The Tank is Tanking

My mojo is waning, but I began the process of applying elastic today. The Kwik Sew book tells you several ways to do it, and since my Brother builds nests under elastic, I gave the serger a shot (it's my mom's old 3-thread Riccar). Promising results...this looks much better than the last time I tried a swimsuit.

But I realized that the fabric slipped out from under the elastic a couple of times, despite my best attempts - arggghhhhh!

Next time, I put the elastic on the bottom and the fabric on top...better. But then comes the moment of truth - folding it over and topstitching. I was scared to topstitch on the wrong side because of the nest problem that happens underneath, but I should've been more afraid of the uneven stitches I got from stretching inconsistently. (And I only applied elastic to the neckline so far.) Here you can also see my attempt to cover the legs more - but just on one side. Yeah, there's no matching that wavy pattern. Maybe the disruption in pattern will distract you from the uneven topstitching. (Each garment I make is a work in distractions from boo-boos.)

And I don't think you can see this at all, but below the scoop is not even touching me. There are at least a couple of inches between my lower back and the fabric. I saw one blogger mention doing a swayback adjustment on her swimsuit - may have to look into that.

In frustration, I decided to try the terrible boy shorts over the suit. I've created a new look - the swim john-john!

I went on to apply elastic to the elongated leg, but that bit about applying it 1 on 1 in front and stretching in the back didn't work out too well. I'll have to stretch a little bit in the front too. But that's for another day...and a better frame of mind.