Olivia's Regency Swim Dress

Here is another fabulous idea from Carol K. She used the Regency Dress and Pantaloons patterns to make her daughter a swimming dress!

I decided what to make with the girl's pattern for regency dress and bloomers. So here is a swim dress from the regency dress pattern and bloomer pattern. I took your bloomer pattern and took out all the extra fullness and lengthened it to meet up with the bodice of the regency dress. I took out the back closures, since that was not going to be needed with all the stretch in this fabric. Then, I took out some fullness in both the skirt and the sleeves. I shortened the skirt, then attached it to the bottoms, and there you have it: a one-piece swim dress! It turned out really well. Here are more details in case anyone wants to try this: What I did first was make up the bodice, then measure the circumference of the bottom of the bodice, and then take out the fullness in the bloomers to match the bodice. I sewed the skirt and the bloomers together first, then attached them to the bodice. With the skirt I just eyeballed it as far as how much fullness to leave in/take out and the length. I did add a wee bit of width to the upper bodice neck line, as I wanted to add a little more coverage from the sun. With the top of the bodice, I measured the top all done up and then added elastic that measured 2/3rds the circumference so that I would get some good stretch. The lycra/spandex material gives plenty of stretch to make the suit work really well. ~ Carol K.

Simply fantastic!