First project of 2014! Maxi beach/bathing suit cover-up

Woo-Hoo!!! First project of the year is done. It feels nice to be on a good start:)

For 2014 I have accepted the challenge to not purchase any ready to wear clothing for the entire year! With the exception of panties, bras and socks. There is a button on the side bar of my blog, check it out.

I was going to work on a new bathing suit today, however due to all the snow I'm pretty much stuck in the house for the day! And I need to pick up supplies. I'll pick another project...

More about the beach cover-up.

My husband and I are headed on holiday in a couple of weeks! I found that I needed a nicer beach cover up that I could slip on and wear to a beach restaurant and look/feel nice in. 

I used McCalls 5890 view E, a princess seamed dress that I lengthened to a maxi. 

This fabric was a REAL challenge to work with. It is a Missoni-like nylon open knit that I really had to do quite a few test sample on before I found the best seams and edge finishing. I finally ended up doing the entire project on my serger with a 4 thread overlock stitch with differential feed and with each thread in a different color. This helped to blend the seams better through the see-through knit. On the shoulders I ended up using clear elastic to stabilize the seam. But what a process! Ay my serger I had a piece of tissue paper, clear elastic and then the fabric front and back. This was the only was I could get a nice looking seam. :)

Another challenge of this fabric was how to use it, I mean really, this is a huge in your face print and color! Ideally I would have like to have matched each of those giant chevrons across the side and princess seams. However, it would have taken double the yardage to do that with a ton of waste. Plus it would have been cost prohibitive especially for a beach coverup!

the only change to the pattern was the length. I wanted a maxi!

The edge finishes also took quite a bit of testing. The pattern says to fold over and stitch. This looked quite like a nightmare! These teeny tiny nylon fibers kept getting caught on the feed dogs and it was messy. I finally ended up using a three thread narrow hem overlock stitch. It still ended up slightly wonky in some parts of the armhole but I'll take it! It looks a thousands time worse on the dress form, not very noticeable when it is on.

Happy 2014! Chicagoland is welcoming 2014 with a great big snow storm!