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Sewing TUTORIAL:
How to sew a swimsuit cover-up
Now that the kids are almost finished with school, the weather is HOT and the pool is clean I am ready to celebrate summer!
During the summer we love having friends over to swim, grill, have picnics with the kids and just hang out in the water. That means - SWIMSUIT SEASON!!
Since I haven't sewn a swimsuit for myself (YET) I decided to sew a swimsuit cover up. This DIY swim cover-up is a sheer knit that I got on a trip to Charleston from the fabric shop called Five Eighth Seams.
This fabric shop has gorgeous fabrics and this one happened to be on sale since there was less than two yards left. It is a very sheer fabric but don't let that scare you. Just use a jersy ballpoint needle and a zig-zag stitch when sewing to keep the thread from breaking (popping) when the fabric stretches.
Love it? Let's sew one!
1. Gather materials: 1 yard of knit fabric, ballpoint needle, straight edge, scissors, pins, measuring tape and a t-shirt you own to trace the neck and sleeves.
2. Measure from your shoulder down to where you want your swimsuit cover-up to end. (Mine was 31 inches long.)
3. Fold your t-shirt in half (or pattern piece) and lay it on the fold of your fabric (with the sleeve of the shirt opposite the fold.)
4. Trace around your t-shirt and angle it out (like an A-Line shape) until your cover-up is as long as you wanted it. (Mine was 31 inches. The picture shows it longer, but I cut it shorter after this and didn't take a picture.)
5. Repeat so you have two pieces this same shape.
6. Lay your cover-up pieces right sides together. Fold them in half down the middle seam. To cut the neckline, measure 5 inches down along the fold and measure 4 inches across from the top of the fold. Cut. (You can make this a deeper scoop - it's your cover-up so personalize it to your taste!)
7. Open them up and lay them right sides together. Pin the left shoulder seam ONLY.
Here it is pinned:
8. Sew along the pinned shoulder seam using a 3/8 inch seam allowance.
9. Lay your cover-up right side up and have the neckline spread out like this:
10. Cut a strip of the fabric 2 inches wide x the length of the neckline. (I made mine 5 inches longer than needed - you would rather have too much than not enough as you pin.)
11. Fold your neckline binding in half with wrong sides together. You will be looking at the right side of the binding.
12. Start on the end of the dress' neckline and pin the binding along the entire length. Trim the excess binding.
13. Sew on your binding using a 3/8 inch seam allowance. Remove pins as you sew.
14. Press binding with your iron. Topstitch 1/8 an inch below your binding to secure the seam.
15. Lay your swim cover-up right sides together. Pin the right shoulder seam. Then pin down the sides of the cover-up.
16. Sew along your pined shoulder seam and along both sides using a 3/8 inch seam allowance. Trim threads.
17. Try it on. Hem if needed. Since this is a knit, it will not fray, so I left the edges raw. (Time saver - score!!)
Put on your bathing suit, beach hat and flip-flops! Toss on your cover-up and head to the pool!
Happy Sewing and Happy Tanning!!
I love comments! Let me know what you think or
if YOU will TRY IT!!
