Surely as you’ve perused your favorite online shops or window shopped around town you’ve seen tops with lace trim or the entire side or back cut out with only a lace filler. But what about all those lonely lace-less tops in your summer drawer? Today, we’ll show you two different ways to transform your tank tops into cute, trendy pieces for the summer months to come!
Materials:
– tank tops – you can use any tanks from last summer you’d like to spice up however, I bought a men’s pack of Fruit of the Loom undershirts for this project which cost me a grand total of $10 for 3 shirts. Not a bad deal!
– lace – any patterns and/or colors you want.
– washable fabric glue
– scissors
Tank 1: Lace Back
For this look, first decide how large you want your cut-out to be. Put the tank top on and eye-ball where you want to cut it (tip: always cut less and try it on again to avoid making the hole too large). When you are ready to cut you do so any way you feel comfortable. I folded the tank in half, like you would in grade school when making a snow flake, to ensure both sides are even but if you feel more comfortable marking a circle lightly with chalk before you cut feel free to do so.
Now, you should have a hole in your shirt, but before you throw away the circle fabric you just cut away from your top use it as a pattern to cut your lace. You don’t have to be exact or even perfect when cutting the lace since it will be on the inside of the tank top and no one will see the edges. All you must do it make sure the lace circle you cut is just about an inch larger in circumference as the circle from your tank. Refer to the picture below.
Turn your tank top inside out, lay it flat on the floor and put a thin line of glue all the way around the circle you just created.
Carefully place your lace over top and press lightly. Don’t be scared to get a little glue on your fingers, you really need to get in there and make sure the glue adheres nicely to the lace.
Pair with a glitzy gold wrap belt and head out on the town!
Tank 2: Side Panels
This one is a personal favorite of mine! To get started on this top pinch the sides together, as shown in the picture above, and cut a small half inch sliver all the way down the tank. (Tip: my tank is ribbed therefore making it easy to follow a straight line. If you are cutting an un-ribbed cotton top you should use a ruler and lightly pencil a straight line all the way down and pin the 2 sides together so they don’t move.)
Repeat the same cutting action on the other side.
Now, turn inside out, lay flat and again put a thin line of glue around the area you cut. Carefully place your lace panel onto the glue and press lightly to ensure the glue is nicely adhered. Repeat on the other side.
Once the glue dries on both tanks, they are ready to be shown off! Lacy, flirty, and just the right amount of scandalous. ;)
If you give this a try at home, we’d love to see pics! Tweet them our way to @brit or send a note to hello@brit.co.
Chelsa Skees, currently working as a freelance fashion stylist, has an ever-changing sense of fashion deriving from her decade long experience in the fashion and beauty industry. She lives in the East Village of New York City and is constantly reinventing her style based on her love of fashion, beauty, travel and all things digital. Her favorite color is grey and she can beat just about anyone in a bubble blowing contest. You can find her on Twitter or her website.
