Making a swim suit

Every year my mom helps me make up three swim suits for Megan. So here's our first tankini. It took quite a bit longer than usually because I had to stop to take pictures for this blog. Also, with this being the first suit of the season, I have to remember how we did things last year and of course mistakes are made that have to be fixed. I make all our swim suits on the serger and only use my regular machine for top stitching. If you don't have a serger and would like to know how to use your regular sewing machine, check out Creative Chicks, my cousin Renae has some great tips.
I'll apologize up front that I don't have a pattern. They are very hard to come by. My mom created one several years ago that we just add to every year. So here's my mom fitting the pattern to Megan. We had to add a couple inches to the bottom and shoulder strap. She's grown a few inches.

Laying out your fabric and pattern - A typical pattern is placed along the grain of the fabric. Swim suit patterns lay opposite the grain. Notice the salvage at the right. Use lots of pins, lycra is very slippery.

Sewing the body - Once the pieces are cut out, we pin the body together to hold the fabric in place. With the tankini top, we also fully line the front. So you'll have three layers of fabric to go through and hold together. There is not need to stretch the fabric as you sew up on the sides on the serger. The serging stitch allows stretching. I typically do not cut any fabric off as I sew, just occasionally when things don't line up perfectly.

This crazy looking piece is the panty/bottom of the tankini. As kids we didn't like sitting on a seam, so mom created a pattern that wouldn't require a seam under the crotch.

This is the bottom folded in half with the lining pinned in place. The sides are also pinned and ready for me to sew up.

Sewing in the elastic - I sew in the elastic using the serger. I don't stretch it until I get to the bottom of the bum cheeks. By pulling the elastic tight at this point, it creates the snug fit under your cheek so it doesn't crawl. I repeat this process with the elastic on all the leg and arm openings. Stretching at bottom of the armhole, front of the neck and bottom of the back. These areas all have sharp curves and need to have the elastic pulled tighter around them so they don't gap.

Top stitching -I tried using a stretch double needle this year and love how it looks. It gives the suit a little more of a store bought look rather than home made. This is the bottom of the tankini top.

This is the top stitching of the waistband on the bottom and the leg hole. You don't need to stretch the fabric as your sewing, except at the same places you stretched when you first put the elastic onto the suit. The double needle stitching is designed to stretch.

Here is the finished bottom. You can see that I used white lining. This is not a lining fabric, its just regular lycra. You could even use your same suit fabric if you have enough.

Here is a detail of the front shoulder on Megan. I think the double stitching looks really nice and its fast.

Here's the finished product. Remember I told we had a mistake that we had to fix. Well, the shoulders ended up being way to tight on Megan. They cut into her. So my very creative mother fixed it, but I still have to take the final picture and post it.