my epic fail = your gain?

fresh off of my success doing family t-shirts for pirate night on the disney cruise (but still bummed over not getting a single group photo while we were all wearing them), i decided i wanted to do matching shirts for the 4th of july.

i know, i know.  super cheese and good luck getting everyone to wear them at the same time, right?  yeah.  and when i presented the idea to the old lady, she helpfully suggested that i make 3 shirts and do a fun headband for her out of the same material.  hmph.

a trip to one of my favorite fabric sources yielded quite a plethora of fun material to work with:

as soon as i had everything pre-washed, i got down to the business of cutting it all out.  i stood at the dining table with my rotary cutter in hand, and sucked it up and cut out pattern pieces galore.  i'd done a lot of sewing for the bean in the last month or so, and i decided that it was my turn - so i turned out a handful of things that i'd been wanting to make for myself.  and because it's easier to assemble all of the pieces and save the hemming for last, i busted out a whole bunch of stuff in the span of a few hours.  two dresses for me:

the set of patriotic tops for the 4th:

and of course, i had to try on that headband for the old lady.  she loved it, by the way.

i've also been hoarding this amazingly obnoxious, most ridiculously printed knit fabric that i knew was meant only for a pair of crazy leggings.  i give you...cats in space:

i wanted to make the bean a few more bathing suits, but i suffered a huge failure with the top that i tried to wing using the bodice of one of my favorite dresses.  i was so annoyed i didn't even take a picture of the damn thing.  at least the bottom turned out okay:

and then i decided that maybe it was time to pull out some old pairs of jeans from the closet that i haven't worn in forever and hack 'em up into some cutoff shorts that i'd wear for the next few months.

too bad for me, though - they're all mostly skinny jeans, which aren't the greatest for the look i was going for.  i have one pair of cutoff shorts from the gap that i adore and have worn to death over the last two summers, and they're loose and comfy and fit just right.  and so the great jeans hacking project of 2016 came to an abrupt halt.  boo.

i finally decided to give an adult bathing suit a try.  i'd had some super cute fabric i'd been saving that the old lady had oohed and aahed over, so i printed out a pattern, got her measurements and went to work.  i ran into a few snags here and there and so the suit is far from perfect, but we both loved how the two prints ended up looking together.  this thing is fully lined, with a panty panel (hahahaha, i laugh every time i see/hear/say those words), plus a shelf bra.

too bad it doesn't fit either of us.  BAH.  my initial reaction was to toss it into the donation pile, but then i thought it might be fun to give it away here.  again, it's definitely not perfect, but i do love it and maybe one of you will too?  anyway, the sizing chart is here and this suit is a size 16.  check it out and see if it might be a fit for you.

if you're interested, leave a comment on this post and make sure you give me an email address or twitter handle or something so that i can get ahold of you.