1940s beach wear

So, I'm heading to North Carolina this coming Sunday and I'm getting ready by making myself a whole assortment of 1940s inspired beach wear. Beach wear in the 1940s was very feminine and sweet and it was, well...classy!

I had a really hard time finding myself a bathing suit. I went to H&M and all those other stores and you know what? Bathing suits are really really skimpy. It's like there's nothing there covering you up. And honestly, that only works if you are either a) a size 2 and shaped like a 2 X 4, or b) have rock hard abs like Gwen Stefani in her "Hey Baby" music video. I'm a size 8-10 and I do not have any abs. I have lady hips. I know that I do NOT look good in skimpy H&M's super cheap $10 bikinis. Plus, I don't want to be showing the entire world my every inch of bare skin possible.

Alright, so Modcloth does have really cool vintage swimwear. But honestly, I don't want to shell out $100 for not even a yard of stretchy swimsuit fabric (which BY THE WAY is only $12 a yard at JoAnn's!). I could make that entire stupid Modcloth Bathing suit for $12! 100 - 12 = $88 savings. See what a rip off it really is? I don't want to get into a tyrade about Modcloth because they do sell some cool stuff. But they are a huge rip off. I bought a dress from them once and it was expensive and I expected good quality and it was actually very terrible and ill fitting. I haven't trusted them since.

Anyways, once again I did some 1940s beach wear research.

This was my favorite:

I really like the scallops. And just how elegant it looks. So, I raided my stash for a crazy print and without using a pattern, mind you, I took out my scissors and cut straight from the dress form. I decided against doing a scalloped skirt and the bows and all that frilly nonsense. I wanted it to be a bit more simple. So, I made a scalloped bikini top, with a simple skirt. I turned the top into a halter and gave it a tie back instead of using the buttons. This is what I have so far. I still need to work out a bunch of kinks in the skirt. 

The bust was insanely challenging. But I managed to get it pretty close!

More photos later!