In Stitches: Audrey's Bathing Suit

So, the week after after I made my resolution not to buy any clothes this year for me and my girls and to sew any new clothes instead I realized... oh dear. We have a pool party to attend to. And Audrey didn't have a bathing suit. DOH!

I had to make one. It was my only option.

I scoured the internets for a decent toddler one piece but couldn't find one I liked. The bathing suit needed to have low-cut legs, good coverage on the bottom, simple, and well... cute! But not too frilly. Needless to say, I didn't find one. So I drafted my own (eek!) and I'm pleased with how it turned out!




I used a pair of undies that fit really well for starting out my pattern and worked it out from there. Simple, cute, and easy to put on! Audrey loves it too. Winner winner, chicken dinner.



To see my haphazard method of how I made this bathing suit, check it out after the jump



First I grabbed a pair of well fitting undies to use to draft the bottom portion of the bathing suit. Folding the undies in half, I traced around them on some paper.


I traced a portion for the front and then a second for the back.


When Audrey was wearing the undies I measured from her armpit to the top of the undies and transferred the measurements to the paper pattern. I roughly drew out a neckline and a back on the patterns without getting too fussy over it.


I cut out the pieces of the bathing suit (I added a lining, but I don't think it NEEDS one), sandwiched them together, and stitched at the crotch line.



I carefully pinned the sides together (this fabric was slippery, man!) and sewed the side seams using a zig zag stitch.


Next I measured out some elastic for the legs and sewed each bit of elastic into a loop.



I sewed a loop of elastic inside of each leg, turned the sewed edge under and sewed again.

And this is uh... where it gets a bit dicey and confusing, but actually it works so don't lose me now!


I cut a strip of the selvedge edge to use as the ruffle (you could use any strip and hem it, but lazy) and gathered it into a ruffle, then basted it to the neckline. I cut another strip to use for the binding and stitched the ruffle and binding in place. (I used a regular straight stitch and stretched the fabric slightly as I sewed.)


Once the ruffle and binding were in place I stitched a small length of elastic to the wrong side of the fabric stretching as I sewed.


I then stretched the binding over the elastic and sewed it in place. BAM! Stretchy, ruffly neckline. Done. I left the edge of the binding raw since knit fabrics don't fray. Knit fabrics are so forgiving!


Lastly I sewed a very long strip of binding around the armholes and across the back, attached elastic (as I did around the neckline), folded the binding over and then sewed it down.


And that's it! You can either leave the strips long and tie them around the neck or sew them in a criss-cross across the back.

Phew! That wasn't so hard, was it? ;)

If you make (or have ever made) a bathing suit I'd love to see!! Link me, bro. x