Sunday Sew-Day: Butterfly Kisses Tank

At last autumn's clothes swap, I thought I'd found a really cute top here - light and breezy, cute print, great fit...

But then I noticed I was not the first refashionista to lay hands on this piece. Unfortunately, the first seemed to have been a bit scissor-happy. My guess is the tank top originally had some sort of embellishment - maybe some little butterflies or flowers or some such - and the previous owner apparently didn't take to them. The shirt was left with lots of little fabric nubbins and one large hole.

But I brought it home anyway, thinking, if I didn't, it would likely end up in the garbage. It wasn't until this spring's clothes swap that I stumbled upon a plan for this salvage operation in the form of this top. I love the lace accents, but the transparency of the body and the too-tight collar weren't my cup of tea.

And so the surgery began. I used my seam ripper to carefully remove the remaining fabric nubbins. There were a couple small holes left, but nothing too catastrophic.

Then I cut away the lace yoke.

I seam-ripped the armhole and collar bindings from the butterfly tank, and cut away the damaged yoke.

I used the butterfly yoke as a pattern to trim the lace yoke to shape. Getting rid of that inner crescent will open up the collar a decent bit and make room for my giant head.

I folded up the scalloped lace edging and pinned and stitched the yoke to its new body.

Then the scalloped edge was folded back down and sewn again, thus encasing the raw edge of the butterfly fabric.

Lastly, I re-stitched the armhole and collar bindings.

Now I have a not-so-holey tank top, as well as some leftover lace to add to my refashion pile for a future project.

It has just the right amount of femininity for my taste.

I see myself getting a lot of use out of my new top this summer.