If you live in Melbourne or anywhere nearby you will know that it has been a very wet, bleak and grey winter here, so swimwear might seem like an unusual thing to be sewing....
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| Dull photos due to dull days! (not the subject matter, the lighting!!) |
All our girls are part-fish I think as they are all very capable swimmers and so regardless of the season Miss G has weekly swimming lessons.
She and Miss L were in need of bathers so I took some of Miss L's old ones and traced and cut around them.
I worried they were too short in the body, and they were so I added the band to the top before adding the straps.
Even after this - they were still a little too short and so got handed down to a very pleased Miss G!
I also did the elastic when the girls were in bed and so it's a little too tight around the legs, these really are not the greatest bathers!!
What ratio do you use for elastic in opening such as the legs here?? 3/4 or 2/3?? I need a formula to record and refer to instead of just having a guess.
I used the leftover piece of strap to make the bow on the front - which usually sits quite nicely but of course I forgot to 'style' it before trying to grab these shots in fading light.
I have some lovely lycra I picked up at Rathdowne Remnants a while back that I can't wait to turn into more bathers.
Maybe I should get some tips from the swimwear queen, Cindy.
I am going to tackle some more in the coming weeks in preparation for school swimming lessons.
Some Kwik Sew ones and also some from various Ottobre editions.
So stay tuned for more...
3 comments:
The swimsuit is darling! I love the color and the little bow on the front is so sweet.:) Not sure what the formula would be for elastic but I have found the lengths on the Kwik Sew patterns to be spot on for my kids. And I like how KS has you apply the leg elastic flat in the front and then stretched for the back of the leg. It prevents the dreaded wedgie!lol Thanks for the shoutout.:)
I think that they look VERY cute! The elastic thing is what always holds me back with making bathers. I think that the secret is to not stretch the elastic much at all. The bathers fabric is already cut smaller than the body, so the elastic will be smaller than the body even if it isn't much smaller than the opening. I've got a couple of pairs of bathers that are complete wadders because I overstretched the elastic. I'm planning on making more at the moment (I have a pair for me cut out already!) and maybe when we're next at Sewjourn we can bathers-along.
I love the fabric you used.
My first attempt at swimwear was a disaster, the elastic is really tricky. It was a long time ago though, I should try again.
Maybe we should have a swimwear sew-along?
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