How to Custom Design Your Own Sleeveless T Shirt

Sleeveless T-shirts or tank tops are quite easy to make, whether you're performing a quick modification to an existing T-shirt or making one from scratch. All you really need is a pair of scissors, a needle and thread and the fabric you intend to use, and you're ready to get started. Here are the steps you'll need to follow for this quick and easy sewing project.

Things You'll Need

• scissors needle and thread or sewing machine fabric material for straps (optional)

Instructions

Designing Your Shirt

1. To make a T-shirt from scratch, first find a pattern you like. You can either buy a pattern at a fabric store or create your own by using a shirt you like as a guide. If following the pattern, all you have to do is follow the directions to make the shirt, so let's assume you're using another shirt as a guide for the rest of these steps.

2. Lay the guide shirt flat and measure it at the widest part of the shirt as well as from top to bottom. Use these measurements to purchase your fabric. Buy slightly more than the measurements you take so that you'll have room to trace the shirt a bit bigger than its original size, and be sure to buy double the length you'll need, as you will want to cut out a front and a back for your shirt. So, for example, if your shirt is 20 inches long, you should buy 40 inches of fabric. When choosing your fabric, look for a cotton-lycra blend or anything with a bit of stretch to it so that your shirt will hang properly.

3. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, and then trace the shirt you're using as a guide onto the fabric you've bought, using a piece of chalk. Give yourself at least a half inch of extra space on every side to allow for seams. Trace onto the wrong side of the fabric so that any remaining chalk marks won't show on the outside of the shirt once it's finished.

4. Cut around the traced pattern. You should now have both a front and back to your shirt.

5. Pin the two wrong sides of the fabric together, leaving your armholes, neck hole and bottom open (unpinned). If you are using a spaghetti strap shirt as your pattern, you won't have armholes.

6. Sew your shirt together at both sides, leaving the neck and bottom open.

7. Turn the bottom (and top, in the case of a spaghetti-strap shirt) hem under about a half an inch and sew it to the inside of the shirt.

8. Hem the neck hole of your shirt (if there is one). If you're creating a spaghetti-strap shirt, you'll want to sew on straps at this point. These can be made from scraps of your material, ribbons, webbing or anything else you find at the fabric store that suits your fancy.

9. Turn your shirt inside out and try it on!

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to buy cotton-lycra blends or any material with a bit of stretch to it.