Gwen Fisher<p>I had been wanting to try making this strappy tank top idea for a couple of years. The night before last, I finally started by tracing around an old tank top of mine that is wearing out. I didn’t make a pattern, but instead cut around the old tank top directly into a big scrap of cotton jersey, and today it’s done. It was as easy as I hoped it would be. </p><p>The front is two layers, with cutting into the top layer after all if the sewing was complete. The straps are four layers made with two strips that are each folded in half. The trick for the binding and straps was to baste all the binding together before I started stitching it for real with thick thread. I made the straps longer than they needed to be and then pinned them in place on the back where they fit. Then I sewed the ends of the straps down, right over the binding, nothing fancy. I used to belabor details like that, trying to figure out how to make them look perfect. But now I don’t worry about perfection, and I just do what is easy annd comfortable, and it looks fine. After all, just a piece of clothing. </p><p>Because I extended the bottom hem of the original shirt that I copied by several inches, it didn’t fit over the hips. So I busted open those seams and added some extra fabric there. Now it fits perfectly. Come on summer!</p><p>Cotton jersey with a bit of spandex, cotton thread, entirely hand stitched. <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/sewing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sewing</span></a> <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/applique" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>applique</span></a></p>