My husband was getting rid of an old pair of athletic shorts and I saw them and thought that would be a cute dog tank top. Let’s face it, I have a difficult time coming up with things that aren’t costumes for Rusty. But this tank top is the perfect summer athletic shirt for him. Even if he didn’t seem too impressed with it, I like it.

Rusty checking out the shorts.

First thing I did was cut off the top of the shorts right below where the tired elastic and draw string are. Next thing I did was seam rip the two legs apart.

Next, I folded the fabric in half and pinned it closed. Then I took a tank top I had with large arm holes and measured Rusty and it to make sure it would work as a pattern for him and traced the lines for the arm holes and neck.

Then I cut out the pattern and placed the fabric inside out. I pinned and sewed the shoulder seams together. I used a jersey needle in my sewing machine because I found the universal needle was too rough on the nylon fabric. I then tried it on Manne to check fit and how I wanted to velcro it shut.

Manne the model

It might not be very noticeable in the picture, but I made this tank top to where one of Rusty’s leg has to go through a hole and then his head goes through the neck hole and it velcro to make the other leg hole and close the shirt. I did it this way so couldn’t shake it off.

Next I folded over and pressed all unfinished edges, and then folded them over again to encase the raw edges and sewed the seam.

To finish I took some fusible velcro, cut to the right size, and ironed them on to correct spots. I used a pressing cloth for this because the iron needed to be set to a steam setting. All that there was left for me to do was to have Rusty model it.

Model shot

He’s about had it.

He’s over it.