Monday, September 05, 2011

I Wear My Pink Bikini...

...in the summer when it's hot; I wear my yellow Speedo in the winter when it's not;
But sometimes in the springtime; and sometimes in the fall
I jump into my little pool with nothing on at all!

Anyone else sing that at  Girl Guides/Scouts?  LOL!

Early this spring I noticed my favourite one piece bathing suit (actually, the only suit I was wearing in public anymore) was becoming stretched, saggy, and transparent.  Eeek.  Bathing suits were just coming into the stores so I was able to find a new suit quickly, but I figured it couldn't be too hard to make my own.  Right?  There's only three pieces...

....on the front.  Plus 3 pieces for the back.  Plus two pieces for the ruched accent band.  And some power netting and cups on the inside....but still...all sewing is is assembly flat fabric in the correct order to make it shapely.  Right?


I closely examined my suit while sitting in the hot tub.  Multi-tasking!  Then, I took some pictures (many more than just these two), and cut it apart.  I made some pattern pieces and went to the fabric store. 

Wow, bathing suit fabric is expensive here.  The solid colour stuff is $22/m and the "mill end" prints were $15/m.  I didn't need much, but also power netting, and thread, and elastic...Just like any project, it's not cost effective to just make one!  I chose a darkish blue-purple that was the same intensity as the brown, and a fun print for the cups.  I didn't see any that I liked for the contrast band, except a bright lime that I thought was too radical.  I thought maybe I could just use the cups fabric, but I was also stuck on the fancy do-da in the middle.

As I made the pattern, I did add a little to the cups as I felt the original was a tad small.  I could probably add even more.  I even tried the twin needle top stitching after a crappy trip to a small sewing store in Oshawa where Lucy put her best pout on display.  I didn't have a matching colour for the top stitching, so chose a lime, but I'm not sure I'm keen on it.  And it looks like it was top stitched by a drunken monkey.  But over all, for my first bathing suit attempt, I was pretty darned pleased.



Till I paraded it through the house out to the hot tub and the girls said I looked fat :(

PICTURES REMOVED AFTER VULGAR COMMENTS SUBMITTED

Oh well.  I do think the legs could be cut a bit higher, and maybe I should make a contrast band for under the bust to shrink the sea of blue.   It's still good for in the hot tub, although my "good one" that I bought in the spring is already showing signs of fading!  And I have bought some "real" patterns to make another suit or two.  And some more fabric online that I had sent to my SIL's when we went in July--it's WAY cheaper from American on-line stores, although I don't know what the Canadian shipping costs would be, and of course, you can't actually see/touch the fabric.  More about that when I show Lucy's suit!!

4 comments:

Lovenicky said...

Your suit looks great! Which swimsuit patterns have you bought? I have bought a couple of Kwiksew ones as well but haven't got time to sew them yet. Looking forward to seeing your new suits!

TracyKM said...

I bought Kwik Sew 3779 and 3238. Funny thing--my MIL just gave me a couple Canadian Livings from the spring and one had a swimsuit article and there were a couple suits just like the 3779 (not the strapless one) shown as a way to hide a tummy! I thought 3238 might also be good for making a leisure bra with regular knits.
But first, I've got three other projects in the works!

Unknown said...

I think you look lovely :) and that bathingsuit looks great on you :)

Unknown said...

I think you look lovely :) and that bathingsuit looks great on you :)