Stitch Every Day, Week 25

This week I stitched every day. Most of it was sewing and there is finished garment involved . . .

M Traced and cut out bathing suit. Stitched elastic ends together.
T Stitched suit.
W Applied elastic to legs.
TH Applied elastic to arms and neckline. Broke a twin stretch needle in my finger. Thankfully I had a spare. Needle, not finger. A friend suggested that if I repeat this process often enough, I will be able to call it a piercing and attach jewelry. I hope not.
F Knit a few rows before falling asleep while my husband read to me.
SA Knit a few rows.

Bathing Suit #4
I made my 33rd garment--this time for the second daughter. It fits really well. Almost everywhere. It is too low in the front, so I will either have to add a panel in the front, or bag it. The biggest loss is not in the spandex, thread, or time, it's the swimsuit elastic . . . . .

I tried to apply the elastic with my serger this time. Honestly, it didn't work as well as the regular machine using a zig zag stitch. If you haven't tried bathing suits because "I don't have a serger"
DON'T WAIT.

I do prefer the serger for sewing the suit into one piece. Perhaps as I get better with applying elastic, it will go better for me on the serger. I had many spots when I wouldn't get through all the layers--the elastic, suit, and lining. I zig-zagged enough of these spots that I gave up and decided to finish on my regular machine.


Because I was blending multiple sizes, (longer in torso length, narrower in width), I wasn't quite sure what to do about length of elastic? I used the bigger size for all lengths of elastic. It worked. Is there a better way? i.e. the ratio for length of opening to elastic. . . . .  (I guess I could figure that out myself). Ideas? Opinions?


I measured distances when dividing the elastic into four. This improved my results. One side of the neckline has a tiny bit of puckering--but much better than last week's suit. I plan to order printed spandex from Spandex World, which should also aid in disguising puckers as well


Perhaps by the 10th suit, I will really have it down. Stay tuned.