More beach wear

Long time no post! In fact I finished 2 more beach coverups before we left for our vacation in Cancun, Mexico.

One was a fairly simple one for Melissa, it was a simple wrap that goes around the waist and ties. I simply took a wrap that we had folded it in half and placed it along the fold of the fabric and traced around with a dressmakers wax marker. I cut it out and served all around the edges. Done!






A great simple project, considering that the original one was bought several years ago for 35-40$.

The bad news is that my serger is still not working properly. It is fine for a rolled edge and a 3 thread seam finish but the 4 thread is not working and I have already broke the stitching finger off of the throat plate for the 4 thread option. I think it may be time to start researching new sergers and keep this one for rolled edges and seam finishes only.

The other beach wear project was a second coverup for me. I am pretty happy with this one and once again had so e fun with the embellishments. I sewed the ribbon along the neckline edge from hem to hem and then added a second ribbon on top of it from bustline to bustline and left these loose below a set of buttons to tie closed. I then also added several other decorative ribbons with metal beads for decoration as well as for added weight. Adding these embellishments kept the coverup from looking like bedroom wear and gave it some substance so it would not blow away in a breeze.

For this I started with an old early 1980's pattern for a kimono style evening jacket and I modified it quite a bit. Adding in large triangle godets into the side seams for a flowy look. I also did not use any facings, just a serged and then rolled hem with the ribbon along the front.

The pictures are not the best.... My camera was misbehaving, but you can get a good idea.













- Steph... From my iPad

Location:Newark Airport, NJ

The bathing suit/beach cover up!,

Well, after a couple days of full on creativity and incorporating ideas and the coverup is done!



The requirements for my beach coverup was that it needed it cover me up from the sun and or cool breezes, I wanted it to look cool and unique and I wanted to not look like I threw on my husbands old shirt for a cover up.



I removed the collar and added a hood, I removed all the men's buttons and added one big button for a closure. I added some elastic to the back for some shaping. I also removed the cuffs and about 10 inches of sleeve and added a color blocked band. I decided to stick to just the 2 black and white prints for color/contrast.





The outside of the hood is the body from a very old white cotton shirt that I had but no longer wore due to a stain. I made the hood extra large and lined it in color blocked black and white prints and then added a button and button hole to hold it folded over. Sooooo cute!!!


I also added fussy cut appliqués from the martini black and white print along with some general print shapes and appliquéd them on with raw edges.



So, what do you think???


- Steph... From my iPad

Location:Home

Re-fashion of my husbands shirt

One of my husbands favorite dress shirts sustained a tear up the side. It has been sitting in my sewing room for a while now. I couldn't bear to just get rid of it.

I am in need of a couple bathing suit coverups/beach wear for an upcoming trip to Mexico. I decided to do a mini challenge for myself and transform the cotton dress shirt into a beach coverup for me.

I pulled a bunch of items from my stash and am going to see what happens! You know, just have fun with it. The shirt is huge on me. The back hem hits just above my knees and I will need to remove half the sleeves so I have plenty of shirt to work with.

I have some ideas... Now to get playing.




The shirt. It is 100% cotton shirting in a small blue on white check.


The scrap pile to play with. Various trims, a couple quilting cottons, some leftover scraps from previous projects and an old white cotton shirt with ruffles that either gets reused or goes to the donation bin.


- Steph... From my iPad

Location:Home