I made a swimsuit

When I first started my Little Sewing Challenge, I never in my wildest dreams thought that I’d end up making swimwear. I had a list of things that I was definitely not going to make: underwear, socks, plain t-shirts, a winter coat, school uniform and swimwear.

And I stuck to it, until now.

I naively thought that these things would be too boring  or not possible to home sew. I was wrong.

Actually I still think a plain t-shirt might be a tad on the boring side. But the others I would happily give a go.

Last week, I made a swimsuit and it was not that difficult and certainly not boring.

What is difficult, boring and almost impossible is finding cool swimwear fabric in London. And if you do manage to find something/anything you better just be happy you found it and not worry if it’s not the colour you were after. And don’t even bother having fancy ideas of nice prints and bold designs, just grab what you can when you see it and run straight to your sewing machine and get stitching.

I was lucky enough to be given some swimwear fabric by a friend who no longer wanted it. I’m happy that the colours work together or my daughter would have a had a pretty boring, swimsuit in just one colour.

I had my eye on some lovely navy and teal stripes from Imagine Gnats but sadly delivery costs to the UK is stupid and even more so since Brexit.

However, Andreia made the most delightful fish print swimsuit for her daughter, and ideas have been swimming round my head ever since (see what I did there). So once I’ve mastered the art of swimwear, I’ll be heading straight to The Sweet Mercerie .

The pattern I used for this two piece suit was ‘Just Keep Swimming’ formerly known as ‘O Captain! My Captain! (Abby’s Rashguard)’ by The Wolf and the Tree. Hmmm! I think the name change was a good decision.

The pattern has a crazy amount of options, it was like going to one of those restaurants that have a book for a menu and it takes forever to choose what to eat. Then when your meal arrives you wonder if you’ve made the right decision. So you start planning what you’re going to eat next time you’re at the restaurant.

And is it just me who likes to put their finger on all the items that you can’t decide between and then you run out of fingers so decide on the first thing that you put your finger on and then when the waiter comes to take your order something completely different comes out of your mouth?

So I left the decision making to Darcy (the swimsuit, not my dinner) and she choose the short sleeved tankini with regular briefs.

Darcy turned out to be a whole range of sizes on the measurement chart form size 6 to size 12. So I randomly(ish) made a size 10. The bottoms fitted beautifully, I added lots of additional rise and tried them on before I cut them to the perfect size and then added a waistband. They hold up really well when wet even though I didn’t use elastic.

Unfortunately, the top was way too big, oops! I should have chosen the top based on chest measurements and the bottoms based on waist measurements, rather than making the same size for both. Lesson learnt.

I altered the top to make it smaller, it’s not perfect, but Darcy is perfectly happy with it. I also added cuffs to the sleeves so that I could get a bit more purple into the mix.

Darcy was so eager to wear her new swimsuit that she hovered over me impatiently as I took the flat lays. When I was done after 2 minutes she whipped them off the floor, put them on and shot off for a splash.

That constitutes as a win I’d say.

This post is part of the Summer Swimwear Tour

If you would like to join in the Summer Swimwear fun, use hashtag #sewswimtour to share your favourite swimwear makes.

And enter a Rafflecopter giveaway  to win some fabulous prizes.

Discounts and Offers during the tour

• Designs by Call Ajaire, is offering 20% off all patterns in her Etsy shop. Use code ‘SWIMTOUR’
• Gracious Threads, is offering 15% off the purchase of 3 or more patterns in her shop (no coupon needed)
• The Wolf and the Tree is offering 15% off patterns in her shop. Use code ‘SWIMTOUR’

You can find more Summer Swimwear inspiration at:

Imagine gnats – Buzzmills – Sprouting JubeJube  – Our Chez Nous – Replicate Then Deviate – Once Upon a Sewing Machine – Once Upon a Sewing Machine – Kadiddlehopper – Lulu & Celeste – Skirt As Top – Straight Stitch Designs – Rebel & Malice – Rae Gun Ramblings – Paisley Roots – Made by Sara – The Crazy Tailor – Skirt Fixation – Sew Chibi Designs – Max California – Better Dressed Child – Shaffer Sisters – Sew Country Chick – Handmade Frenzy – House of Estrela – Elegance & Elephants – SewsNBows