Tube tute: ruffled up*

April 13, 2011

As Melbourne edges ever closer to the black hole** of winter, it’s heartening to think that somewhere in the world, it is a warm, bright, sunny day. The kind of day when you can get away with wearing a tube top.

Well, maybe thinking about that is not so heartening. It’s actually extremely annoying as we sit here preparing to freeze our butts off in the gloom. However, I digress.

Today’s project is about jazzing up a tube top. It was the result of a ridiculous trend several years ago for brands in Japan to give away tube tops (called “bare tops” in Japanese) as their novelty item at press events. One of the brands gave me a top with an ugly dinosaur print on it, and loath to throw anything away, I decided to cover up the dinosaur so the top could remain as a contributing member in my wardrobe..

In my fabric stash at the time was a large amount of cheap, synthetic lace which had been used on a shoot, from which I decided to make ruffled tiers. I cut the lace into six strips, each about 10-15cm wide and long enough to wrap around my body about twice (there’s no strict measurement for this, I just make things up depending on how much material there is). I then ran gathering threads along the length of each strip to create ruffles before pinning and stitching them in slightly overlapping tiers onto the top. As a tube top is stretchy, you need to stretch it a bit as you pin and subsequently sew, and it’s best to use a zig zag stitch.

Depending on how much material you have, and how much volume you like, you could attach the ruffles to the front of the top only, or you can make them go all the way around to cover the back too, which is what I did.

To add a bit more interest, I stitched a satin ribbon to only the back and sides of the top in several spots and tied it at the side front in a bow. Easy!

Admittedly this top is not really quite “me” any more, and I haven’t worn it in years. But it’s fun to see it whenever I change my summer wardrobe for my winter one, and reminisce about how the girls in the office used to look naked because of this “bare tops” trend. I thought it would be a good post for you northern hemisphere ladies going into summer, because it’s an easy way to rejuvenate a tube or tank top if all that’s wrong with it is that you don’t like the print/colour. Aren’t I helpful!?

*Yes, yes, I was going to call this post “Tiers of joy” but I’d already used the “tier” thing once this week… I’m going to have to outwit myself when it comes to wordplay one of these days.

**So called (by me, anyway) because Melburnians wear even more black in this season than at other times of the year, although you wouldn’t think it possible.