This swim cover up (I believe they go by the delightful name of Rash Guards) for Maia was born out of expediency. Deprived of sunshine 11 months of the year, deficient in Vitamin D, and unaccustomed to beaches without dead seagulls and tampons, we spent our entire first day on the Cape at the beach. Although diligent in our sunscreen application (or so we thought), the spray can nature of applying resulted in some unusual sunburns... Two Steven-sized hand prints on my back (which looked excellent for the duration of our holiday and still look awesome now) from where he 'rubbed it in' and a giraffe-like mosaic on Steven's back courtesy of me. I also recreated Face/Off by peeling my entire face off. You'll be pleased to know we did a much better job with the kids.
However. The nature of Maia's physique (and obviously the fact I didn't make her suit this year) meant that her bum devoured her costume constantly, and I did not have the foresight to put suncream on whole shebang. I did not plan ahead for wedgies. And so she got a sunburn.
Unfortunately, there was nary a swim cover-up to be found in the girl's section of the shops, and I needed one that was long enough to both protect her modesty and prevent more burn. So I picked up a bright green one from the men's section and drafted up a skirted version. I kept the neck the same, narrowed the shoulders, moved the sleeves in and slimmed them, made an a-line side seam to the original hem, and folded a casing in for an elastic waist. I kept the original hems so it should have been a really quick and painless project.
People who say 'It's what is on the inside that counts' haven't used my Mum's sewing machine. I don't know what was going on, but it behaved terribly. The thread kept nesting and nesting and snapping and nesting and snapping. And so: the first and last Cape Cod garment.
Hope her tiny bottom is soon better, ouch! And we really need to see the handprints on your back!!!!!!! x
ReplyDeleteLove the descriptions of your suntan cream applications - hilarious. And yes, can we see then hand prints please?! would have liked to see the Face/Off too but I suppose we're too late for that (it does sound quite an achievement though!).
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar situation with spray sunscreen. Drew's back burned where I actually hand-applied the stuff, but where the spray was remained pale as could be, complete with drip marks down his back!
ReplyDeleteShort answer: We don't. My productivity is definitely down...I'd much rather be at the beach!
ReplyDeleteThe men's rashguard transformation looks like it does the trick!
The dress transformation looks wonderful, and no I wouldn't be sewing looking at that beach!
ReplyDeleteSo cute and sorry about the burned bum. No fun!
ReplyDeleteWe have daily drama about sunscreen application which is a drag since sunscreen *is* daily here even though there's no beaches for miles. I finally sprayed some of that spray can stuff on me and darn if it isn't cold enough to really hurt. But you're making me reluctant to "spray in the hand and rub it on" since it sounds like it's less effective that way.
that beach is fabulous, I'm very jealous.
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