I’ve been absent, but with good reason!  We’ve been on vacation for the last two weeks and I haven’t been connected, so I couldn’t post or read any of your posts until this past week back in the US.  After reading all your 2012 reviews and 2013 goals, I just didn’t feel like anything sewing ever again.  Period.  Sometimes reading all the reviews and goals inspires and encourages, but other times it causes great discouragement.  Since we’ve been back, however, I’ve caught up on all the sewing blog news and gossip and have found my enthusiasm for sewing returning.  Funny how things like that disappear when one is out of the usual routines in life.

I needed a bathing suit cover up for this trip, and wanted desperately to make it out of this lovely cotton voile from Milly.  I only had about 1 1/4 yards, so needed to pick my pattern carefully.  As it stands, the biceps are a bit snug, and, of course I don’t have any scraps because they were carefully thrown out in the trash prior to leaving.  Can’t have any trash left in the house to come home to after a couple of weeks!    Anyways, after frantically flipping through my Burda collection, I chose this tunic from the May 2012 issue.

I wanted something with a contrasting collar/yoke option, and hoped to find seashells or pearls or a combination of both while on my trip to finish off the neckline.  At our port-of-call in Key West, I found these  shell chip necklaces and the pearl bracelet, which I planned to take apart and use to embellish the yoke. Of course, I left all my sewing gadgetry at home, so couldn’t laze around on deck and bead.  >_<

I cut a straight size, and didn’t bother checking the fit of the shoulders because I wanted a relaxed look.  I made the sleeves slightly bell-shaped and left off the cuff contrasting band. It’s a simple garment to sew up, even with the contrasting yoke.  I love Burda’s instructions for getting the opening slit perfect: stitch the front and back yoke pieces & facings together at the shoulders, then stitch the yoke and facings together along the neck edge, turn, understitch and press.  You are effectively left with a yoke that is unattached at the CF.  Unfold the lower band ends, lay right side together, and stitch up the centre front as much as you’d like.  Turn the band ends wrong sides together again, and press.  Once the yoke is completed, it is inserted into the keyhole opening of the front.  The corners were a bit tricky, and I really wanted the edges to be enclosed in the yoke, but I just used a zigzag stitch to finish the seams and left it.  I also flat-felled all the seams as the fabric is a little on the fragile side and I want this garment to last for a very very long time.  I don’t usually wear a swimsuit or cover up – I’m a girl that shuns the sun except when on a beach vacation – so chances are, I’ll have this until I’m 90!

I really do need an FBA in this hang-straight-from-the-shoulders type of garment so that it hangs vertically from my bust instead of swinging away from me (like the Marfy muslin).  I did not have enough fabric to do this adjustment properly, so I used my cheat version:  shorten the back waist by 2 inches (my usual short-waist adjustment in the back), cut the front as directed, and create a bust dart from the excess length just below the armscye.  Don’t all you fitting experts die of horror.  On a loose fitting schlepping garment like this, it works fine, even if it isn’t couture perfect!