Bathing Suit Cover-up

I have had a black and white striped tank dress as my bathing suit cover up for years now. There is a reason I don't wear white often - it doesn't stay white for long. This dress is now getting more towards multicoloured. When the lago tank top came out, I decided I might as well try to lengthen it to replace the cover-up with a newer, different colour version. Despite the fact that I've had mixed results with altering patterns before, I decided to get some lovely teal knit fabric for Patch Halifax and just go for it. Luckily, the pattern and dress are so simple I could likely recover from most mishaps.

This dress took me about 2 weeks longer to make than it should have. This was for 1 big reason: When I pre-washed the fabric, all of the edges curled up, making it really frustrating to cut out the pattern pieces. I complained to my mother about this, and she suggested I use water to iron it flat. This is what ended up working to get me going on the project, thanks Mom! I have come across advice not to pre-wash knits for this reason, just make them about 5% longer to account for the shrinkage. I doubt I'll do it that way, because I really hate it when things shrink and I would probably over-compensate. It also took a long time for me to actually take pictures, these were taken by my lovely friend Amy at a weekend at a cottage, and she also found the flower for the added flair.

I'm clearly getting better at neckbands and armbands, although in this case there was better recovery than the jersey I used for the last 2 tanks. This fabric is 95% cotton and 5% spandex from Patch Halifax, and it is really lovely. I'm really excited to see how it feels over a wet bathing suit, because it's already lovely as a day dress. It's almost a tunic length, so I might wear it around the house, but it's too short to wear out as a dress. Looking at the pictures, I could use a little extra space around the armsythes, since this fabric has less stretch than my other lagos, but I don't really notice it when I'm wearing it.

I usually buy my fabric and notions at Fabricville because they're cheap there, and since I'm still learning I'm hesitant to invest too much money in fabrics that may not turn into a nice garment. I think I'm almost ready to start buy nice fabric (I think I've said that before, but I have a lot of fabric to use up first), with the hope that I love the clothing I make more. I really like what Patch Halifax does for the sewing community in little old Halifax - they have indie patterns, classes, lovely fabrics, etc., so even if I continue to purchase a lot of my sewing supplies from Fabricville, I will definitely frequent Patch to do what I can to make sure they succeed.

As you can see, these were taken after I went swimming.

For making this dress, I used the same lago tank pattern pieces as the blue and black one I made, I just continued straight down when I got to the bottom. I ended up needing to take it in some between my waist and hips in order to get the fit right. If I made it again I would grade out a little bit more around the hips, although the fact that it's a bit snug helps it stay down.

Details

Pattern: Lago Tank Top by Itch-to-Stitch (Free!)
Material: Cotton/lycra jersey from Patch Halifax
Modifications: Added 1 inch to the length of the bodice and graded out 3(!!!) sizes for the hips, then continued straight down to the end of the fabric to get the most I could out of the length.
Learning: Getting even better at neckbands, and that I should probably put a little more thought into modifying patterns.