Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

In my last post, I mentioned that I had exciting news and bought patterns to make clothes for it.  A couple people asked if I was pregnant and making maternity clothes!  It's nothing that big, I swear.  I promise I would never announce that via a blog post  But, Mike and I just booked a trip to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico!  We're going for a week and we're staying at a boutique hotel downtown.  I've been to Mexico six or seven times before, but this will be the first time staying in Playa.  I'm extra excited for $1 beers from the Oxxo and churro vendors on the street.

It's not for almost two months, but I'm already mentally packing.  I thought about doing a completely homemade trip, and only pack things I've sewn myself.  I did an all-vintage honeymoon to New York and an all-vintage Jamaica trip last year.  I think I like dressing in themes - I went through a phase last year where every outfit had to include something from five different decades.  It's not as difficult as it sounds.  I have two pairs of 70's leather sandals I basically wear every day in the summer, and I have a ton of slips from the 60's that I bought on eBay.  I wear my a Gap denim jacket I bought in 1999 every day, and my purse is a new Marc Jacobs.  All I need to add is a 40's or 50's dress and voila, five decades.

So I nixed the idea of an all-homemade vacation because I have too many vintage dresses that I want to bring.  I'm definitely going to bring some homemade dresses though, and I bought two patterns on eBay that I hope to make for the trip.

The first one is Simplicity 6018, which I got for $12.



I love the swimsuit!



I want to make it in this fabric and wear it to lounge by the pool. I hope it doesn't traumatize my husband too much. He's usually pretty down with whatever I wear, but this might be a bit much.



I also got Simplicity 4489, for $8. 



I love every piece, and I love the idea of coordinating separates. I could wear the skirt and top over my swimsuit and easily go from beach to dinner!  I want to make all the pieces of View 2, so I have to start looking for fabric. 

The swimsuit pattern came yesterday and I immediately abandoned my crinkle silk dress and started working on it.  The dress is close to being finished, I just need to attach the bodice to the skirt, do the zipper, and hem it.  Since I don't really have anywhere to wear it right now, it's okay if I finish it later.  I was just making it for fun.

I definitely wanted to make the swim suit out of the blue 70's flowered fabric above.  I bought it in 2001 or so at an antique store in Minocqua and have been hanging on to it ever since.  Since I only had a yard, I did a test run first.  Instead of making a muslin, I used decent fabric so I could wear it if it turned out.  A wearable muslin, if you will.

I got my pieces cut out:



The top had two darts in the back and four in the front:



And the outside:



I sewed the sides together, leaving the straps loose.



I sewed in my lining fabric, trimmed my seams, turned it inside out, and pressed. At this point, I'd only spent an hour or so on it and it was almost completely done.



For the straps, you folded over the lining 5/8" but left the outer fabric raw.



Then you sewed the two raw edges together, and tucked the seam under the folded lining edge.



A little handsewing and it's all finished.



The swim suit had three buttons as a closure, but I'd never made a buttonhole before.  I played around with my buttonhole attachment, and I think they turned out great!  I was really excited about them.



Buttonhole!



And here's the finished back:



And front:



Later on, I decided to add some silly rickrack trim. The pattern has it and I was going to leave it off, but I like how it turned out.



It fits really well, but I wish it was a tiny bit longer. I ended up making a second top while it was fresh in my mind, and I lengthened it an inch. Here's the floral version.





Next up, the matching shorts! I also bought some pink cotton to make a wrap skirt that will go with both tops.