It's Snowing....In April....So I'm making a Swimsuit

It's obvious really isn't it?  What else would you start sewing when there's snow everywhere and it's freezing cold (quite literally it's below freezing out there at the moment), but a swimsuit?

This project has been lurking in the back recesses of my brain for quite some time now - most of the winter really.  I made my very first swimsuit at the end of last summer.  That original pattern -consisting of a bikini top with cross over straps and boy leg shorts with ruching at the sides - which was pretty much made up as I went along - was OK, but of course for a first attempt it wasn't perfect.

 Things I did like about it:

• good coverage of the bikini line and stretch marks on the stomach
• good support in the top

Things I didn't like about it:

• Was really hard to get on and off
• the bottoms didn't sit right and needed constant adjustment.

So I wanted to try again and see if I could do better.

What I was looking for in the new swimsuit:

• Good support up top
• just the right amount of cleavage
• covers the stretch marks on my belly
• comfortable to wear

During one of my internet browsing sessions I came across this swimsuit on Pattern Review and fell in love with the back view.  All the ring details really appealed to me.

I started playing around with ideas for my swimsuit based on my shorter and wider torso and came up with the following:

I knew that in order to support the weight of my boobs I needed a good piece of elastic under them and so required a band that goes right around the chest, and then I worked down from there adding in the rings and cut outs until I found a combination that was pleasing to my eye.  

Now to make this into a pattern.  The top half is pretty much exactly the same as my original swimsuit so I recopied that pattern and made a few minor adjustments, mainly to the shape of the cups to provide better coverage. 

To get a pattern for the bottom half I found online a free hipster pant pattern from Makebra.com.  Based on my hip measurement I cut out and sewed up a size large out of a piece of neon fluro orange knit material I had in my stash. When I went to try them on however I found them to be way too large.  I pulled a pair of underwear out of my drawer that I like the shape of and compared it to my pattern and cut it down as required until I had a pattern (and a new pair of underwear) that I liked the shape of.

I then took this pattern and extended it up to meet the top half.

I wanted to get started on the swimsuit but didn't have any rings that I could use so I decided to modify the pattern slightly for a first attempt, eliminate the rings but keep the same general design.

I grabbed a piece of plain black lycra I had in my stash and cut out the pattern pieces.  I basted it together  to see how it would work..The top half was fine,and the bottoms close, but I'd overestimated how much length I needed in the bodice so it was too long.  I pinned out the extra length, and re-cut my pattern to the new length.  This cut off an entire cut out detail and ended up as:

I decided that I was close enough to a good pattern that I could break into my good material.  A polyester/lyca in shade of purple, red and silver that I've had in my stash for quite a while now waiting till I got around to this project. I'm not sure how well it will go in chlorine, but we shall see wont we.

This time I cut the front and back bottom pieces without any cutouts - I took them right up to the band under my bust and figured I could add the cut outs later when I was sure of their placement.

I reused the black top pieces as lining and recut the bottom pieces in black as well so that the entire suit is lined in black. 

I started by sewing the shoulder straps to the top pieces for both the outer and lining fabrics, then sewed the lining to the outer fabric  along the length of the strap and around to the back under the arm, and also along the strap and down to the center front.  Each of these seams then had clear elastic serged to provide extra support around the breasts.  The two pieces were turned right sides out and were then joined together down the middle seam. The resulting piece was sandwiched between the two band pieces and sewn together.  The bottom edges of the band were turned under and sewn together and a piece of 1" wide elastic was inserted through the resulting channel.

 I finished the back band with a swimsuit clasp and decided to go with a cross across the back with the shoulder straps.  I've found that I like the look of this top best when it's a halter, but wearing a halter top - especially for any length of time gets very tiring on the neck.  Straight over the shoulder straps tend to leave my boobs sagging out at the sides so crossed over is a nice compromise, harder to get into than straight straps but more pleasant to wear than a halter.

The final step was to zip zag over all the seams with the clear elastic so that everything stays in place like its supposed to.

The bottom pieces were sewn together between the legs for both the inner and outer fabrics, then positioned right sides together and the leg openings sewn together - again clear elastic was added to these seams.  The piece was turned inside right and the side seams were sewn together.  To finish off the pants I serged the top edge and added clear elastic again.

At this point I contemplated leaving the swimsuit as a bikini.   I folded a pleat around the top edge so that the elastic was at the top but it was the height I wanted.  I made the front higher than the back as I like to cover up my belly button as that has the worst of the stretch marks, but I don't like the look of high wasited at the back so took that down lower.  

I thought that I would leave this as is, but I wasn't entirely happy with it so a couple of days later I went back and started playing around with it again.

I tried just sewing the two pieces together.

And was quite happy with how it looked.  But it was just so....boring....just a plain one piece swim suit!  so I continued playing around with the two pieces

 A small change gives a little interesting detail.

I like this idea - but I didn't like how the bottoms pulled the top down when attached like this.

The only thing that I was sure of was that I liked what I had done with the back.  In order to get the back to dip like I wanted I took a small length of black ribbon and threaded it through the center back of the pants at the height that I wanted and then wrapped it over the edge pulling the back down into a dip.

I decided to try something similar in the front to get close to the original design.

Nope - but this gave me the idea of using the ribbon to lace the top and bottom together.  It wasn't until I finished the entire thing that I realised that I'd laced the top on inside out..... but do you know what.  I tried it on and was actually quite happy with the look.  The lacing gives a nice pop of detail - and the black makes a nice contrast to the busy fabric....

Thankfully the top was just about reversible anyway - all it took was to re-stitich the shoulder straps to the new underside and I was happy to say I finally had a finished design.

In the end this looks nothing like the original design, and it's not overly easy to get into still, but it is a swimsuit that I will be happy to wear out.

I'd still like to get some rings and try out the original pattern but I think I'll keep that for another day.