The Swim Dress My Sister Designed Herself

As briefly mentioned in my last post, I'm in Florida this weekend with my family for a cousin's wedding. It's fabulous! Last week in Uganda the temperature was in the 90's. At home there's over 6" of snow on the ground. Here is somewhere in between that and it's perfect.

My sister is thoroughly enjoying the swimming pool and hot tub at the house we're staying in - all while wearing a swim suit she designed herself and I made for her last summer.

In 2018 my sister requested a swim dress, so that's what I made her. I used a basic knit dress pattern from my stash, made it out of swim fabric, made a matching pair of shorts for her to wear underneath, and she used that swim suit all summer long.

In 2019, she requested another swim dress. I agreed, figuring it would go about like the year before. She'd pick the fabric, I'd find a simple knit dress pattern in my stash, and in a couple hours she'd have a new swim dress.

Well, it sorta went like that, except this time around she was quite a bit more precise about exactly what she wanted. She wanted her swim dress to resemble a regency era dress. It needed to have an empire waistline and short sleeves, preferably petal sleeves.

"Sleeves?? On a swimsuit? Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, sleeves." she insisted. 

Alright then, sleeves it would be.

With my sister's specifications in mind, I dug through my pattern stash, and found three different patterns I could combine to make exactly what my sister wanted.

I used the bodice from Simplicity 1076 (Also occasionally labeled Simplicity D0712), the petal sleeves from the Winter Wear Designs Classic Shell, and modified the skirt from Simplicity 1064 (Also occasionally labeled Simplicity S0623).

All combined together this gave my sister the exact swim dress she wanted!

I used a leggings pattern (can't remember which one) to make a pair of swim shorts for under the dress, and my sister was good to go for the rest of the summer.

She wore her swim dress for swimming at horse camp and for a lake vacation in Arkansas - where my brother photographed her in the swim dress for me.

And now the swim dress is getting plenty of wear in Florida. 

I'm pleased to see the swim dress still fits her well.

Now maybe I won't need to make her another swim dress this summer???