Friday, June 29, 2012

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.

3 comments:

Pam said...

I love it! Really! I especially love the boy shorts - you'd be in here in California riding the waves.

I think the serger is a huge success! A few more tweaks and it will be perfect.

My work too is apparently full of boos boos that I only know about. But the thing is as I wear the garments I forgot about them. . .

Sheila said...

You are doing a great job, and also like the shorts.

Rachelle said...

They're looking great. I just love the colours on you. I blocked off one side of you with my hand with the high/low leg. Personally I think you have a great figure and could wear what you like but I did find the hip bone draws the eye a little whereas the lower leg makes you look at the necklace more. I don't think the slight pattern difference matters on that print. The boy short is cute but you're only young once why not make the most of your assets now :) Sew4fun did a little tutorial on adding elastic in case you haven't seen it http://sew-4-fun.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Activewear (I wish I had taken a photo of my first and only attempt to add elastic...you would have been rolling on the floor...my sewing is so bad much like my gardening, black thumb lol)