Crafty Crap: By the Book: Kit's Swimsuit

A project long coming. So long. Yesterday and part of today, I completed a project that I have been planning since I read Meet Kit, almost 8 years ago. That project is Kit's swimsuit, from this vignette from page 211: 7-year-old me's first thought: "This would make a good sewing project!" This is giving me prison vibes? The swimsuit. I used a bodice pattern combined with a shorts pattern that I had to modify. This is proof that my sewing is improving and I'm actually taking my time with projects now. The side, and my stripe matching. The bodice is lined with the same material the shorts are made of. I'm still not that good with velcro. But it's getting better. The back and the velcro. I ended up having to rip the velcro out and cut the back down because it ended up being too wide. And just for fun, the muslin mock-up: The shorts are a little off-center here. But it's fine.

On the mock-up I didn't do velcro, but I did do the lining (to see if the pattern would even work as lining--the answer was yes), and I ended up hemming the shorts on the second go round (the first shorts were too tight). I love historical ads. In searching for real clothes, the closest I could find to Kit's (in cut at least) is the one in the bottom left corner. However, I did find a lot of women's swimsuits that had a similar striped bodice. --Shark

¹I plan to make Ruthie's, too. But later.