End of Summer Swimsuits

This year I decided one of my goals was to design and print my own swimsuit fabric with Spoonflower and sew a suit for myself. This floral print that I designed — one that didn’t make the cut into the last fabric line I designed for Cloud9, Fanciful — seemed like a fun option. Spoonflower’s sport Lycra is the substrate I used for this suit, and the one I made for my trip to Mexico earlier this year. I ordered 2 yards and had enough yardage to make suits for both Clementine and myself.

I made a pattern for her using another suit she already owned as the base shape; she requested the neck tie in the middle. For my suit, I used my Jade tee pattern for the top with 1.5” scooped out of the front neckline, an added ruffle, and cropped with elastic at the lengthen/shorten line. For the bottom, I used the bottom pattern pieces from the Seabright swimmer with 1” length added, and added elastic to make them high-waisted bottoms.

Clementine’s suit was designed to be a bit long for her so that (hopefully) she’ll be able to still wear it next year. This makes the suit look like it’s been shirred through the length of the torso when she wears it right now, especially when it’s wet. She definitely got a ton of wear out of it during our trip to Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore last week. These pics were all taken at Good Harbor Bay, my favorite place to swim in Lake Michigan when we visit that area (the pics of my Esme Kaftan were taken at the same place when we stayed 2 summers ago).

The pattern designer in me spends a lot of time thinking about garment vs body proportions, and I have to say I don’t especially love the proportions of this suit for me. I had hoped that adding the ruffle and sleeves to my suit would help balance the high-waisted bottoms, but ultimately I don’t really love how high they look on me. The bottoms really dominate the silhouette, and my body has more proportionally on the bottom with very little to balance it out on top, and not much by way of a defined waist. Maybe I will add a little ruffled skirt to the top of this suit like Isla has. Or maybe it will grow on me over time. We’ll see! This is the thing about sewing for yourself, right? ALWAYS THE POTENTIAL FOR TINKERING, NEVER FINISHED!

Proportional issues aside, I love that Clementine and I have matching suits. Clementine is all about matching me at the moment, which is really fun and something I totally would have made fun of in my twenties but completely can’t get enough of now. I know it’s temporary so I’ll just enjoy it. She just turned eleven this summer and I’m really enjoying her at this age; her company and our conversations are really great. Plus, she really loves wearing the things I make her right now and keeps requesting more mama-made clothes. I hope she still loves it this much when she’s a teenager!! Any parents out there whose kiddos like to match with them, too? Tell me your stories.

I also love really love a suit with longer sleeves. Couldn’t convince Clementine to go with sleeves on hers, though!

Finally, a few closeups of the fabric and suits below. I lined Clementine’s suit and my swim bottom (I purchased the lining last year at Blackbird Fabrics), but not my suit top. I used 3/8” wide swim elastic that I purchased at Fancy Tiger Crafts. I used elastic thread to gather the ruffles, and polyester thread on a zig zag setting to attach the elastic and bindings. Everything else (seams) was sewn on a serger. I left all of the ruffle edges unfinished; swim fabric does not fray, and hemming those extra edges would have been a pain in the ass.

And of course the suit fabric was designed by me and printed with Spoonflower; I used the sport lycra which is supposedly colorfast to chlorine and salt. I have the floral print designed in other colors besides this turquoise/tealy color, so I’m excited to make other things to wear with the other colors. Perhaps matching swim coverups for next summer?