Summer Breeze Tank

This tutorial originally appeared on Keeping it Simple last month. It’s a super easy tank – get the supplies and you might even be able to make one for your July 4th festivities.

I went back and forth about sharing the pattern for this, and here’s why: When you’re nice enough to share a free pattern, you’d be surprised (I was!) at the e-mails/comments you get asking you to re-size it and/or angry e-mails about why you didn’t make multiple sizes to begin with. I know, the majority of you lovely blog readers are as shocked as I was. I’m a small, short, flat chested person, and I know that’s not the most common body type, so I wondered if I would get more of those than I do with kids clothes.

So here’s the deal – I am linking my size 32″ bust/ 36″ hips pattern for FREE. If your bust/hips are bigger, you’ll have to resize. I suggest adding to both the center front/back and side seams. Pattern drafting and digitizing takes a a long time, and since this is not a pattern I made for sale, just a tank I made for myself, this is the only size the pattern is in. Can we play nice with that in mind? Thanks.

OK, you’ll need the pattern for the front, which you can download HERE. This is a PDF file, you’ll print it across 3 pages of paper and then tape them together. When you print, set your printer to borderless, and don’t scale anything. If your printer won’t print borderless, set it to the smallest margins you can and print anyway without scaling – you should be able to connect pattern lines across the page breaks. Butt the edges of the pages together – don’t overlap - and tape. The pages line up landscaped, one on top of the other in a 3 page column.


A note about fabric – this will look best in a very lightweight and drapey fabric – cotton gauze, cotton lawn or voile, a very thin jersey, etc. The seersucker was almost too thick for it. If you use quilting weight, this will probably look like a square sack on you. Consider yourself warned


You will also need 14 inches of elastic (not pictured below), and a 10″x17″ rectangle to use as your tank back pattern. Cut the tank back with one long edge on the fold of the fabric. 

IMPORTANT – In the step below, DON’T sew all the way to the bottom – leave the bottom 3 inches (including lace) open to form the side vents. Also, use a 5/8″ seam allowance here.

Throw it on on a hot summer day!

Happy sewing!

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