A Dress with SPF

 Hello Readers. It is summer but the sun is not my friend. I try to wear sunscreen everyday. I try to stay in the shade. I try to avoid the sun as much as I can. But I can't avoid it forever. I had this wrap with SPF in the fabric. It was great but maybe it could be more useful to be a dress? 

 Before and after.  

This was such a pretty pink and it had 50 SPF.  

It was a great wrap skirt but I thought it would make a fabulous beach dress. 

I folded the wrap into quarters. That will let me cut the neckline and sides and it would be symmetrical when I was done. 

 

You can see the cuts I made while the wrap was folded. I made a loose boxy shape. I cut an angles shape on the sides to make the skirt shape. And I saved those scrap pieces for later. 

 

I sewed the sides together with right sides facing each other. This made a very simple dress shape. That will work to throw on over a bathing suit.  

You can see the cut edge of the neckline here. I wanted to finish that neckline, that is what those scraps are for. 

 

I had 4 scraps left from when I cut out the dress shape. 

 

I used a yard stick as a straight edge. I marked along the fabric with a pencil. I wanted a 1/2 inch strip of this pink fabric. I wanted the hemmed edge as my neck binding. 

 

I cut out my strips and followed the pencil marks. 

 

I sewed this strip of fabric to the neck opening. I sewed with the right sides together. 

 

After the neck band was sewn in place, I went back over the neck binding and top stitched it so it would lay flat. 

 

This dress is loose and great in the heat at the beach or pool. I love the pink color and this dress is easier to wear for me than the wrap was. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bathing Suit Cover-up Dress

 Hello Readers. I was given this material by a friend. (Thanks T.P.) It was thin stretchy nylon bathing suit fabric. I wanted to make a wrap around cover-up dress from it. It was perfect for the beach or the pool. 

Before and after.

 

I wrapped the fabric around myself and my dress form to see how wide I needed the pieces to be. It had to wrap all the way around me and over-lap too. The fabric needed to go from behind one shoulder, across my front, across my back and then around my front again to the other shoulder.

 

I used my serger around the whole rectangle. 

 

I cut off two corners before I used the serger. Those will be at the top where my shoulder straps will go. 

 

I folded the edge of those cut off corners in and sewed them down. 

 

I made 2 straps, about a foot long.

 

I pushed the strap through the casing I made at the cut off corner. 

 

 

I sewed the ends of the strap together and hid the ends inside the casing. 

 

This video will make it easier to see how the dress goes on.  

 

This was a great cover-up at the pool. It was also perfect for walking through the hotel lobby to get to the pool area. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bathing Suit Cover-up

 Hello Readers. It is summer and that means going to the pool or beach, if possible. I do not have my own pool but there are pools  in the area. I found this dress at a clothes swap and thought it looked brand new. It had a beautiful lace outer layer. Why didn't someone want this great dress? Then I figured it out. It had a thick nylon under layer. You know how nylon feels in the summer, like plastic. This pretty dress would feel like a plastic bag. The wearer would feel hot and sweaty and I could see why no one wanted it. But I had an idea. What if that heavy lining was taken out? It would be cooler but also sort of see-through. When is that appropriate? At the beach or pool as a cover up dress!

Before and after.

A heavy nylon lining in summer?? No way!

I had to cut that lining out of the dress. It wouldn't fray because it was a knit so I could just cut it away from the dress. I tried to be very careful and not cut the seams or the lace at all.

I also removed that bottom row of ribbon and lace at the hem. I didn't want the dress to be too long and one row of ribbon had a simpler cleaner look.

 

My cover-up dress was done.

 

It was perfect to wear over my bathing suit to this nice pool. (It belongs to a nice friend.) I will be back next time to talk about the bathing suit I am wearing and how I added onto it. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update- I wore this a lot in summer and it was so much more useful without the lining.