*Rosette Tank Top Tutorial*

Tonight I felt like making a tank top. I had a bunch of this material in my fabric cabinet, so I decided to use it. Its sage green with gold shimmer. I think its some sort of polyester type of fabric. It is bouncy, drapey and stretchy. It doesn't really seem to fray. So while I was making it, I decided to snap a few photos to create a tutorial for everyone. 

It's pretty simple...nothing fancy-smancy. 

  

The first thing I did was dig out a tank top I already had that was a shape I liked. This tank has a racer back and its longer on the sides so it loose fitting and flowy. I laid it down on my fabric and used it as a template for cutting my fabric. The back and front are different. I left maybe an extra inch all around to give me room to play with. Also the front is a little wider than the back. So when sewed together, the front piece technically goes around to the back a bit....you know what I mean? (let me know if this confuses you)

  

They I pinned the sides and straps to sew first.I could of zig-zagged the seams....but I didn't bother since this fabric didn't seem to want to fray. Plus, the tank is for me and I don't really care. But...you can always zig-zag it just in case.

I machine basted the fabric first (I only did this on the sides). This isn't something I am used to doing...but I decided to try it, and it seemed to help quite a bit from the fabric moving all over the place since it is stretchy. If you don't have stretchy fabric, you probably can skip this.

 

Here is the basting stitch and regular stitching. I pulled the basting stitch out after. I also trimmed the excess fabric off. Don't forget to sew you straps (just the tops).

 

I then pinned the hole for my head, carefully....since everything curves.

 

I also pinned the bottom. That part was probably the hardest to try to keep both sides the same.

 

After I sewed the head hole and bottom, I pinned the arm holes and sewed those.

This is what it ends up looking like. Pretty simple and cute. I tried it on at this point and it fit PERFECT! But it needed something....

  

I decided I wanted some sort of flower, and decided on a rosette or a couple. So I cute a few strips out of the scraps pieces of fabric. It doesn't matter how long...but I made them about 2 inches wide. 

(I didn't end up using all the pieces)

 

I folded a strip in half and ran a gathering stitch down it. (no back-stitching....leave plenty of extra thread at the ends to pull the bottom thread to make it gather, if you have questions, let me know). I then gathered it.

Then I started to roll the gathered strip on itself to form the rosette.

I then hand sewed under the rosette some to hold it together......

 

......then hand sewed it in place on my tank. I placed them on the left side of my tank along the neckline.

You can place them where ever. I ended up with one bigger rosette in the middle and a smaller one on each side of the bigger one.

  

Here is the front on a hanger......

 

......and here is the back on a hanger. (Doesn't look as nice on a hanger, but its really cute in person)

  

Here it is on me (this was taken late last night after I finished it)

These are from today....not too shabby! Too bad you can't see the gold simmer that great...but its a really pretty fabric (and COMFY!)

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