Refashion: Men's T-shirt into Women's Summer Top Tutorial!!

I made this shirt today after coming back from the park. Big Baby was napping and the boys were blissfully watching Chicken Little. Except for when I made Thing 1 be my assistant and take pictures, which he was not very happy about.
Here we go!

This is the original shirt. It's my manfriend's. Or it was! I'd been waiting for this one to be
handed down for about a year now. He never wore it, and it was a nice thin tee from Target.
So, I just went in his drawer and took it. Sucka.

You will need a men's t. This one's an XL and I'm about a S/M.
Some stretchy lace. It probably wouldn't have to be stretchy, but this stuff that I used is. It's a remnant, so I can't tell you more than that.
1/4 inch elastic. Enough to wrap around the upper part of your chest.
Various sewing tools.

Slice off the top of the t-shirt right at the armpit hole, preserving as much of the length as you can.

Measure across your chest. This is how much 1/4 elastic you will need.

 Cut two strips of the lace material the width of your t-shirt, plus 1/2 inch for seam allowance. Sew that into one piece. Or, if your lace material is long enough, just cut one piece plus 1/4 for seam allowance. Sew it wrong sides facing so that you have a circle the same width as your shirt.

Wrong sides facing so that the seam is on the inside when you sew it to the shirt.

Using a seam ripper, cut a rip out part of the seam in the bottom of the t-shirt. This is going to be the top of your shirt,
and the casing for the elastic.

Edge stitch the lace to the front top of the shirt (what used to be the bottom). I'm doing this before I
put the elastic in the casing so I don't accidentally sew the elastic. My lace didn't need anything done to it
to prevent it from fraying; if yours does, then do something to it. Like folding and then sewing, fray checking,
zig zagging or what have you.

Using a safety pin or bodkin push the 1/4 inch elastic through the casing. I like to double the end of the elastic
before I put it on the safety pin so that it doesn't pull out part way through the
mother f@#$ing casing.

Try it on and figure out placement for your straps. I just put them so they'd cover my bra. I had a hard time deciding
whether to make the straps out of lace or knit, but in the end I went with lace. I think I like it.
Thing 1 wouldn't help me with pictures anymore at this point (even though I put his ninja costume him!), so
I had to do them myself.

The rear view.

I left the bottom (where we cut the top off) unfinished for more of a bohemian, deconstructed look. Plus I'm lazy.