Swimsuit Cover-Up Tutorial

 

Hi Ya’ll! It’s Danielle from Blissful and Domestic. I don’t know about you, but I am greatly anticipating summer. BBQ’s, swimming, snow cones, and fireworks come July.

Summer and I have a love hate relationship though. I love its arrival, since it means the beginning of late nights riding bikes, family dinners, and lots of homemade ice cream (you have to cool off some way), but I hate it come July when it hits about 115′ here in the desert. Although it is a love hate relationship, I do believe in being prepared because swimming is going to happen no matter what. We can’t only use ice cream to cool off…well we could, but my hips would not like it.

As with all my projects, I like to keep it simple and loaded with pictures to help you through the tutorial. Ready to get started?

Supplies:
1/4 yard My Sunshine Pink Stripes Fabric
1/2 yard My Sunshine Green Paisley Fabric
Sew On Velcro
3/4 in. Wide Elastic
7/8 in. Wide Ruffle Ribbon
1 Bath Towel

I cut my piece of pink striped fabric to measure 30″ in length by 10 1/2″ wide. I folded the piece in half lengthwise before placing it onto my green paisley fabric. Leave the folded side out, so your raw edge will be covered up by your ruffled ribbon trim. Covering up those raw edges prevents fraying in the fabric when washed.

Sew each layer in place using a straight stitch and coordinating thread.

After your Velcro is sewn in place, its time to tighten up the back. You will have elastic running the whole length of the towel from Velcro to Velcro. When you sew elastic, you need to remember to let the towel lay normal and feed through the sewing machine at a normal pace. The elastic though, will be completely stretched out as you sew it to your towel. This enables the towel to have a stretch to it. As you sew your elastic on, the towel will begin to bunch and gather as the elastic is no longer stretched after sewing. I have a picture below that will give a final rundown, so you can see where everything is placed and secured.

Next pin on your straps. It is best to have your munchkin there to judge where to put the straps.


Lastly sew those straps in place and your golden! So now one final picture rundown, so you can make sure everything is in the right place.

Are you totally crushing right now? I know I am! There are so many fun possibilities with this cover-up…so many fun pattern combos you could do. I seriously want to make some more for my nieces and for myself of course. If you ever have trouble putting patterns together, The Ribbon Retreat has all the coordinating fabric lines laid out. I have fabric ADD and get distracted very easily. Too many fun colors and patterns for my brain to focus! Having the pattern lines already organized into complementary groups, helps my brain focus and create!

Now it is time for the pool. We’ll be doing the indoor pool till summer really hits here in the desert, but we are looking forward to hot days, popsicle dribbles, freckled smiles (or grumps like above) and big splashes in the pool!

You can see more Ribbon Retreat projects from me HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!


XO Danielle