Haute To

HAUTE TO: DIY Front Tie Top From A Tank Top

When my mom announced we’d be going to Batangas for a beach trip, my mind went full on clothes catalog mode ala Cher from Clueless’ iconic computerized wardrobe scene: I mixed and matched outfit pieces in my head until I knew exactly what look I wanted. The problem? We were due to leave in 3 days and I didn’t have the top I was visualizing. Now, I know any normal person would have just gone out to the mall to pick up this ideal top. But of course, me being me, I decided to go for the thriftier route– a DIY was officially in the making.

Materials

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  • any tank top of choice
  • a pair of scissors
  • two sheets of paper

Steps

A WORD OF CAUTION: What you are about to see can only be defined as an extremely half-assed, she-clearly-just-winged-the-whole-process tutorial. If you’re a very meticulous person who likes to learn through strictly made strategies, this may not be for you. This one’s for the lazy girls back home *peace sign*.

ONE. Lay down your tank top on a flat surface. Place the two sheets of paper on either side of the tank top’s bottom half. Allow around four inches of space in between the sheets. The top side of your sheets define how short the final top will be so adjust this to your liking.

TWO. Cut along the sheets. Full disclosure: When I first attempted this, I made the mistake of leaving a space that was much too thin as seen in these pictures. But don’t worry– if you made the same mistake, it still works out in the end!

THREE. Cut the remaining space in half going all the way to the neckline. As you can see, because I didn’t leave a wide enough fabric, I was left with very thin strands after. Fortunately, this isn’t too big of a problem especially if you’re using a good quality tank top. If you’ve done this step correctly, you should be left with two 2 strands of 2-2 1/2 inches of fabric and a tank top split in half.

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FOUR. Tie the straps/strands together in a bow.  Don’t worry about rough cuts– you can always hem it later! Personally, I don’t really know how to sew, so I used a hot glue gun to smooth out the uneven ends on the other tie-front top I made and used for the trip. At the end of the process, you should have something that looks like this:

And voila! This DIY was incredibly easy to do. Be prepared for a number of trials and failed attempts, so I suggest trying this out on a test top first. You will likely need to hem your neckline, so get creative and fold the flaps to your liking.

Good luck and have fun! 

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