What’s the next essential piece for a summer wardrobe? A cover-up of course! Something casual to wear to and from the pool/beach or to double as a dress on the boardwalk, the Ultramarine Cover-Up is another summer staple.
I originally designed this as an over-sized, woven, raglan sleepshirt and made a few for Bean years ago. I loved those big accent raglan sleeves and she loved how comfy and breezy they were for sleeping. For One Thimble Issue 12 (back in 2016!) I wrote an article about my scrap-busting fabric design technique and I used the original raglan pattern to feature it on those sleeves. Bean adored this one.
In issue 13 of One Thimble I redesigned the look to work as a fitted bodice for a party dress and the Raglan Party Dress was born. We’ve loved this dress pattern so well over the years, but the original over-sized look kept on calling me back.
So several cover-ups were made using the basic shape, but adding a full elastic waist and bodice lining. I really liked the look, but the lining seemed like over-kill for a beach cover-up and the full-waist elastic made it less free-flowing than I wanted. Look how young Bean was in these old pics!
When I finally decided to release the Ultramarine Cover-Up as a part of the Watercolor Beach Collection, I knew exactly the mods I wanted to make. Using bindings instead of a full lining, waist cinching instead of full-waist elastic, and adding a big over-sized hood were all of the changes that would perfect this cover-up pattern.
One of my favorite of the views is the one without any waist cinching. This view without the hood still makes a fantastic sleep-shirt and now Kitty loves them too. But I did want options for cinching too. Since there was a shortage of elastic this spring due to all of the mask making, I thought a simple drawstring cinch would be a great way to get around finding elastic. It turned out to be a fantastic design feature and one that we love. You can tie the ties into a simple knot or add two little bows on either side, which is super cute.
Sized from newborn to 16 years, this pattern will work for your girl for years. It is still designed for either woven or knit fabrics, but it’s so soft in a great french terry which has become our favorite.
I’ve used some cute romper panels to make breezy dress/cover-ups for Kitty and they are the perfect size for the Ultramarine Cover-up. Stay tuned for a fun romper mashup coming soon too! And check out the Chromium Cropped Hoodie from the Watercolor Beach collection too.
Leave a Reply