Work in Progress Wednesday

Now that all of the costumes are done, I can do what I want.  Which is, believe it or not, sewing.

But now I can sew what I want.  And there was a huge list of things I wanted to sew this summer.  Now that it's late July, I've trimmed the list quite a bit.

And the most important thing to sew for summer is swimsuits.  Especially if you've got a tall, slender kid who can't find a suit that fits.

In between Shakespeare and Beauty and the Beast I made Jalie 3023 using some swimsuit fabric purchased from JoAnn Fabrics.  I used size P for length, and size M for width.

In the above photo, the straps are sewn in the way I think the directions meant for them to be placed.  But that seemed too stretchy-long once the suit got wet, so we undid them and re-sewed them crossed  over in the back:

If you look at reviews of this pattern you'll see that people say that front top horizontal band tends to dip down funny.  And that's what happened to our version as well.  Plus, when she comes up out of the water after diving in it tends to really droop down, and feels like it's going to head for her navel.  I wonder if it's partially a function of the pink fabric being stretchier.  Who knows.  I've now put some quarter inch swimsuit elastic in the top of that piece, but we haven't had another trial of it since then.  Apparently this droopy business isn't a problem when the suit is simply wet, but only when coming out of the water.  Which means it can't be tested in, say, a shower or somesuch -- you actually have to go to a pool, jump in, and emerge.  And, honestly, it's too hot to go swimming this week.

In the meantime, yesterday I traced off Jalie 3134 with a size M width and size O girth (a little more precise on the body length since it's a one piece, plus the size P involved totally different pieces that would require much fiddling to use).  Back in May (pre-Shakespeare) we had ordered several pieces of swimsuit fabric online, but she asked that this first try be the exact same stuff as used above.  

So, that's all cut out now.  And NPR is on the radio (what has kept me sane during all of this sewing -- listening to NPR) (Digression:  If you ever call in to a radio show on a controversial topic, please do NOT start your call with "I just want to say...." If you do you'll sound like an idiot, because obviously you wanted to say whatever you're about to say or else you wouldn't have called in to the show. Plus the last caller just used that exact same phrase, so come up with something new.)

It's a new adventure, sewing swimsuits.  So far it's been pretty fun, if not entirely successful.  

Anyway, time to get the serger threaded and start sewing.