Another round of swimsuits

So I'm still trying to get together everything I need for my trip back to Australia - and that means another round of swimsuits.

I pulled out my entire stash of swimsuit material and let each kid chose what they wanted and also worked with them on what features they prefer in a swim suit.

First up J.  He chose to have green shorts and a blue shirt with green trim.  These were made out of poly lycra fabrics that I bought at the local discount fabric store.  They have a good weight to them.

For the shorts I used his standard shorts pattern with 5/8" cut off all around.  I also cut down the front rise as he really prefers to wear all his pants underneath his belly, very low down, so I figured I may as well cut them that way, rather than cut them higher and have them all scrunched down.

The shorts were very simple. I sewed each seam on the serger and then top stitched in black thread with a zig zag stitch to flatten each seam.  For the waistband I zig zaged a 1/2" piece of elastic around the top edge of the shorts and folded it over twice to encase the elastic and then top stitched it all down with a zig zag stitch again.  The hem is just turned up twice at 1/2" width and stitched with a zig zag stitch

For the shirt I used my basic raglan sleeve t shirt pattern - at a size 8 - with 5/8" taken off each seam. The sleeves were finished with a green cuff.

 

The neckline was finished with an unstretched neckband about 1.25" wide.  I asked whether he wanted a zipper in the front of his shirt and he said no, but then decided that he would like a half zip, just to make it easier to get it on and off over his head.  To do this I just cut a slit down the front of the shirt to the length I wanted, then turned the edges under and sewed then to the zipper tape leaving an exposed zip.  Again the zipper was top stitched in place with a zig zag stitch.

To finish the bottom edge I turned the edge up to create a wide cuff, and stitched it in place with a zig zag stitch.

shirt with original cuffs and bottom band.

Once I had the shirt finished I tried it on J, and I wasn't overly happy with it.  The cuffs were too large and flared out and the shirt was too short, so I ended up taking off the cuffs entirely  and cutting them down by about 1.25" to make then sit snugly around his arms.

I also changed the bottom hem -  I  took it down again and just turned it under twice at about 1/2" wide.

Both pieces are a little too big, but J will grow into them.  And most importantly he's happy with them.

Next up was L.  She chose a piece of fabric that I picked up from the swim fabric remnants bin at Fabric Place Basement last year.  This material has an ombre colour design fading from bright pink at the selvage to dark purple in the center and back to pink at the opposite edge.   Again it is a good heavy weight fabric.

For the shorts I used L's standard shorts pattern with 5/8" cut off all around.  L prefers to wear her pants pulled up very high so she has a much higher rise on her pants.  For her shorts I cut a yoke that angles  down to center back and center front.

I cut the yoke from the bright pink and the shorts in the medium purple.  Again all seams were serged then top stitched with a zig zag stitch.  The hems were finished by turning up twice at about 5/8" and stitching with a zig zag stitch.  The top was finished by basting 1/2" elastic around the top edge then turning it over twice and top stitching with a zig zag stitch.  All top stitching was done with a light purple thread.

For the shirt I used the same basic raglan sleeve t shirt pattern - at a size 8 - with 5/8" taken off each seam.  I cut it off about 3" shorter than for J and then added a 3.5" band doubled up around the bottom.

I cut the top so that it shaded from pink at the top to dark purple at the waist band. 

The neckline was finished with a thin neckband and the sleeves were turned under once and top stitched in place.

L wanted a full zipper in her shirt.  I only had black in the size I needed so that's what we went with.  The zipper is stitched in place and then top stitched with a zig zag stitch.

I think the bottom band is a smidge too tight which is why shes getting all the puffiness in the shirt, but L loves it and that's the main thing.

And finally more additions to my suits.

I decided that I really didn't like the shorts I made to go with my captain america suit (so called because the material has what looks like Captain America shields all over it).

So I decided to go ahead and make a new pair of pants to go with this top.  Since I didn't have enough material to make these I knew I'd have to buy more, and since the fabric store only sells in yard increments I decided I may as well make a matching rash shirt too.

I didn't realise just how flimsy this material was until after making the suits for the kids, so the first thing I did was line the material for my pants.  I used some teal coloured power mesh that I had, and underlined both the front and the back pieces.

The top of the pants was finished with a 1/5" wide waistband enclosing 1,5" wide elastic. and the leg openings were finished with 5/8" wide cuffs enclosing 1/2" wide elastic.

The rash vest I made using the same pattern as my previous rash vest.

I'm really happy with how this turned out - now to try them out!