The sun it out, summer is in full swing... and your wardrobe is looking a little tired. Blast. Yes, you have plenty of tank tops, but they all start looking the same after a while, don't they? Well, with a little knit fabric and a lot of dye, you can make a light and airy and oh-so-flattering drape vest! If that's not enough, we'll give it the ombre treatment and a little embroidery to really make your wardrobe pop. Never made a vest from scratch before? Rest easy. If you can trace and cut things out, I swear this thing is a piece of cake. To make your vest, you'll need:

• Light knit fabric (about 2 yards, more if you want a longer drape)
• Your favorite fitted tee
• Scissors and pins

First of all, this is a vest, so we won't be needing the sleeves. Unless "vest" has a new definition I'm not familiar with. Fold your sleeves inside your shirt, and if you like, pin in place to keep them out of the way, Make sure you pin and fold along the curved seam of the sleeves, so you can see the shape clearly.

Lay your shirt on top of your knit, with the back side facing up. This will make the shape easier to trace. Carefully mark, or if you like, simply cut out around your tee, adding about a 1/2 inch for seam allowance. I like to give a lot of seam when working with stretchy fabrics. They can be so darn sneaky sometimes.

OK, so now we're going to make the front pieces. Though when draped it looks like it might be a complicated shape, we're actually just taking the T-shirt shape and extending it straight out to the side in a rectangle, like so. Place your tee, right side up this time, on top of your knit. Pin in place along the edge you'll be tracing, and then mark out how far you'd like your drape to go. The farther out it goes, the longer the drape.

Mark this shape with some pins (or just a pin, for general reference) and cut out your front vest shape. You'll notice from the rectangle's edge it has a nice easy slope up to the edge of the neckline.

Once you've cut your piece out, flip it over and use it to cut out the other side of your vest. That's it! We have all our vest pieces. I wish all things were this easy.

Sew a seam along the top shoulder edge, and along the side. Leave the armhole open! Yeesh people, don't you listen? Otherwise all you have is a weird looking blanket or perhaps a strange scarf. You could try wearing it on your head and start a new hot trend... or maybe you can just not sew it shut. Your choice.

Aaannd you have a vest! OK, a totally unfinished vest, but you can try it on now and see how it drapes and feels. Technically, if you are making it out of a non-fraying knit, you could leave the edges raw (and you guys know what a fan I am of raw edges) but in this case let's go the whole nine yards. Or two yards. Or whatever you bought. I'm thinking nine yards would be a bit much. Who buys nine yards for a vest?

I'll stop now.

...a quiet little side note here, before we move on to finishing all the edges. I think the vest has a nicer drape when it kind of curves up at the back, and down at the front. To accentuate this curve, you can fold your tee in half, and snip a slight curve along the back. Nothing too drastic! Just to add a little bit of finesse. This part is totally optional. But awesome. We do love awesome around here.

Since the drape of this vest means you're likely to see both sides of this seam, we really do want it to look pretty, so we're going to fold it under, and then fold it under again. Do this all the way around the raw edge of your vest, pinning as you go. You could try ironing, but to be honest, this stuff seems to be best persuaded when sharp objects are involved. I suppose that could be said of most things...

Once you have it all pinned, sew a neat seam all the way around.

Your vest!

Yes, I suppose it could be done now, but we have a plan to make it so much more awesomer. Awesomest? So awesome you'll start inventing words. See? We do love awesome around here.

I'll say right now, read your dye directions for exact specifications on what it might require. These are the most common, but not all dyes are the same.

This is a personal choice, but to make dyeing easier, I'd clip up those draped edges so they hang about equal with the rest of the shirt. It makes things a lot simpler, trust me.

Now, the next part is not really an exact science. Every shirt is different, and it especially matters if you're dyeing white to dark like me, or maybe just a color to a similar dark color. If you're really unsure about things, you can always test dye a swatch of fabric. In fact, I recommend it, because as I found out, the dye doesn't always behave like you think it will...

So! Here's how I did it. I do it backwards from some -- I start by dipping in the bottom and working my way up. True, its harder to see how your dye is coming (you need to pull it up now and then) but I like it because it allows you to dilute the dye with more water as you get closer to the top, letting it blend easier. I'll talk you through it...

So, start by dipping the bottom segment of your shirt in the dye. Hold for at least 10 min. This may seem like a long time, but especially on synthetic fabrics, it always comes out lighter than you think.

After ten minuets, drop your shirt down to the next segment. Hold for 7 minutes. Yes, your arms will get tired. Try asking someone to hold this for a second and then walk away for a coffee break. It works.

Continue moving down. At the four minute mark, if you're going from a very dark dye to a very light fabric, you might want to add some extra water to start diluting the dye. It's your call, but I find it helps. Make sure the water stays warm though. At the two minute mark, add even more water.

For the very last dunk, add as much water as you will, and then quickly dunk the fabric. Don't hold for longer than 30 seconds! Your gradient will be too harsh. You can see mine already is, but that's partially because my fabric was dry. Bad Niamh.

Once your dyeing is done, dunk your fabric into some cold water to start rinsing it out. I dunked mine into some water and then carried it to the sink.

Take it under the sink and give it a good rinsing. I mean a really good rinsing. Try to wash the dye downwards as much as possible, especially if you have a light fabric, to keep the dye from bleeding upwards.

Despite my best efforts, the light pink spread to the rest of my vest while I was rinsing it out, so take care if you don’t want that to happen.

You can see in this pic how much lighter it is already. The deep purply brown fades up, and then starts into a light pink. Keep rinsing and rinsing and rinse some more until your water runs clear, then rinse it again in hot water. Set your shirt out to air dry.

A word of caution about dyes and light fabrics! One, dyes may not always be the color you think. I thought I bought brown. The package said brown. But upon dyeing, I discovered it lies. Brown was actually neapolitan, because out from my brown bled a nice, soft ice cream pink. Huh. Not bad, really, just unexpected.

So, how, you might ask, are we going to embroider on something so thin and light? With our favorite ever designs, scribbles, and a little help from some special stabilizer! To make this work, you'll want heavy-weight water-soluble stabilizer, the kind usually used to make freestanding lace. We're using a water-soluble because let's face it, there's no cutaway stabilizer you can use that you wouldn't see through this top. You'll also want a really, really, light design. I mean really light, like a small scribble. I would also keep it 4x4 or so, since larger designs are going to interfere with your drape.

Could we possibly have designs like that? Of course we do! Not only that, we have ombre designs like that! Yup, we have ombre embroidery! This little henna hand is a perfect example of a simple transition between scribbles. Pick the right colors, and you have an ombre effect!

This is also a great reason to do the embroidery last... you never know quite what color you'll get from your dye, it's best to wait and see so you can match it! You ready? Carefully hoop up your vest (I'm hooping up the back) with the stabilizer underneath, without stretching or distorting the fabric. Set your machine to stitching, and watch the ombre magic happen!

Once you're done, flip your design over and veeerry carefully trim away as much excess stabilizer as possible, and then soak your stabilizer according to the package directions. Allow to dry.

Ombre embroidery meets…

Ombre top!

Slip on your oh-so comfy lightweight vest, and marvel! Light and airy, with beautiful gradient colors, and matching custom embroidery. DIY is a dream!

Make a bunch at different lengths, add sleeves, dye some, or just embroider others. Add a belt or try some dangly jewelry for a different look.

Looking good this summer is, if you'll excuse the pun, a breeze.

You'd never find a vest like this in a store without a price tag to melt your brain. And it's totally, completely, and utterly custom and handmade.

And it hides all that extra pie.