Sewing: Clothes For Hawaii

I vacationed in Waikiki, Hawaii last week and it was just what my summer needed. I wanted new clothes for my trip, but instead of buying everything I challenged myself to make a few items. I planned to make two dresses and a pair of shorts, but I only finished one of the dresses in time.

I’ve been trying to sew more since I was gifted a lovely Pfaff sewing machine from my friend (THANK YOU BRIDGET!), and this was my first real set of projects on the machine.

For the shorts, I just copied a pair of high-waisted shorts I already own and love. I used (this) tutorial from A Pair & A Spare with a hidden zipper up the back. I intended to sew a lining into these shorts since the eyelet fabric is sheer, but I messed it up and ran out of time. Even without the lining, the shorts were perfect for the beach.

The dress I made is also a copy of something I already own. This ended up taking a lot more time than I expected condsidering there are only a few seams in this dress. This fabric is a silky polyester, and even with a walking foot, I had trouble with the fabric puckering. I ended up lining every seam with tissue paper and it helped my stitches tremendously. I actually ended up hand stitching the neckline during my trip because I ran out of time before to finish! I’ll go back and finish the neckline and straps on the machine before I wear it again.

The second dress I was making was from a pattern with the same white eyelet fabric as the shorts. Again, I wanted to add a lining since it is see-thru but I could not figure out how to attach a lining to a dress with sleeves while still hiding the seams in the lining. If you have any tips or know of a blog that will help me, let me know!

What do you think about my projects? Let me know which one you like more with a comment!