DIY From Halter to Cross-Back

Ever since I got pregnant with Smasher, I cannot STAND having things on my neck. Turtlenecks, long hair, heavy necklaces, or halter tops. They make me nauseous and give me a headache within 15 minutes. 

As you can imagine, combined with my now-saggy post-nursing bewbs, this makes bathing suit shopping EXCRUCIATING. Every thing that isn't a halter, gives no support, or if it DOES have support, it looks like a bra. 

My pre-pregnancy bathing suits, I have discovered, are ALL halters. So I decided to see if I can convert my old halter into a cross-back top. Not only was it a success, it was SUPER simple!

My results: 

Ignore my not-bikini-readiness, please. I'm working on that.

The top had my girls hanging a bit low and wide, so I also added a quick (supposedly) seam up the front to close them in just a bit. I folded the bikini in half, right sides facing, then put a seam up the front of the cups perpendicular to the bottom band. If your bathing suit is fairly thin, you should be able to do this on your sewing machine, but if it is thick, you may want to just hand sew it. I wound up having to do both, because my machine didn't want to stitch through the thickest part where the cups met the band. Then I just trimmed the seam allowance (swimsuit fabric doesn't ravel, so you don't have to  secure the allowance).

Please also ignore my horrendous hand-stitching. 

Now for the Cross-back. My suits straps were long enough to just stretch down and cross, but if yours are not, you can just make some quick new straps from corresponding swimsuit fabric and attach those. 

You can either put on your suit and have a friend cross the straps in the back and pin them for you, or you can pin them first with safety pins and try the top on. You want to stretch the straps when you pull them down, because swimsuits are supposed to stretch to fit your body and they wont support the girls if you don't stretch them any. Just don't stretch the straps to the max or they will pull up your bottom strap in the back and look a bit funky. You don't have to make the straps match, just find a position you like. Then pick whichever strap you like best and remove the pin or pins from the other strap.

Pull off your suit and mark the shoulder strap and the bottom strap you liked with pins at the inside of where they intersect. Put the pins in each strap separately. Remove the pin that had them connected together. It doesn't have to be perfect, the stretch fabric makes this project very forgiving.

See how the pins follow the inside edges of the other straps?

Then, separate the pinned straps and fold the top in half. Line up the cups and bottom straps together evenly and insert a pin in the remaining strap at the same distance from the cups as the pin you already have marked. Repeat for shoulder straps.

Then, lay out your top flat and cross your shoulder straps. Match the meeting points of the pins with the shoulder straps to the inside of the bottom straps, and pin each shoulder strap to its corresponding bottom strap.

Sew straps together with a box, crossing the insides of the box to make an "X". NOTE: If you're doing this with a string bikini, it may be easier just to hand-sew this part. You don't have to make the box and X, just make sure the straps are secure.

Then try it on, and if you like it, trim the ends of the shoulder straps. And, voila! You now have a wonderfully comfortable cross-back bikini top!

The Skirt: When Fashion Gets Dangerous

Every now and then I get an idea about something that I want in my wardrobe. Something and it turns into an obsession to find the PERFECT specimen of this thing. This can go well, when I find what I want fairly quickly, or not-so-well, when I can't find what I want and end up spending crazy amounts of time and money hunting.

Usually it goes well when my obsession lines up with current fashions. Sometimes I'm a bit ahead of the curve, but then all I have to do is wait a season or two and fashion will catch up (I'm talking to you, polka dot skinnies).

But occasionally, I get thwarted. The fashion designers and clothing makers out there just don't understand my brilliance. They refuse to produce the exact thing I want. At least, at a price I can afford.

This is one such occasion.

About a year ago, I stumbled across this image over on Esme and the Laneway:



And it was one of those record-scratch moments where everything sort of changes. 

I love every. single. thing. about this. The full post is here, but here is another fantastic picture of this outfit for you:



I want it all!

The printed, tied-up shirt! The slouchy-but-flattering sweater-thing! 

The dark, gibson-rolled hair!

The fan-freaking-tastic makeup!

But more than anything else, The Skirt. Lovely cream color, with a high waistband but a drop waist. Full, flattering, long. Elegant, but with a little bohemian flair; retro, but with enough edge to be modern. This Skirt is stunning. And I want it. 

And no one sells it.

No one even sells anything LIKE it. I have been hunting for this skirt (or even just something similar) for over a year now.

I'm desperate! I think soon I'm going to have to resort to attempting to make it myself... But I can't even really find a pattern for this skirt!

<--The closest I've gotten is this dress. I suppose I would just have to not make the blouse part.... though I'm not sure how well that would work.

Or I might could make this skirt... and just make one super-extra-long ruffle instead of a bunch... 

My sewing skills at the moment are a bit mediocre, though... So I'm nervous. What if it just doesn't quite turn out? How disappointing would it be to be sooo close, but fail?

I definitely see lots MORE time and energy being spent in the pursuit of The Skirt. Maybe someone just needs to make it for me. 

At a price I can afford. 

Then not sell it to anyone else, so me and Esme can just be the only fabulous ones out there. 

---------------------------------------------------

One last shout-out to Esme and the Laneway. She can do absolutely no wrong in my book. She always looks absolutely perfect and has really been a huge style inspiration to me (I adore the new blonde and pink 'do, too).

**********UPDATE**********

I finally made it! You can see my results here!

Victory in Skirt Form

 Everyone remembers this skirt, right? The fabulous one? Well, I made it! Or- my version at least.

BOOM BABY!

I would have posted this like a week ago, but the hem decided to stage a rebellion, so I had to wage a little week-long war. 

The rest of the skirt only took two days. I used this pattern, but made some significant changes. 

(1) I didn't make the blouse at all. Instead, I topped the yoke with a 2-inch waistband. 

(2) I used fusible interfacing (for the first time EVER!) on the yoke to give it a little more structure. I don't have a great tummy, and I didn't want to show off my pooch too much.

(3) The pattern called for a 2- piece A-line type skirt, with darts at the bottom. I was worried about too much bulk in the gathers, so I just cut a straight skirt from selvage to selvage. 

(4) The pattern is fully lined, but this fabric really doesn't need that, so I just lined the yoke.

The only differences from the inspiration skirt (seen on the right) that I can tell are the color, hem length, and skirt fullness. I couldn't really find a cream colored fabric that would work, but I love this grey color (Bonus: this fabric doesn't wrinkle, either). Second, I hemmed my skirt for flats. Honestly, this deprives it a little bit of its drama. I know myself, though, and if I had hemmed it for heels, it would never get worn. Thirdly, as mentioned above, I was worried about how well this fabric would gather, so I didn't want to make my skirt too full. If I had followed the pattern, there would have been a lot more fullness to the skirt. It might have worked, it might not, but I'm happy with what I have.

This was my first zipper, first time working with interfacing and lining, first time gathering without elastic thread, and first time working with a large pattern. This was definitely a learning project, but I am SO happy with the results! 

This skirt turned out casual enough to wear any day, but nice enough to be snazzy. It's comfortable, too! I have worn it all day and had no problems. If I don't feel like following the inspiration look, this skirt really looks great with just a nice tee shirt over it as well. The drop waist makes it really something special. 

A few lessons learned, here: (1) never underestimate the wisdom of your grandmother, (2)  perfectly matched thread can hide a lot of mistakes, but be really hard to rip out, and (3) hem battles can be long and bloody, but the results are SO worth the fight.

Thanks to the friends and family who inspired me to make this and helped me with fabrics and cutting and all the things that go into making something.

BONUS: Smasher decided to get in on the picture taking. He's such a good helper.