I had a great day yesterday, sewing with Pete's cousin! She is visiting from Mackay for a few weeks (camping at a little spot just near Yeppoon) and decided to make her granddaughter, Mack, a Christmas dress. Since it had been nearly 20 years since she last sewed (or so she says), she asked if I would be willing to help her out. Of course, I told her that I would be delighted to give her a hand! So she came over yesterday morning, looked through my patterns and picked this one:

Just lovely, isnt it? I think I got it from an op-shop a little while ago and havent been GAME to use it! Now, I reckon I am....it is quite simple!

Next was a trip to Spotlight, where we discover that they are having 75% off Christmas stock! BARGAIN!!

So we get back to my house, set up, but before we can get into tracing the pattern (was cut out for size 7 and we needed size 3....none of my girls are size 3 any longer, so we decided to trace instead of cut to ruin the pattern itself!), Lee brings out some sarongs that she has been wearing tied at the front, but has been too afraid of them opening up with the first sign of a breeze! So, not wanting to scare the other people at the beach, she asked if we could work out how to sew them like another that she had that was pre-sewed (sewn??) shut in the front with a little bit of elastic in the back, sewn into a casing. "Looks simple enough!" I exclaimed and immediately jumped at the chance of working out how a 'simple' little thing was designed and made!

With both of us working on different ones, it took us about 1 1/2 hours to work it out and the 2nd took only a smidge of that time to make up! I was proud of our efforts, so I thought that I would share it with you guys, here! I will apologize for my bad pictures straight up.....I didnt even THINK of taking photos of the process while we were doing it during the day! So these photos are taken under fluorescent lighting and flashy from my camera....I have picked the best ones! I hope you can see them properly!

Materials needed:
Sarong (The good thing about using an already made sarong is that you dont have to worry about folding over the edges, coz they are already hemmed for you!)
Length of 2.5cm wide elastic
I would not recommend using a flimsy elastic.....one that is a little heavy will do the trick for a long time.
XL - 25cm (10")
L - 22.5cm (9")
M - 20cm (8")
S - 17.5cm (7")
Thread
Pins
Safety pins

Here is mine untouched, folded in half lengthways.










Decide which long end you would like to have at the top of your sarong. Fold down this top edge 3cm, pin and sew close to hemmed edge to make a casing for the elastic.














Sew another line close to this line to reinforce the casing.













Fold the material in half, marking the middle.



I did mine with a pin through one side of the casing....my reasons will come apparent soon!








Put the safety pins in each side of the elastic and insert elastic into the casing.













Push through elastic to the half way mark and secure the middle of the elastic to the middle of the sarong's casing.













Measure the required distance from the middle of the garment towards both ends and mark.
XL - 35.5cm (14")
L - 38cm (15")
M - 40.5cm (16")
S - 43cm (17")

Push elastic back through the casing on each side and secure with a pin (and you thought I was being silly asking you to put safety pins on either end of the elastic!). Sew securely in place (I put at least 3-4 lines over it, because this will be under a lot of pressure).














Put the short end of the sarong together. Measure 23cm (9") from the top and 15cm (6") from the bottom and mark. Sew between these marks and reinforce with a line of stitching across these lines close to the splits.
























And there you have it!! The front can be tied through a shawl holder or tied by itself. I am thinking that this will become my favourite hot weather thing to wear! I have never worn it since I received it as a present years ago....because I loved the pattern and material....but mainly because I just KNEW that I could do something else with it!!

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