Boho Strapless Top Tutorial

I am not a summer person. However, occasionally in the dead of winter I get a small longing for the sun on bare shoulders and a warm breeze. With that in mind, lst year I designed this super simple top for my store..

Really cute right?? But the darn things wouldn't sell? So I changed the design a little bit, like this...

Again, not too shabby right? But you guessed it, the darn thing wouldn't sell. Don't get me wrong, they got tons of hits and everyone raved about how cute they were, but they just weren't selling. So, now I'm going to throw out a challenge. I challenge all of you to make one of these adorable little strapless, or strapped, boho tops and tell me what I need to do differently?

Oh yeah, did I mention that if you do it in knit it also doubles as a skirt?? Like this...

Uh-huh, now you're really excited aren't you? This takes me about half an hour, but I've made a few 100 of them so allow for an hour at least. You can also see this tutorial at icandy

You will need:

1 yard of fabric (knit, cotton lawn, gauze cloth all work well) the width of your fabric (from selvage to selvage) should be a few inches wider than the widest part of you. For me that's my hips (*sigh*) but for some ladies it may be the bust area.

Matching thread

A package of elastic - anywhere from 1/2" - 1" wide is fine

Ball point needle if you are sewing with knits

I'm using a cotton lawn that I have recycled from an old swim cover up. Fold your fabric selvage to selvage and  measure the widest part of yourself - cut your fabric at least 4 inches wider. This will allow ease, so the finished top is not hugging your hips (or for you lucky girls, the ta-tas). In addition you want to measure from the top of your bust where the shirt will hit, to where you want your finished boho top to hit on your hips. Remember to add 3" to allow for hemming.

Now sew with right sides together. (sorry for the blurry pic, I was sewing with one hand, photographing with the other, watching "Say Yes to the Dress" with one eye, watching a 5 year old with the other eye, and arduously explaining why you can't play Nintendo DS for 3 hours a day...)

Next we are going to fold down the top of your boho top in a way that will leave a wide enough hem to thread your elastic through like so...

Mine is 3/4" but if you use 1/2 elastic, yours will need to be a little bit smaller.

Pin and sew your hem, but leave an opening large enough to thread the elastic into...

Ready, set, thread the elastic...

Once you have your elastic threaded, sew up the opening.

Next you'll want to hem the bottom of your top (mine was already hemmed since I recycled an old swim cover!)

At this point you can be done if you want...

 I like a little extra support on mine so I added ribbon straps to my top. 

 Voila! Really cute right? Great with shorts, skinny jeans, sloppy jeans, capris, a little jacket, etc...Now why won't these things sell??