Stripey Tank

You may have noticed my reference to (and picture of) an unblogged self-drafted tank top in last week's Me-Made May roundup. Well, I'm here to show it off some more, and document some firsts for me!

First and most importantly, this top was made entirely from stash fabrics. I know that's the whole point of this blog, and the point of the Stash Diet challenge, but I've been a bit less-than-dedicated to that goal lately.

The red and white stripes were a remnant bought a couple of summers ago, with who-knows-what in mind. It was pretty see-through, so I added another stashed remnant underneath.

There was only about 1/2 yard of this fabric, and it wasn't very wide (I didn't measure, but I'd have a hard time believing it was even 45" wide). I decided I wanted to make a racerback tank, and rather than buy a new pattern, I thought I'd try my hand at:

First #1: Self-drafting!

I used an existing racerback tank that was a bit flowy, but whose fit I liked (aside from the low armscyes that always exposed my bra). I upped the armscyes a bit but kept everything else the same, including the curved front hem and the straight back hem.

However, the fabric wasn't wide enough to get my whole block onto it and keep the horizontal stripes (I thought that vertical stripes on this would look terrible), so I squeezed out the straps (front and racerback) from the remnants. For a bit of visual interest, I decided to make these horizontal, and not underline them like the rest of the tank.

[Wow, my mom was right, the stripes DO make my butt look big!]

First #2: Binding! 

I bound the neckline with help from Sleek Silhouette's easy tutorial, but there wasn't enough striped fabric left to bind the armholes, too, so I used ANOTHER remnant from the stash. 

Honestly, I'm not in love with any of these bindings for a lot of reasons, but for a first try, they're passable. I might try to go back and fix a few things at some point, but I think it's pretty wearable in the meantime.

First #3: French seams!

Still not quite convinced I did these right, so I won't show you any pictures, but it was an interesting technique to try. All of this seaming did mean that the shirt fits a bit tighter than originally intended, but I think it works - a super baggy knit top probably wouldn't have been a good look for me.

First #4: Stripe matching!

Look at that perfection! Seriously, so proud of myself on this one. 

All in all, this is a pretty wearable top, and I know that my pattern will have a good fit as-is - I definitely foresee more of these in my future, especially once I work out a few of the finishing touches.

In the meantime, do you have any binding tips to share?