Good afternoon fellow bloggers! First off let me say Happy Memorial Day. While many of us will be celebrating with hotdogs on the grill and picnics in the parks. let us not forget to say thank you to all of the veterans! Without you we would not be the country we are. I proudly display my country’s flag to salute you and remember the price that has been paid for our freedom!
I have been busy over the last couple of weeks, I am continually trying to get my sewing area organized. I found a great container to keep all of my sewing machine feel sorted. It is a lot easier to find the foot I am looking for now. Maybe now I will actually use them instead of just admire them.
I often see bloggers bragging about the pleasures of using weights instead of pins to hold down their patterns. Since I was working on a swimsuit I realized that now would be the time to give them a try. I headed over to my local hardware store and scored the largest washers they had in stock. I decided to use Puffy Paint to make little gripper feet on one side. I love this paint. After drying just steam and the paint raises. This is also a great application for little one’s bedroom slippers or those cute little foot pajamas instead of buying gripper fabric. 
Over at The Monthly Stitch May was Sew Stretchy and what better way to complete this challenge but finally make Closet Case Files Bombshell Bathing Suit. Last year Heather hosted a sew along and she has a great tutorial. If you have not tried this pattern you should really check it out. It was pretty simple and easy to alter if you need to. And for the ladies that don’t want to show too much skin this is the perfect suit.
Buy it Here!
I purchased this adorable swimsuit fabric at Michael Levine’s, LowPriceFabric . While it was a heavy fabric and the recovery of the stretch was great I did learn that if the design is printed on instead of woven in there will be discoloration at the stress points. Lesson learned. Thank goodness it doesn’t show up because of all the gathering of the swimsuit.
Ashley is proud of the swimsuit. And it is ready for the opening of Pool Season!
Ash had agreed to make a beach bag and a new cover up while I made the swimsuit but she fell behind in. We all do that from time to time so I worked on the bag yesterday while she worked on the cover up. Both got done and they looked great.
With all May projects done it is off to enjoy the warm weather, great friends and wonderful food!
Happy Sewing!
PS.. It has been brought to my attention that our lovely US Postal Service can not manage to get everyone’s giveaways to them in a timely fashion. I will be addressing this and see what happened and see if I can get them to get them delivered ASAP. Please let me know if you have not received so I can start the bitching!
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Beautiful work! Very inspiring! ❤
Ooh, I like the idea of making your pattern weights a bit grippy like that. Excellent tip, thanks!
I will have to borrow that idea for pattern weights–how cool! I’ve been using my late grandmother’s salters, but would like to return them to strictly “display” status! =)
And duh, where are my manners?!? That swimsuit is awesome!!
What are ‘salters’?
The whole beach outfit is just so adorable! I really want a retro swimsuit, but I fear the lack of a serger will make it a frustrating endeavour …
Never tried the washer method, but heard good stuff about it. But don’t they slide around during cutting, or do you use a rotary cutter? (Haven’t tried those either. Totally stone age, I know 😉 )
I got my beautiful fabric a few days ago, and I am thrilled! Thank you ever so much 😉
I just use scissors, I just put the weights in a little deeper. I have a rotary cutter and tried to use it just the other day and can’t cut a straight line for nothing, even after trying to use a ruler as a guide. I also have a serger, which I don’t use for the swimsuit, I am afraid of it, I just used my sewing machine, with a small tight zigzag stitch.
Gorgeous! I love the fabric too 🙂 And the fit looks super spot on! Very cute pattern weights!
This is such a gorgeous swimsuit! Your beautiful daughter looks fabulous in it and all of her accessories. I just love the labels, too! 🙂
Also, I almost forgot to tell you “thank you” for the fabric!!! I can’t wait to sew it up!
What a great idea to create little grippers on your washer weights 😀 genius! Ashley looks stunning in the bombshell swimming costume, love the fabric 😀 Fingers crossed for nice weather so you get lots of use out of it xxx
That bathing suit looks great! I’ve also organizing my sewing space and it’s true that it’s easier to use your gadgets and notions like this.
Such lovely things! I love the idea of having little gripper feet on the washer! You know, I have been wanting to try using pattern weights! I never thought that washers would be heavy enough to keep the pattern in place!