My last minute beach cover up

It looks like I'm going to be visiting a bunch of beaches this summer and for several reasons ... ;<) ... I want something nice to cover myself up while wearing my bathing suit.

Our first beach trip is happening in two days, so I better get cracking.

This is my final result ... but it didn't happen quite as fast as I was hoping.

And, here is my inspiration ... I bought this cool old Polynesian Pattern several years ago and have been wanting to make it up for some time.  And, I have this lovely very light weight cotton lawn in my stash.  My bathing suit is solid black, so this should look good with it.  I pre-washed it at the same time I pre-washed the fabric for the dress I made in May.  Remember my blogs from May 30th and June 5th?

I read this fun blog recently The Slapdash Sewist.  I like the way she dives into projects and works out the problems as she goes.  So, that is the spirit in which I approached this project.

Now, here is how I thought things would go as I whipped this thing up.  First it is a size Large and I should probably wear a Medium, but I figured ... it's a beach cover up, if it's big, no problem, I'll do some clever things with the stripes  AND, I'll just dive in and sew!!!! 

First, here's a small tip.  It was very difficult to tell the right side from the wrong, but when you looked closely there was a difference.  So, once I was sure which side was which, I pinned little safely pins on the right side of all the pieces.

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Anyway, I'm madly sewing along.  Spent a fair amount of time putting some bias in the yoke seam (probably a stupid thing to do) and thought to myself "self ... you should try this on before serging those seams inside."

I tried it on and HATED it.  I won't even show a photo of me in it, it made me look super dowdy.  But, here it is on my form.

It's the yoke ... It's too, too big and I hate the horizontal stripes.

First ... I've got to get that ugly yoke off my garment!


But now ... what to do? What to do?  I have very little fabric left.  I considered a solid black yoke, but don't like that.  I'm going to see what I can do with the scraps left.

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I like this yoke much better.

I made the back neck "Vee" to follow the striped of the fabric.

But, I do think it needs a little black trim around it. The same effect as the hand cut bias in the seam with a lot less work. This is a 3/8" scrolly gimp trim.


Now, zig zag on the trim, serge seams, sew up hem and it's ready for the beach.

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Another nice thing about this cover up.  It folds down to nearly nothing.  It will tuck into my suitcase when I travel this summer and can double for a bathrobe.

I just read an article by Cynthia Rowley about how she travels all over the world with her husband and two daughters and never checks any luggage.  I'm seriously thinking about how I can do that this summer.  I will keep you posted.

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And, I finally wore that dress I made 3 weeks ago (blogs of May 30 and June 5). Which will also travel with me this summer.