Mom's Suit!

After all that practicing on the kids suits, it was time to upgrade my own.  I made myself a swimdress last year but have greatly modified the pattern(s) since then.  I had a growing mental list of the things I wanted in my next suit and felt I had practiced enough to give it another whirl.

Here it is!  

Shorts for underneath the swimdress top:  

A nice cap sleeve:  

A nice neckline:

I topstitched this with the twin needle but ended up picking it out.  It lays much better without the extra topstitching.  The bodice portion of the dress is lined so the neckline is a nice serged seam on the interior.  It looks so nice, lays so nice, and is so easy that maybe I'll just line the kids suits rather than messing around with a finished neckline.

And...(insert 'gulp' here for posting myself online)...here is what it looks like on!  

Overall, I'm very happy with it.  

Things I like:  

1.  Fabric is good.  It looks better as a finished suit than it did on the bolt.  I haven't used my favorite fabric yet for fear that it didn't turn out. :) 

2.  Pattern making and the actual construction went very well.  I LOVE my serger and am getting better at sewing with lycra.  

Things I don't like: 

1.  The shape of the neckline.  Its MUCH better since I tore out the topstitching, but I altered the shape of the neckline from my original pattern and I think I like the original better.  We'll see how it feels when I wear it for actual swimming but for the 'ultimate suit' I will probably switch back to the other neckline which is ever-so-slightly higher.  Maybe not.  When I tried it on last night I didn't like the neckline at all and was disappointed because everything else about the suit was good and I can't remake the neckline without starting over.  But today when I took out the topstitching and tried it on for pictures I thought it was just fine.  Time will tell I guess.  

2.  There is a bit of wrinkling right at the waistline.  Its pretty snug.  :)  I'll have to see if it gets looser with wear and washing, or tighter.  Tighter would be a problem.  The kids suits seem to get a bit looser with wear so if that holds true it should be just right after a few trips to the pool.  It could also be the lining of the bodice causing the wrinkles, I'm not sure.  

So, there you have it!  Off to the pool we go!  

Cryptic notes to self for next time:

- I used size small as a starting point.  Depending on whether it shrinks or relaxes I might have to start with medium.  Its very snug right after construction, and that is with small seam allowances.  I started with 5/8'' SA an it was way too snug then.  Had to rip out the basting and go with smaller SA.  

- Sewing order:  shoulder seams of lining.  shoulder seams of bodice.  Lay those two RST and serge around neckline hole.  Serge lining side seams.  Then serge dress side seams.  Turn RSO. Then serge armhole openings of lining and bodice together into one piece.  Then zig zag stitched sleeve to serged armhole.  

 - Finishes:  Sleeves are single fold over and topstitch with double needle. Bottom hem is serge, fold a good sized hem, and then topstitch with multistep zig zag made to be long and flat.  Like the bottom better.   Tacked the lining to the dress at the side seam where the lining ends with a few zig zags.  

 - Fabric is from Mills End.  A remnant for $8/yd.  Used 3.5 yds of 60".  Needed almost all 3.5 yds in length, but had a bit leftover along the bottom/selvedge.  

Swimsuit Redo

And here we have a re-do.  

We learned that water, sidewalk chalk, and clothing do not mix.  Leah was playing in the pool, switched to sidewalk chalk, and got her new homemade swimming suit covered in chalk.  I didn't think anything of it, as she often gets clothes covered in chalk whilst making murals on the driveway.  Much to my chagrin, whereas dry chalk dust comes right out in the wash, wet chalk stains permanently.  I tried everything I could think of to get blue chalk out of her cute new pink suit but nothing worked.  Very annoying.  I just couldn't stomach sending her to swimming lessons in a new, homemade, yet stained suit so I had to make another one.  Thankfully I had JUST enough fabric left from the original purchase to eek out another dress portion.  There was a slight stain on the shorts too but that'll just have to stay.

The silver lining is that I got to try out another neckline finishing technique.  It worked okay and looks nice but its a little tight going over her head.  So I guess I have to either do the same finishing technique on a larger neckline hole or go back a different way to finish it.   Its not the best photo but I wanted to 'write down' how I tweak these suits to keep track for next time.

Boring details so I can remember what I did later...
 Elastic filled binding, similar to the binding on the pink and teal playdresses:
1.  Cut approx. 2'' wide strip and sew around neckline, quartermarking.
2.  Sew elastic on top of what was just stitched. (Just because its too tricky to sew the elastic on as the strip is being sewn on.)  No tension on elastic.
3.  Single fold over and topstitch with twin needle.
It lays nice and flat but is a bit too tight of an opening for the head.

I just did a single fold-over and zig zagged the armholes on this one because the above procedure busted my twin needle.  :(   Apparently you can't backstitch with a twin needle.  Lesson learned and won't be soon forgotten as those fancy needles are $5 a pop.

I'm almost thinking the swimwear elastic is overkill on these suits.  The lycra is so stretchy on its own and the suits aren't supertight like a competitive swimsuit would be.  I'll have to think about that one for a while.  These armholes with no elastic have held up just fine through a week of swimming lessons.  We'll see.  Practice makes perfect.

Pillowcases

After a whirlwind of sewing in the middle of May, I took a little break and did some sewing room sorting and cleaning, along with paper and pencil designing of a quilt to make later.  Here is a little project for the girls I whipped up last week.

A while ago I saw in a quilt magazine that Moda was going to be making a line of fabric based on the Berenstain Bears series.  Thats a 'must have' in our house.  Both girls, but Grace in particular, are obsessed with Berenstain Bears this year.  We own probably 30 books so far and have read the entire collection of all three local libraries.  For a while Berenstain Bear books were the only ones Grace would look at and everything in her daily life could somehow be related to Mama, Papa, Brother, or Sister Bear.

I have poked fun at people in the past for making pillowcases out of $10/yard fabric and now I must eat my words.  But aren't they cute?   :)    I just love the coordinating polka dot prints - the blue is just like Mama Bear's dress.

I used french seams on all the seams so there will be no unraveling or edges to get frayed.  

Takes a bit longer, but I like the finished look.  

topstitched outside

neat and clean french seam inside