Thank you for not being perky

I went swimsuit shopping this year and there just was nothing good out there. There was one super cute looking Betsy Johnson suit I saw online but it was sold out everywhere (hello pink plaid school girl suit!). The ones I got at Target are cute (and cheap) but will probably go back. I realized that in order to have a cute swim dress I was going to have to make my own.

In 2006 I found this cute Sailor Jerry swimdress at Macy’s:

But now, four years (and 20 pounds) later it got all stretched out and the elastic is all old and creaky. The fabric, though tired, is still great and I may have to work it into a new dress.

Board shorts are good but can chafe and ride up ones ass. So,make one I must. Kwik sew had two patterns that looked good. I went with the one that was just a swimdress without a suit attached (kwik sew 3416) to it because it looked easier.

I’m so pissed I waited too long to buy the rainbow fabric and it sold out! duh, because it was AWESOME! So I ended up with leopard print, pink stars, and cherries. All 6 oz (the cherries may have been 8 oz), 4 way stretch nylon spandex.

I was planning on taking pictures of the process but it went so fast that I didn’t bother.

I used my sewing machine and my serger. For the serger I used 3 spools of wooly nylon with a narrow 3 thread overlock stitch. on the regular sewing machine I used wooly nylon in the bobbin and regular thread as the upper thread. I couldn’t figure out how to get the serger spool of wooly nylon to work with my regular machine. There must be some attachment that makes the spool fit, but I don’t have it.

I used the cherry fabric for the first dress and I made it in a large size. I (almost) always trace my patterns on to new pattern paper or tracing paper and then I cut into the traced pattern since too often I have cut into a pattern only to realize later that I needed a different size.

see overlap here:

no over lap here:

I swear, According to my measurements the large should have fit, but no. I thought it was great until I tested it in the hot tub and it was clear the it was not fitting in the bust area.

I traced out the medium size and used it with the stars fabric. I found an old Paul Frank bikini bottom with the cute skull on it and used it for one side of the top, it was a string bikini so I just left the string attached and then cut off the other string and used it for the other side and made this dress a halter. I also overlapped the two top pieces which seems crucial but is not the way the pattern works.

I used a rolled hem on the bottom of both.

I think I’ll go ahead and make the leopard print one this week and I’ll use an old red bikini top to add some accents.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.