My First Me-Made Swimsuit

After so many years of "stretchy fabric phobia," it's hard to believe that I've actually made my own swimsuit! My previous swim "outfit" was made up of a leotard, tankini top, and active-wear capris. It was fine, and did its job well. However, lately I've found myself wanting something a little different -- after all, it has been six years! And now that I'm comfortable with knits, I thought it might be time to try swimwear fabric.

Inspiration struck when I saw this post by Jacqueline and her daughter -- which is a tad ironic, since my swim ensemble mentioned above is included as one of their sources of inspiration! 

I went for a browse on Girl Charlee (always dangerous!) and fell in love with their Teal Cherry Blossom swimwear print. It's fun and a bit more exotic than my usual taste -- perfect for a swimwear. Of course, I decided to take it a step further by choosing orange milliskin for the bottom half, to blend with the orange in the cherry print! And this time I opted for combined leggings and skirt for the lower half.

I was able to get away with just one yard of each fabric, since the orange fabric was super wide (72"!). I have absolutely no scraps of the orange fabric left over, and very little of the cherry blossom print. 

One of my favorite details of the top (for which I used my faithful self-drafted cap sleeve tee pattern) is the ruched shoulder seam. I cut narrow strips of the orange fabric and gave me them some hefty tugs to make them "curl," and then fed them through the top-stitched casings and sewed them into the neckline seam.

As you can see, I hemmed the armholes but left the fabric edge raw. No raveling, no problem.

The swim top has no built in "support," but I'm used to providing my own undergarments for that purpose. I also added ruching to the side seams, though that took several tries to get just right -- I had to trim off quite a bit to get it to lay right!

I drafted my skirt and leggings combo by tracing my Running Skirt from Kosher Casual. At the time I bought it, I was not yet sewing with knits -- though quite honestly, it was well worth the $42, as it's very well made and has allowed me to come up with my own pattern for future skirts. Here's a view of the leggings underneath the skirt:

The milliskin is super silky, but is also lightweight -- I'm glad I have two layers!

And here, dear readers, is the closest you will ever come to seeing my unmentionables on the Interwebs. I knew I wanted *something* under those leggings, and cotton undies just sound clammy and unpleasant. So I traced a pair from my closet and came up with this:

They're absolutely perfect! I still have no idea how I managed to eke them out of the tiny scraps of fabric I had leftover. I even designed them with a facing/casing at the leg holes, but it turned out that I didn't need any elastic inserted. There is a casing at the waist with a bit of elastic. I self-lined the crotch, and had some fun with finishing details.

It wasn't long until I got to put my new swim outfit to the test! We put together a little sprinkler apparatus for the kiddos, and took advantage of a particularly steamy day to cool off in the driveway. I found Rosa's rash guard at a local second-hand shop, but I made her leggings-with-attached-circle-skirt using fabric given to me by my mother-in-law.

I had to take the waistband elastic in after that day, as poor Rosa's leggings
kept slipping down over her diaper!

Here's the sprinkler, made with inexpensive PVC parts and one 10' section of PVC pipe from Lowe's:

We drilled four holes in each length of PVC pipe, setting them at odd angles
so they would squirt out in different directions.

And here's my only action shot so far! Excuse my odd expression; those little water streams are... well, wet!

Little Man is very fond of his "prinkler," and asks to use it almost every day.

Final analysis? I haven't actually been swimming yet, but I think this will work very well, indeed. I may shorten the skirt a tad just to facilitate movement, as it tends to bind to the legs a bit when wet, but overall I'm quite pleased. And at less than $20 for a modest and customized swimsuit, it was quite economical!

Now I'm more determined than ever to get out with the littles and enjoy the water this summer. I hope you're all having pleasant summers of your own!