Swimsuit Coverup

It only took a year for me to actually sit down and do this project. But, it's finally done! Well, one is. I have 4 more to possibly do. It's a swimsuit coverup made from elastic thread and a towel! Better still, the thinner/cheaper the towel the better. So while I bought 2 or 3 of them at probably full price last year (which I think has gone up since then), some of them I got when Target was clearing out summer merchandise last fall.

Start with a cheap, thin towel (as previously mentioned, mine came from Target) and a roll of elastic thread. 

The reason why this took a while is that it took me a long time to gather the information. Here's what I found out: 

• I bought a new bobbin case for my machine and loosened it (actually, mine ended up loosened so I bought a new one to be tighter in an instance of 'what is wrong with my machine').  I also put an "e" on it in black sharpie to distinguish the two. 
• You have to wind the bobbin by hand when using elastic thread. Don't pull the thread tight, just unroll a bunch off the roll and wind the bobbin with that. You're gonna do this a lot. 
• You don't need to make lines on the fabric with disappearing ink or chalk if you use the presser foot (I used my 1/4 with guide foot, #57) edge along the previous line of stitching. 
• It's time consuming but EASY. 

This whole project stems from this blog post I caught in my rss feeds. She has a pdf with more versions of this dress, mostly for children, so you should check it out. Even though they are for kids, they are fairly well adaptable. And she gives you a lot of tips on elastic thread. I felt a lot more confident after reading it. And $6 for 5 patterns...not bad at all.

Like I said, it's EASY. After you've wound your bobbin with elastic thread, put REGULAR thread in the machine (regular on top, elastic on the bottom). Then you'll sew all the way down the towel (the long way) about 5 or 6 times depending on how much you put on the bobbin. Then you'll rewind it, sew 5 or 6 more....etc. At some point I held up the towel to me to determine where on the dots I wanted to stop sewing, which was about 2 dots down. This meant around 30 seams. 

When you get done, you need to go hit up your iron. Spray it with water really well where you have the elastic and then iron the seams. This will cause them to contract. Like this: 

All the fun of smocking, SIGNIFICANTLY less work right? I think the technical term when it's done with elastic is Shirring. 

After that, sew up the side and add straps. I started to sew where the towel itself had been hemmed. But that was so much fabric that it snapped my needle. So then I sewed right beside it. But that was too big still, so I went about 2 inches in and it was perfect (I feel a bit like goldilocks with that paragraph). 

Since I was cutting it off anyway, I used that portion where it was hemmed as my straps! Here's the finished project. 

First one is a bit fuzzy but it gives you a better view of it length wise. And, I got a new rack for my new feet yesterday at Hancock's/Bernina. I also got a new spool of embroidery thread. Subtract the 2 bad racks I was returning and I ended up paying 65 cents. Do you know how amazing that is to spend at Bernina???!!

When my rolling foot comes in, it will be full! And yes, it's maxed out the bobbin racks on the other side as well. And yes, my feet are organized by number. I thought about organizing them by purpose (hems, straight, zipper, embroidery) but then I realized I'm a girl and we alphabetize/number things (Bones reference!).