Swimsuits all around

It's that time of year.  The local pool opened on Saturday.  In order to get ready I made each of the kids a new swim suit.

For J I wanted to make a pair of what I've seen called "Euro Style" swim trunks.  I hate the board shorts that reach down past the knees that seem to be all you can buy for boys around here - I mean that can't be comfortable wearing something that big and baggy in the water.  I've tried cutting a store bought pair off to the length I want but they still didn't work so I wanted to make a pair of shorts out of swimsuit material - not necessarily skin tight, but fitted.

I went for a strong colour block look - took J's shorts sloper and took it back to no added ease or seam allowance.  I cut out front and back pieces in bright green and then cut two stripes of blue down the sides and then a waistband out of black.  I'm not happy with the waistband - especially the 1" elastic inside it, and I could have made then a smidge tighter but otherwise they're a cute simple pair of boys swimmers.

I definitely want to try these again and get them fitting a bit better.  I think I need to take the front rise down a bit he has a tendency to pull them down to sit below his belly- and I definitely need to make the waistband tighter.

I then did the same for L - however for her I left out the separate colour down the side and made the waistband angle to a V in the front and back.  The wasitband is done in a patterned fabric and the rest of the shorts in a plain turquoise.  I then had to figure out what sort of top I wanted for her.  In the end we decided on a sort of crop top.  I took her tank top pattern that is a bit too small, took about 3/8" out of the center front and back seams and cut it off at mid torso.  The arm holes I scooped in quite a bit at the back and the neck I did in a V front and back.  I added 1" elastic inside the bottom band to keep everything in place.

The main part of the top I did in the patterned fabric and used the plain turquoise for bindings/band.

I managed to finish both pairs of swimmer in 1 day - The kids wanted to wear then the next day so let me keep sewing till I finished them.

I also started working on a new pair of swimmer for myself.  I love my new one piece I made, but really two piece swimmers are really so much more practical.  At the end of last summer I made myself a two piece swim suit.

Not the most flattering and I was never totally happy with the pants for these. (though for a first attempt at swimsuit its really not that bad

When I went searching for my swimsuit material this year I found a half made pair of pants that I had obviously started last year but never got around to finishing and decided I would use them as a muslin for the new swimsuit that I wanted to make.  I took apart what I had and recut them in the pattern that I wanted to try out and ended up with this.

The sides can be rushed up or left down as shown.  These are a lot more comfortable than the original pair so I think I'll stick with this pattern - Now to remake the top so it can be taken off more easily when its wet - its such a strange sensation having to ask your kids for help with undressing!  I have done one iteration of top but it was a total failure so I need to rethink this again.