Kila Tank Dress from Three Tees

Continuing Alter it August with another sustainable project – repurposing old t-shirts into a comfy color blocked Kila Tank dress! My husband set aside a stack of old tees that he was ready to let go of and instead of dropping them off in the local donation bin, I decided to make a dress (and tanks, and undies…) for myself out of them. This was a fast and easy make! I almost feel silly writing up a blog post about it for how easy this was. I hope you find it helpful though!

The Details

• Pattern based on the Kila Tank by Allie Olson of Indie Sew, now available sizes 0-30
• Size 8 in the bust and waist, 16+ in the hips (I’m 36/29/45″ bust/waist/hip)
• Made from old L/XL mens cotton blend t-shirts from Target, Uniqlo
• T-shirt fabrics of similar weight and drape
• Modifications: color blocked at waist notch, added width in the hips and midi length

Preparing and Cutting the Tees

I’ve folded this t-shirt out of the laundry dozens of times, and I always knew it was bad, even for RTW. I didn’t realize how bad until I cut it up and put it on grain. See in the photos below how awfully warped it is. I’m so bothered by this so I’m not surprised he was ready to let this one go!

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The blue t-shirt above is what I used for the upper half of the tank. Once I got the t-shirt on grain, I cut the upper bodice out of it just until the waist notch. Then I cut five strips above the hem for the arm/neck binding. I ended up only needing four strips. I knew I’d have to piece the binding together – more on that in a sec.

For the middle gray piece, I traced the pattern piece from the waist notch, and graded even further out at the hips. For reference, my pattern piece is a size 8 at the waist, and a 16 at the hips, which is my usual grading practice for my measurements. You can see in the chalk lines below how I graded all the way out to the entire width of the tee.

Middle and Lower Pieces

I didn’t cut the side seams of the t-shirt! This saved me time in the long run. I cut the double layer across the top and the graded curve down the sides and then ran the rotary cutter right off the tee, keeping the lower part as-is. I did trim just above the hem though (not pictured).

The lowest part of the dress was literally cutting a straight line across the center of the t-shirt, again in a double layer. I didn’t open the side seams, and the hem stays in tact. Again, saving time! The upper half of this t-shirt allows enough fabric to make underwear from the scraps too!

Piecing the Neck Binding Together

The Kila Tank requires pretty long continuous strips of fabric for a clean neck binding all the way around. I knew I didn’t have that length with the t-shirt fabric, so I pieced two strips together by sewing short ends together with my serger. I followed the pattern’s instructions for attaching the binding, but I pinned the seam I had made on the binding to the center back and stretched the binding slightly to estimate where I should start sewing. My goal was to get the seam as close to the center back as possible, and this worked out well.

Arm Binding

Luckily, the length of the strips was just right for the arms. I didn’t need to piece anything together, and I probably stretched a little more while sewing than I usually would, but it worked out just fine in the end! I finished the bindings with my regular machine’s zig zag stitch, according to the Kila Pattern instructions.

Assembling the Color Blocked Kila Tank Dress

The top of the dress (blue) can lay totally flat, while the middle part of the dress (gray) is partially open at the side seams, but the lower half is already connected at the side seams. Then, I pinned the bottom edge of the upper bodice to the upper edge of the middle section and sewed with my serger, right sides together. See the pinned sections below.

Then I pinned the side seams and sewed from the underarms to the already-finished side seams at the bottom. I removed the annoying tag as well!

The final step was pinning the lower edge of the middle section to the upper edge of the lower section, right sides together. I sewed (in the round) with my serger. No need to hem because I left the t-shirt hem in tact! Done!

Fast, Easy, and Comfy

This Kila tank dress was as fast and easy as I am with a bottle of wine on any given Saturday night. I was totally right that this blog post would take more time than actually making the dress! I hope you found it helpful and maybe helps you to look at your old tees in a new way.

More Kila Tank Goodness

Check out my previous Kila Tank blog post. I sewed the Kila Tank and Comtox Trunks out of a single yard of luxe rib knit from Indie Sew. That blog post is here!