Xpress tank hack

Since I got the Xpress tank from Greenstyles Creations I have had thoughts of hacking into a long sleeve shirt. I love that “v” shape in the back.

For the material, I needed something warm, breathable and moisture wicking. Polartec Powerdry from Phee Fabrics is what I chose. I love the Polartec! It’s warm but not so warm that it makes me sweat! This scarlet color is amazing!! I used winter white rayon spandex for the bands and binding.

This is how I went about putting sleeves on my Xpress tank. I did add 1/4” to the armscye when cutting to make it a little smaller.

At this point I put it together as the directions state.

I used the sleeve from the Green Tee, also from Greenstyles. I did size up because I don’t want my sleeve super tight on this shirt. Also I needed a sleeve that would better match the existing armscye. Also the Polartec powerdry doesn’t have a ton of stretch. My Xpress is an xs, I used a large size sleeve. I added some length to the sleeve since I have not printed out the latest update with the long sleeve option yet.

At this point you’ll still have quite a bit of extra space in the armscye area. Since it has a racerback shape, I put a piece of paper between the layers and traced the armscye and the “racer back” in the back. Don’t forget to add seam allowance. Then I cut two of those pieces out, mirrored. And stitched them in. In hindsight, now that I’ve worn it a bit, I should have added a little extra back there because it’s a little tight across the shoulders.

Note that I should have basted the back of the shirt where it crosses and basted that extra piece in there but I didn’t and had to fight it! Be better than me!

Sew down the seam of the sleeves then attach to the shirt. This was a surprising exact match in size! Wahoo!!

To finish it off I did bands on the sleeves and I did binding around the neck. I didn’t do binding around the bottom edge. I like the raw edge and the lack of bulk. Also I did cut it so it was a rounded edge instead of having the tie back option. I decided that I really liked the way that it hung and didn’t want to tie it back.

As I was getting ready to take pictures, my wonderful dog ran off with this shirt. Unfortunately there are now holes in my new shirt. Grrr!! He’s lucky he’s cute. Here’s the guilty party.