Sunday, March 21, 2010

Swimming cover-up


Okay, I know the photo is terrible, but this was truly an evening's project and now it's late evening so the available light is artificial and poor. But all the same I'm really pleased with my little improv project.
It's in honour of the upcoming adventure this week- swimming! P has been a few times since he was quite small, but hasn't really had a proper go recently. This week, following the purchase of a float suit- which he currently insists is a 'hat' and wears to ride his trike around the living room, incidentally- we are going to get him making like a fish, we hope! As he's a slippery little so and so when he's wet I wanted him to have some sort of poncho or robe for apres swim but couldn't really justify the cost for what was in some cases a glorified towel. Plus I can't resist a bit of hand-made for the boy. So...one bath towel, size chosen because when folded in half widthways it should cover him but not trip him up.
Then, with the towel folded widthways still, I cut a slit in the middle, and then another halfway across the first slit and at right angles (forming a 'T' shape basically). I did this by trial and error, checking on the intended wearer to get the hole big enough for his head but not so big that it will slip off his shoulders.
I then used bias binding tape all the way around the neck hole to finish it and stop it fraying.
Finally I cut a simple boat shape from some scrap fabric and sewed it on the front. I could have done proper applique at this point, but in the end I just back-stitched about a half cm in from the edges all the way around each shape, as I quite like the idea of it being a little bit frayed and rough (no, that's not just an excuse for a short cut!). I may regret this if fraying gets to falling off, but if that happens I'll go back and do the proper applique thing.
It honestly looks better in real life than the photo. As to whether it fulfills the function- well, we'll see this week. First job is to persuade P to take his swimsuit off his head...

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