finished sewing it together. I tried to go threw the middle of both braids each time I sewed a stich so it would stay together well.

I only sewed up the braids about 2 inches and then I stopped. I made sure everything was going to stay together good and then stoped sewing.

This is what the back looks like on. I think it turned out pretty well for just winging it.

This is the front of the tank with the braids. If you look at the black stripes you'll notice they aren't as dark as they were before. That's because I took my sanding block and sanded those babies down. That's right I sanded a t-shirt. Why not? It worked really well and made them a lot softer. I think it made the tank a lot easier to look at and the stripes don't look as bad now.

Here is a close up of one of the front straps. I think they turned out really well. I think it would also look really cool if you painted one of the strips or all of the strips different colors. Maybe on the next one.

This is a side shot of the shirt. I wanted to show you how far down it goes on my body. I think its perfect to wear to the pool or to work out in.

And here is the back one more time. I think for my first try it turned out really well and I'll defintely be wearing this around for different things. Its really comfy and didn't take long at all to make.

For those of you who read my Spray Paint Fiasco and know about all the problems I had with this shirt to begin with. I wanted to let you know I did paint another one and it turned out way better! I took some of your advice and made sure I firmly pressed down the tape and I did really light coats of spray paint, I also kept it about 12 inches away from the shirt when spraying it.

Here it is after my first coat. I did 3 all together and let them dry for about 30 minutes in between each spraying. I only sprayed from left to right and I kept it pretty far away from the shirt to try and keep it from dripping and running.

After it thoroughly dried I pealed tape off and this is what I found. I am so happy! I screeched like the girl I am and did a little happy dance. I was so pumped that it worked and I want to thank you all for your lovely advice and encouragement to not give up!

The side wasn't perfect but I didn't expect it to be and with a little sanding it came right off.

Thanks so much everyone for all your advice and encouragement again! What do you think about the tank?