Making Lemonade

There are two things that annoy me to no end.

1. This tank top

It looks like the basic black tank top from the Gap that I thought it was when I bought it,

but this tank top is evil. Over the years, over the course of many washings, it's done the thing where it shrinks up and becomes wider and shorter. As I have a freakishly long torso, this simply does not work for me. It's also irregular in some way where as I move in it, it twists around. Every time I wear this thing, I spend all my time thinking about how uncomfortable I am and adjusting my shirt. I wear this surprisingly often, because to look at it, it's identical to five other black tank tops from the Gap that I own that fit me just fine. I don't find out that this is the bad one until I'm out the door, and then I suffer all day.

2. When my sunglasses get all scratched up

It's hard to see in the picture, but I have a tendency to throw my sunglasses in my purse where they rub on the other contents of my purse and get scratched. Then I can barely see through them because they're just a mess. Since I get most of my sunglasses from the lost and found at work (after waiting the appropriate time for someone to claim them), it's not like I'm wasting any money, but it is a waste to be constantly replacing sunglasses. Not to mention, it's really annoying to put on a pair, realize that you can't see out of them, then remember to look in the lost and found next time I'm at work.

What I have decided to do, is to bring together the two things that bother me, and create a solution that will make me happy i.e. I'm going to make glasses cases out of my crappy tanktop and solve two problems at once.

1. My glasses will no longer get scratched
2. That awful tank top will be out of my life forever and I won't accidentally wear it again.

Step one: Make some cuts

Step two: cut fabric scraps to size measuring against sunglasses, and sew a pocket. I used contrast color thread so you can see what I did, but basically just sew two sides together so you have a pouch with a hole in one end. You could hand stitch this easily, but I was feeling lazy.

Pouch!  Now reverse it.

And there you have it.  If you're worried about the glasses falling out, you can make a little indent stitch like this:

Or you can re-use the straps from the tank top to make a tie for closing.

Since this is a rather boring tank top, these are rather boring glasses cases, but who really cares.  They serve a purpose, and the t-shirt material is great for polishing lenses.  I saw the exact same thing, only more stylish for sale in the gift shop at an art museum-- for $14.  These were basically free and took about 15 minutes to make four of them.  If you want something better looking, just recycle a funkier shirt.