Swimwear

We went to a water park recently and I was impressed with the swimwear... some people look carefree in their swimsuits but many looked uncomfortable and just wished they could be a little more covered up!  I saw just ONE girl in a homemade, modest swimsuit.  It looked just like a dress, but with short skirt and short sleeves, made of swimsuit lycra.  She was so comfortable and pretty! 
I decided my daughters must have this.
Bought four yards of nice textured lycra and started cutting.  I have this Kwik-Sew book with a whole bunch of patterns in it, patterns for everything and the book was only like $15.  I used the leotard pattern with short sleeves and just added a skirt, and the pattern for short shorts. 
It came out SO WELL!
I used the serger a lot which made it super easy.  The serger's differential feed means you can set it so the front feed dogs go a little faster than the rear, so the fabric's slightly gathered instead of stretched, and the seams come out perfectly smooth.  It's tough to make knit fabric come out smooth with a regular machine! 

REALLY talented is when you can hold it up and take the picture at the same time  :-)
I actually tried it on myself and it fits me too, just a little tight!  I'm going to get more fabric and make myself one too.  I'm not so important because I'm the one who's in charge of the group, not one of the swimmers...

The dress was too tight at first, because I cut it as for a swimsuit.  You don't want a dress to dip in at the middle back like a swimsuit does.  So I had to slice it open and add a triangle... now it looks just fine.  That's why I bought a floral pattern! 

All done...

Matching shorts. 

Andrea refuses to have her face in the picture  :-) 

Triune Biblical University site up

My latest project, Triune Biblical University  is online.  Check it out! 

the Pleated Dress Project

Big idea I just had to try  :-)
What if I evenly pleat across a width of fabric, sew along the pleats partway down, then cut a dartless bodice shape out of the pleated middle section and let the skirt form naturally?
Here's how it came out.

My calculations of how much to pleat in order to gather the full width into the width of the bodice pattern I was using. 

 

String Quilt Top Done...?

I thought it would be a lap quilt or something.  My husband said he liked it and was it going to be for the bed?  I thought he would hate it!  He's the tidy, organized type. 
Well it would look pretty cool on the bed, wouldn't it!  Just needs to be a little larger  :-)