During the early part of the summer the kids, as they always do, spent every afternoon at the pool taking swim lessons and brushing up on their skills. Usually, at this point I realize that one or both of them have grown out of their swimsuits, this year it turns out that they also grew too big for their Ikea towel ponchos as well...
While last year may have been the summer of swimsuit making...this year I wasn't quite on the ball enough for making swimsuit, but I did eventually get around to making new swimsuit coverups!
I am lazy when it comes to going to the pool...I don't want to have to fuss around with the changing room and having the kids change from suits to street clothes. I used to have them change, but that was when they were younger and they could just change outside. Now, it's towel off, toss on your coverup, go and change when we get home!
I used Laura's Rowan Tee pattern because I knew that the kids would love the kangaroo pocket and hood details.
I lengthened each shirt about 4" to make it long enough for a cover-up and used the raw edge at the hem line. At first Henry was worried that it looked too much like a dress but once he saw how it all came together he fully embraced it! I do wish that I had remembered to ease out the sides a bit to make it a little more full, but they don't seem to mind as the fabric is so soft and snuggly next to their pool soaked skin...
Speaking of fabric, I used a houndstooth french terry that I got a while back from Imagine Gnats. The fabric itself was a very light mint and white, but after washing it faded to nearly all white (Rachael had discounted it for the very reason so I knew and it wasn't a surprise to me) so I thought it would be fun to play around with dying it some. We used some orange inkodye and attempted to add some seashell photo prints to the fabric...It did not work out perfectly...
As we were laying the shells out I realized that they were just going to look like splotches and not shells, but once you start there is really no way to stop in that scenario so we pressed on. Regardless of the fact that they don't look like shells, I kind of dig the messy "tie-dye, acid fade" that they've got going on. And the color orange is a really pretty soft peachy shade, perfectly beachy and summery.
I also added a bit of snap tape at the top to make them easier to pop on and off and to add to the "beachy" effect...
And this beautiful ribbon (from Purl Soho) in place of twill tape inside the hood was the perfect match...
In the end, they might not be perfect, but they love them and they look pretty darn cute in them!
Plus, I always love it when the kids can be all "matchy" out in public, that way I can keep my eye on them better!
