Rose Marie Reid swimsuit query re: side buttons and elastic degradation

[laurenm]

Hi All,
Another question regarding rescuing.
1. I have attached a shot of the inside buttons and am wondering why there is a loop of fabric there....it's probably very obvious, but I'm not getting it.
2. the suit looks quite nice when dry but when I went to wash it the little 'pricks' of pink fibers of deteriorated elastic popped out more noticeably. There is alot of stretch and elasticity left in the fabric, but those darn little pink bristles....any way at all to get them out?
Thanks alot,
Lauren

 

[Pinkcoke]

Is there a loop either side of the back? Have a look if the straps have been shortened, it could originally have had longer ones that cross over the back, thread through the loops and tie across, and later somebody added buttons & button holes to make ajustable straps.

 

[laurenm]

Thanks pink coke. The straps are long enough to go through the loops and back.

 

[Circa Vintage Clothing]

I agree with Melanie: the straps cross over and go through the loops.

Re; the fabric deterioration, I don't know of a way to resolve it sorry, it's going to continue to deteriorate so even if you snipped them all off, more will come.