The trouble was, I’d plug in the USB cable from the machine to the computer and the computer would tell me that it recognized it as a Pfaff 2144 USB cable, but it didn’t have any drivers for it. I tried all the updates from the Pfaff website. Nothing worked. I tried running the programs in XP compatibility mode as an administrator since that had worked to get it running on Vista before Pfaff provided Vista drivers. No luck.

After fighting with this for the better part of a day, I finally realized that I could run a virtual machine in XP mode on Windows 7. So, I fired up Internet Explorer to go to Microsoft.com and get the Windows Virtual Machine and XP Mode downloads. (Yes, you have to use IE to download stuff from Microsoft. It’s the only purpose for IE on my computer.) I installed XP Mode and the Windows Virtual Machine. Once installed, go to Start/All Programs/Windows Virtual PC and right click and choose “expand.” Once you expand it, you can choose XP mode. It will go through a bunch of steps the first time to create the new virtual environment.

Once that’s done, you’ll need to load the VIP software so you can connect the embroidery machine. Pop in the cd and run it in the virtual XP window. When it gets to the part where you have to insert the dongle, insert it and then at the top of the XP window, click USB and tell it to attach the dongle. It will then run through the auto detection and setup for the dongle. After that finishes, you can finish the installation of the VIP software that was requesting the dongle in the first place.

Install the 3D software the same way. When you connect the USB for the embroidery machine to the computer, you’ll need to go to the USB tab at the top of the XP window again and tell it to attach. Then you’ll be able to get the drivers for the embroidery machine from the 3D software cd.

I know, I know. Laying stuff out on the table and then trying to take a picture of it with the overhead room light hitting it in all kinds of strange ways isn’t helping me here. That’s okay, we’re not really here for the beauty of my photography, right?

Anyway, this is size 7 again, but this one is completely lined and I attached that pesky foldover elastic by straight stitching the back side of it through both layers of the suit and then folding it over and running the three step zigzag across the front, going through the swimsuit layers and the other side of the elastic. MUCH better than trying to apply this elastic in one step!

Using the foldover elastic makes the full lining a breeze since you can really just sew the suit up and then sew the lining the same way, put them wrong sides together and apply the elastic. Easy peasy!

After looking at the pattern measurements, I decided to completely ignore them and make a size 7. I probably could have made a size 6x, possibly a 6, but this one is pretty good and will hopefully still fit at the end of summer when the girl is half a foot taller. Seriously, it’s ridiculous how fast this child is growing.

I used foldover elastic (FOE) on this, shiny side out. As far as I know, it makes no difference if the shiny side is out, but that’s how Zoe likes it. Cuts were 12″ FOE for the leg openings, 13.5″ for the arm holes, and 28.25″ around the neck and back.

I really enjoyed seam ripping the elastic on one of the arm holes after I didn’t catch the suit fabric in it. Particularly annoying since that was a section where no stretching of the elastic is needed and it should have been a very easy application. Note: while it may seem like a good idea to attach the FOE in one fell swoop, resist the urge. The additional time needed to pick out the three step zigzag stitches negates any time saved.

This swimsuit fabric is one I pulled out of the sale bin and thought it would be good to practice on. It turned out to be one of Zoe’s favorites and this is the second year she has a suit from it.

The one on the left has flutter sleeves, the other is the short sleeve I usually use for this top in short sleeves.

Then you need to trim some of the pieces to the smaller sizes so that you will make 8 panels, each containing a piece of length a, b and c AND so that the adjacent pieces are different heights. Maybe some of you out there are confident and amazing enough to simply start whacking apart those pieces and have it all come out beautifully. I will admit that I am not such a person.

First of all, when I’m tracing a pattern piece that has three different lengths, I’m going to trace it as three different pieces because if I don’t, I’m definitely going to mess it up later. No problem there, but that means there are now nine different pieces for the main part of this skirt. In addition to keeping the adjacent pieces different in size, I wanted them to be different fabrics.

I made the following chart to use when cutting pieces and then assembling the skirt:

Each part of the table has the number of a fabric and the length of the piece. For the first panel, I need to cut fabric 1 using piece 1-b, fabric 4 using piece 2-c and fabric 3 using piece 3-a. For the second panel, I’d need fabric 2 cut using piece 1-c, fabric 5 using 2-a and fabric 7 using 3-b.

Since I’m using 8 fabrics, I’ll cut 3 pieces from each fabric. I simply checked the chart to see which pattern pieces to use and then cut the three pieces from each fabric and labeled them with a Post-It note. This is fabric 1, cut with piece 1-b.

Once they were all cut, I referred to my chart again to lay all the pieces out on my table in the proper order.

Since I’m using 8 fabrics, it works out conveniently and the fabric number on the pieces in the top row also correspond to the panel number. Next I assembled each panel.

Now, one of the nice things about this skirt is that, unlike the usual patchwork, there is no worrying about the corners in the middle of the skirt all lining up nicely because you’ve intentionally arranged the pieces so they are different sizes. This makes putting the assembled panels together less painful. Once you have all the panels assembled and sewn together, you’ll just need to put on the waistband and bottom frill.

I wanted to use a thicker elastic, so I cut the waistband piece 3″ wide. You can see where I’ve marked the quarters so I can attach it to the skirt.

After attaching the waistband, I use my zipper foot to help me get nice and close to the edge while I topstitch around the waist.

We still need that bottom ruffle, though. Since I can’t just leave things alone, I also cut the bottom ruffle at a 3″ width. I hemmed it before attaching it to the skirt so I didn’t have to deal with all the fluff when hemming. For the hem, I ran one side through the serger and then pressed it under and stitched it.

I put about 5 3/4 yards of bottom ruffle on this skirt, but it could have easily taken more. I used my ruffler set at 12 to gather the ruffles.

Press the hem

It looks a little odd on the hanger, but it’s done!

This is a size 128, with 20.5″ of 1″ wide elastic.

And just because the first one went together so well, this one was one goof after another. I didn’t make enough binding, then I cut it wrong and had to make more! When I put the bodice together I twisted the elastic connecting piece in the back when I attached it, so I had to pick it apart and fix it. After doing that, I realized I hadn’t attached the loops for the back ties to go through. And where do they attach? Well, in the bodice seams, of course!

The straps criss cross and tie in the back.

This is a size 128, I think Zoe could actually wear a 122. The fabrics are both nice weight quilters cottons from the Serendipity line by Piece O Cake Designs for P&B Textiles that I picked up a couple years ago. The bias tape ended up about 3/8″ wide. I used 1/4″ for the loops on the back. It’s not warm enough to wear without a shirt underneath yet, so I need to take care of that and get a shirt sewn up this week.