How to Make a Swim Dress Out of an Oversized Water Sports T-Shirt
If you love swimming but prefer a modest look over a bikini, then check out this DIY tutorial to learn how to make a swim dress.
Swim dresses are hard to find in stores, and when you do find them, they are very expensive. But you can easily make your own from an oversized water sports t-shirt.
Tools and materials:
- Oversized water sports t-shirt
- Contrasting water fabric (optional)
- Old t-shirt for sizing
- Scissors
- Thread
- Sewing machine
1. Cut the swim dress bodice
Lay your oversized water sports t-shirt on your work surface and place your old regular t-shirt on top of it, folding in the sleeves of your regular t-shirt.
Trim the oversized t-shirt to the size of your regular t-shirt.
If you want to add side panels in a contrasting fabric, then trim the oversized t-shirt to exactly the size of your regular t-shirt.
But if you do not want to add side panels to your swim dress, then trim the oversized t-shirt to the size of your regular t-shirt, adding a seam allowance.
2. Cut the swim dress sleeves
Lay the sleeves of your regular t-shirt on top of the sleeves of your oversized t-shirt and cut the oversized sleeves to match the regular ones, adding a seam allowance.
3. Make swim dress side panels (optional)
From a contrasting fabric, cut two rectangular side panels with a pointed top (piece A in the image above.)
Estimate the width you will need for the side panels to make the swim dress comfortable. Make the length fit from the bottom of the swim dress to the underarm. For this demo, the side panels were about 4 inches wide, including the seam allowance.
If your side panel fabric is finished on one edge, make that the bottom of your panel (B in the image) so you won’t need to hem it.
With right sides facing in, sew one side panel to each side of the front of the swim dress, from the hem line to the underarm.
Then sew the back of the swim dress to the side panels.
Sew the inside seam of each sleeve closed. Then insert the sleeves into the bodice of the dress and sew the sleeves in place.
Watch the video from 7:31 to 9:12 to see a demonstration of sewing in sleeves from another project.
How to make a swim dress
With the hem and neckline of the oversized water sports t-shirt already done, the only thing left was the side panels and sleeves, which made this DIY swim dress a really quick project.
Enjoy your summer in your new modest swim dress and leave a comment to let me know how you liked this tutorial.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one that likes to swim without body parts hanging out or showing. Good job.
Modest is good! Thanks for sharing. :-)