Women’s size Tuatua Cover Up

Use our Tweens sewing pattern to create your own beach Cover Up!

This year we released our Children’s and Tweens size Tuatua Cover Up – it’s proved to be perfect for the beach and play, protecting Little’s from the sun, wind and elements! We’ve also seen our friends in the Northern Hemisphere sew up winter layer versions in wools and merinos!

This is a super practical garment so it’s no wonder you’ve been asking me for a women’s size version!

As the end of the school year finishes, I don’t have time to grade out this pattern for you for wearing right now, so I decided to have a play with our Tweens Sizes and see how much they overlap with women’s equivalent sizing.

Here’s what happened and how you can create your own cover up!

I tested a Tuatua Cover Up Tween Size 14, you can get your own here!

I am a women’s size 12-14, I wear BTK size 14’s. My bust is 96cm, and my hips are 101cm.

Comparing measurements from the pattern I knew that my body would fit comfortably inside the size 14 Tuatua Cover Up.

As always when sewing for yourself or sewing a new pattern, I suggest creating a toile to test the fit and style!

Create a Toile

I toiled mine with calico and shared my first try on and thought processing in real time on Instagram. You can watch that in a highlights reel here.

To create a toile:

• No seam finishes needed
• Cut off the hemming allowances on the centre front, neckline, sleeve hem and body hem.

Things to check when making a toile:

• Neckline: Does the shoulder seam sit on your shoulders, and does the neckline come around next to your neck?
• Length: Aim for a mid bum landing
• Sleeve length: Aim for an inner elbow landing
• Do you like the fit of the sleeve curve?

Remember, this is supposed to be a throw on, lose fitting garment. Aiming for a perfect fit is not the intention here!

I determined that I for my personal preference I didn’t want the sleeves to be so sleeve-ey. I wanted the fit to be more boxy, dolman style with larger sleeve openings.

To achieve this I determined to drop the sleeve depth by 50mm (2″), and widen the bodice sides by 50mm (2″). I would then create a more subtle curve to join the points (remember to come in straight by 20mm (6/8″) to allow for a sleeve hem folding inwards).

I freestyle cut this by hand using my tape measure, eye and tongue out for good measure. Remember to copy this new curve on both front AND back pieces. To do this I simply laid out my first cut pattern piece on top of all the others!

LOADING NEW TUATUA COVER UP….

My Finished Tuatua Cover Up

Quick and easy to sew up, I think this took me an hour from first cut in the fabric to wearing it out for school pick up.

I am very happy with the simple adjustments I made and think they’re very effective for the fit I wanted to achieve.

Sew Your Own Cover Up!

From this toile I estimate that a women’s size 8-10 would fit in the tweens 12, and a women’s size 12-14-16 would fit in the tweens 14.

A simple size grading technique can be found here to grade up a few sizes. You wont need to extend the length any more.

Grab the Tweens size Tuatua Cover Up here!

Sorry if I’m breaking hears here by not grading the full sizes out to our usual womens’ sizing bands. As I said on Instagram, this was just me playing with the pattern we already had to see if I could create this garment for immediate wearing. I hope my playing around and blog post will help you create your own if you’re able to.

The fabric I sewed with is the Poutama design by Aho Creative.