How To Make a Hot Bikini out of Old T-shirts
Megan Nicolay's How-to make a hot bikini out of old tee shirts
First, you need 1 extra large T-shirt..but if you like the mismatched look decide on two different colored shirts.
*important note* for this lesson's purposes we are going to refer to the yellow shirt as the top shirt (yellow shirt = top shirt) and the white shirt as the bottom shirt (white shirt = bottom shirt). 
Cut the bottom hem off both shirts
Creating strips for the bathing suit ties:
Now take the top shirt and cut 2 one inch wide strips off the bottom, making sure to cut through both layers of fabric.
Take those 2 strips and cut both of them in half twice so you end up with 4 equal strips. (we'll call them strips 1,2,3, and 4) 
Take your bottom shirt and cut 2 one inch wide strips of the bottom. Cut one of the strips in half once, so you have one long strip (call it strip 5). and Cut the other in half twice, so you have two equals strips (strips 6,7).
* You should have a total of seven strips
Creating the bathing suit top:
Ok, now take your top shirt and cut 9 inches of the bottom, making sure to cut through both layers of fabric.
Pin both of the layers together and from now on consider it one piece of fabric.
as Megan put it in her book "to prevent the wet t-shirt contest look"
Sketch a triangle that measures 10 inches across the bottom and 8 inches down both sides. If you want, make a paper pattern first....we just freehanded it. Now create an arched bottom to the triangle. the lowest point should fall one inch below the bottom of the triangle.
Turn your fabric in a half circle, and sketch another triangle of the same dimensions.
Pin the triangles and cut them out. 
Flip one of the triangles over and fold the top corner down one inch.
Now place one inch of strip 6 (or 7) over the folded corner
Pin the two sides of the triangle in, half an inch, making sure to over lap the end of the strip. Sew a seam down both sides.
Carefully, pin the arched bottom up one inch. Sew a seam but be careful to leave an open "tunnel" so you can thread your strip through later. btw, does anyone know the technical term for that...or is it just tunneling?
Repeat all those steps to the second triangle.
Now take strip 5 and attach the end to a safety pin. Use the safety pin to help you thread strip 5 through the tunnels of your triangles.
And you are done with the top! WOOHOO!
Creating the bathing suit bottoms:
Take your bottom shirt and cut a rectangle that measures 19 inches by 16 inches. Pin both layers of the rectangle together
Sketch an hour glass shape onto the fabric. Make a paper pattern first for preciseness.
You want the narrowest part of the hourglass to measure 4 inches across and fall 11 inches for the top of the rectangle.
Fold in all 4 corners of the hourglass. Stretch and place strips 1,2,3, and 4 over the separate for corners.
Fold and pin the front of the bathing suit in one inch, making sure to over lap the strips.
Fold and pin the opposite (back) part of the bathing suit in one inch, again making sure to over lap the strips.
Sew the front and back seams.
Make several small slits in the curved area of the hourglass. This will help the fabric give easier when you are folding in the edge.
Fold and pin the two sides of the hourglass in 1 inch and sew a seam down both sides.
You are done with the bottoms!
New bathing, very little cash.
For more cool ways to transform a t-shirt be sure to check out Megan Nicolay's book, Generation-T: 108 ways to transform a t-shirt.
THIS IS SO AWSOME! YOU GUYS ARE SO GREAT! I'm gonna make me one!
I've never made anything until I found you.
in technical terms, that "tunnel" is known as a casing...
cool stuff by the way!! believe me when I say no one ought ever to see me in a t-shirt bikini, but it's cool!
also want to say, I am human, and I'm about to prove it...
yea! thanks jennie! i've been wondering...i referred to it as a tunnel again yesterday and felt a little funny. casing...makes sense:)
how do you adjust the mesurements so that they fit you?
the book says its pretty much one size fits all but i would say that it's a size small. just increase all the measurements by one inch to go up one size or two inches to go up two sizes and so on.
You should also show how to make a one-piece :D
i made the same swimsuit using plaid material. i used a t-shirt first to make sure it would fit me, then i sewed the tshirt as a liner to the swim suit so it wouldnt chafe when i wore it...such a good idea this t-shirt swimsuit is!!!!
My dad showed me this site and I love it! I love to sew, so I tried the Bikini. Wow, it works. It's a few sizes to small , but you can always make it bigger.
OMG I can so do that :)
I love it, thanks Im going to make one now :)
im defintly doing this
you may not want to use a white tee for the bottom half unless your not plaining to get wet. just a thought.
YEAH i agree with melikefire. coz thats some bullshit. right there u cant wear a white bottoms if your planning to get wet! bullcrap.that is nasty ur not even sure if it is gonna work. what if ure going swimming then the whole thing just fell off... THIS SITE IS A MOTHERFUCKING BULLSHIT!
jessica shut the fuck up your just mad caus you tryed to make one but you were to fuckin fat but its really cute im about to try right now
Hey jessica why all the hostillity? Dude if you don't like this site get the hell off!
Wow, very clever! Do you have any suggestions for a full swimsuit out of a t-shirt?
Really cute suit...However this turned out too small for me (I wear about a size 10). I think if I add a few inches to the top and bottom it would work just fine :) Super cute though!
AWESOME!
But I've been trying to find the video of How to Make Bikini out of Old Tees, but never succeed. I know there is one such video because I once saw it. Is it removed?
Wow...that was easier than I thought it would be. Can't wait to make my bikini's! Keep up the great work, kudos!
That is really cute although would it stay on say if you where catching a wave? The bottoms look a little flimsy.
it is very cute
jessica...two words:
FUCK and OFF
just had to defend my thread heads :)
btw, l tried it with a couple of old tank tops and it worked GREAT...especially because they're made of waterproof material
hahahaha :D
super bikinis :D
Your show rocks!
This is so cute and easy to do!I usually swear a lot when I sew but this was fun to do
I just finished making the top for this, except I'm tiny, so I made it out of an old, ugly black cami instead. I also ended up not following the pattern so it would be a tiny bit less skimpy. It was ridiculously easy and now I have something nice to wear instead of my mom-approved onepiece. This took like fifteen minutes to make-and most of that was choosing which clothes to cut up! Kudos, kudos.
It was ridiculously easy and now I have something nice to wear instead of my mom-approved onepiece. This took like fifteen minutes to make-and most of that was choosing which clothes to cut up! Kudos, kudos.
This is so cute and easy to do!I usually swear a lot when I sew but this was fun to do
http://www.birseyindir.org
bolindir.com
That's a great idea! I'm making one for my sister right now. And the technical term for "tunnels" is casing. =]
Great idea.
wow. i never realized that you can make a bikini out of a shirt. that really fixes my " i cant find a bikini that everyone else already doesnt have" ooooo. you could like buy leather straps too. and then make the straps and the shirts could be really retro. sweeeeeeeet! im so excited! =D
An interesting bunch of comments. the profanity from children - well what can you expect. For those that felt the bottoms were flimsy and wouldn't work, thousands of women wore the same style in themid 70's and yes they did work, the biggest problem were the boys undoing them in the pool. The fabric, yes could be flimsy but if you get a good quality t-shirt and being double layered should be firm enough but I agree white goes transperent and perhaps a thicker t-shirt with colour is best. For those who have no imaginagion, you did not have to use the colours shown they were an EXAMPLE used for the purpose of the demo. for those that got it thank God there are still intellegent mature people in the world and to the creator of the demo, well done a good task, and easy for all but the brain dead to follow.
what if you want halter top? you know for pppl who have larger breasts...
I just finished my top and well...it's a little small. I'm a B so maybe the measurements here are for and A cup. Oh well it's close enough. I'm working on the bottoms now, and I know the measurements here aren't going to fit me. That's why I'm taking an old pair of underwear and tracing it. Mine is blue and white, so it's blue fabric and white thread and straps. It's really cute because thread looks great with the blue. Great DIY and I got the book it came from, I can't wait to make stuff out of tee shirts.