Swim Wear

After seeing Gabrielle's gorgeous lycra, I used the fact my son is a swimmer and always needed new swim shorts as justification to buy more Lycra.  I admit to buying the exact same fabric from Spandex House.

I have been tempted to buy Jalie 3350 since it was released and this fabric was the enabler.  I cut the pattern out to size R but a one piece was not part of the plan.  I envisiaged a tankini and it was a simple process to convert it from a one piece to a tankini.  I lengthened the body of the suit and simply cut the pant section off.

The cross over top had me stumped briefly but was actually quite simple to construct.  I did line the front of the top which was not part of the pattern and added a piece of elastic under the bust.  Rather than get my coverstitch machine out I decided to twin needle the hem.  I also made the straps thicker than the pattern dictated.

For the pants I used my trusty McCall's 5400 but instead of adding narrow elastic to the top I added a large coloured band and threaded through a piece of 2cm wide elastic before topstitching it in place.  Unlike previous pairs, this time I fully lined them with swimsuit lining.

I think this is perhaps my favourite swim suit yet and I really like the pattern.  I like that it is designed to contain removeable swim suit cups and also like the support the design gives without being frumpy.  Beware though to those intending to make this suit, that this suit is more designed for a A or B cup and anyone larger may find it a bit skimpy.

Just looking at these photos after the fact, apart from the very strange tan lines going on, I can see that my top would actually benefit from being longer.  Because I have quite a large waist to hip ratio, I find that a two piece tends to ride up which is extremely annoying.  The answer may well be to add ease below the waist instead of the negative ease that rtw suits tend to have.