The Week of Swim Suits Pt 1

I'm back! From vacation! And I have swim suits to share! Aren't you excited!?!?!?!?!!!1!? (Well, actually I'm back from one vacation and off to another - camping! So I get double use out of all those swim suits. Posts will still be a little sporadic for awhile. Apologies.)

First I want to thank Susan, Lizz and Leah for so nicely covering for me while I was gone. THANKS LADIES!

All in all I have four. I was working on a top for a fifth suit but got bored and gave up which turned out fine because I don't know when I would have worn a fifth swim suit on this trip.

I'm going to break down each suit into a separate post (get ready to get cozy with me, interwebs) and after that I'm going to have a vote on what kind of suit (not necessarily the ones that I've made) pattern you want to use for a swim suit sew-along! Yes - you, too, can make your own swim suits! If you live in my hemisphere then summer is still going strong and if you live down south, well, you can prepare for summer!

Let's start with the simplest design and work our way up to more interesting material.

I'll talk about the bottoms first. I bought about a yard of really nice black matte swimsuit fabric from Fabricker, a local store. I got so much use out of that stuff!

These bikini bottoms are based on the Jalie 3023 briefs. They're originally two pieces, the bottoms and a waistband, but I merged them together. Don't know why I just didn't use a normal briefs pattern but whatever. I like them because they're not too short at the waist compared to some other bikini patterns.

The top is a cool but easy design that I liked but didn't think of making until I saw a version in Burdastyle Magazine from April. I thought it was going to be an actual traceable pattern. Nope, they just give you measurements for a long rectangle that wraps around and is stitched together in front.

Well, I didn't have enough purple fabric leftover from this swim suit to make a full long rectangle so I cut front and back pieces and stitched them on the sides.

If you want to make a top like this yourself it is very easy. I don't know why I didn't think to make one before this magazine.

First of all, I don't recommend these kind of bandeau style tops if you have anything more than a decent C-cup size. Not a lot of support in this tip. But if you're small like me here's what you do (I'm assuming you know basic swimwear construction, if not, stick around for the sew-along!):

- Measure your high bust and subtract about 3in. Swim suits have to stretch to fit you so they can stay on! Now add those three inches back as seam allowances. (Yeah, I know, but I wanted you to know *why* you subtract some space)
-Cut two pieces of swim elastic to that measurement minus about an inch and stitch the elastic to the top and bottom edges of the rectangle, stretching slightly.
- Next pin the short edges of the rectangle together, right sides together, and stitch with 1.5" SA.
- Open up the rectangle and fold the seam allowances back and stitch them down on either side of the center seam 1" away from the seam.

- For the ties cut a long 1" strip of fabric and sew into a tube. Feed the tube through the tunnels at center front, pull and tie to create the gathers.
- Now you have a pull over tube top, essentially, with center front neck straps.

- If you want to add swim cups like I did, cut a piece of lining fabric the same size as your rectangle, stitch the cups in place and layer the lining inside and stitch elastic like normal. I bought my swim cups from Sew Sassy.

The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to make the back side narrower. I don't know but the big wide piece of fabric across my back seams visually odd to me. I might add a normal plastic hook clasp in back instead so I don't have to pull it over my head..

Ok, stick around for more awkward photos of me in spandex coming in the next few days! And if you have any questions to want covered in the sew-along leave me a comment. Now I must finish laundry, re-pack, fill the car up with gas and head off to go camping!