A new Bikini

I had almost forgotten just how hard it is to get sewing done during the summer when the kids are out of school - there's just so much other fun stuff to do that it gets shunted aside.  I was having some sewing withdrawals for a while so, as I didn't have any knitting to do I actually spent a couple of evenings sewing last week.  I still can't decide if I like sewing in the evenings or not - Its definitely not my preferred sewing time, but I did enjoy it for a change of pace. (I reckon my husband didn't mind having full control of the television for a couple of nights either).

So what did I make - a new bikini.  I wanted to try out the new bra pattern again (the Bravo Bella Bravo Bra #2) and I've been wanting to make a new bikini top for a while so I decided to combine the two.

My plan for the bikini top was to use the basic bridge and band pattern from the bra and then draft a single piece cup to go with it - I thought if I used all the little pieces it would look too bra like - plus with the stretch material all those pieces weren't really necessary.

The material I used was a poly lycra in a blue and purple peacock type print.

They had this fabric in a couple of different colour ways when I bought it - but I figured that these were my colours so I had to go for this one.

I cut out the bridge and band as per the pattern and then it took only two tries to get a cup shape that I liked.  To make the straps I cut them first out of the swimsuit fabric and then out of nylon tricot cut so the stretch runs across the strap rather than along it and basted the two fabrics together.  I sewed the strap as one and turned it inside out and sewed it onto the top of the cups.

For the lower elastic band I used 1" wide knit elastic. and then I used 3/8" wide knit elastic for the bra edges.  I took apart another old bra for the underwires and inserted them in tricot casing as per the instructions.  I cut a second lot of all the bra pieces and full lined the entire bra to give extra support.

The straps I left free at the back so they can be tied as a halter and to finish off the back of the bra I cut the band about half way and finished off the edges neatly, then sewed two strips of 1" wide knit elastic at the top and bottom of one side of the band and snaps on the other side to close it.

I'm really quite happy with how this turned out.

For the bottoms I used the bottom half of the pattern I used for this swimsuit, but lengthened the crotch pattern section a bit to raise the pants up the leg.  Again I cut two pieces of each pattern piece so the pants are fully lined.  The leg openings were sewed together inside out then turned right side out and a piece of fold over elastic was sewed around each opening.  The top edge was finished with a piece of 2" wide knit elastic.

The pants ended up a bit skimpier in the backside than I had intended but otherwise  I like them.

I tried out this swimsuit at the pool this afternoon.  The top works fantastically, but the bottoms are way too loose. I need to take in a good 1/2 off each side seam and take the waist band elastic in at least 2 inches.

Update:  I did the changes I suggested above this morning and wore the suit to the beach all day today and the bottoms worked perfectly.  But I've decided on one further change - rather than tying the straps as a halter I'm going to have to sew them in at the back - probably crossed over.  The pressure on the base of my neck gave me a low grade headache all day today - no more halters for me!