Dear Dana,

I absolutely ADORE the suit you finished for Goose! Super cute, and so motivating for me–I can’t slack off now, since you’ve already got results! I did have a realization, though, that once I’d stitched my suit, I’ll have to *gulp* try it on, and I’m thinking today’s not the day. So I did a little side-trip to the least threatening (meaning: most forgiving) of the three suits I have planned: Miss M’s, our three-year-old.

She is thrilled, beyond all measure. I like the overall shape, which I drafted as you did: Sharpie and guts. This might be as close as my pattern-loving heart ever gets to bungee jumping, but I felt so rebellious and unfettered!

I used my machine’s stretch zigzag stitch for the major seams

and then finished them off with the serger.

My copy of Fabric Savvy recommends using wooly nylon in the loopers with the serger, but I used our regular thread and it seems to have retained the necessary stretch. I’m not super certain what the wooly nylon is meant to achieve–do you have any idea? I’ve never used it before, but have a few spools I inherited from Sandra, so obviously it’s something used by Those In The Know.

Elastic: I went with standard elastic, right out of the stash. I love that you had no trouble finding the good stuff, but when faced with a whole other trip to the store with three kids in tow, I determined that our swimming in the lake and at the beach, with the occasional Slip-N-Slide (like today) was unlikely to dissolve the standard elastic before she outgrows this suit. Since it’s sort of a prototype anyway, I’m hoping my laziness works out for us!

The straps are constructed of two strips of the same fabric, folded in on the edges and folded again. They seem to have plenty of stretch and the fit was pretty simple to adjust.

Next time, I’m thinking an adorable ruffle or maybe some kind of pleating. I love what Su did on hers, and can totally see a girly detail like that for these dots.

Things that worked:

• Rather than making casings for the elastic, I stitched it on the inside and then folded it over, and stitched again. This is how I used to do my diaper covers, and it’s always worked great.
• I finished with a twin needle, which I hadn’t used before, and am really happy with how professional it makes everything look.
• Following the curve on the template swimsuit gave a nice shape to the back–her last suit fit like a sack, and I wanted this one to follow her body a little better, mostly so there would be fewer places for sand to hide. Seems to have worked well!

Things I’m planning to improve for the Beta version:

• The original suit has a little gathering at the neckline that I didn’t gauge accurately, so the new one gapes just the teensiest bit there, but overall I’m super pleased with the results. The gape at the neckline really bothers me, even if she doesn’t care at all. I think a ruffle there would help, but I’d also like to give the elastic a little more stretch.
• I took WAY too few step-by-step photos. Am already planning out the suit for our teen, so I’ll be better behaved on hers!

Looking forward to seeing what you’re cooking up for yourself! The weather here is scorching, so I’d best be getting busy on my own. The girls begged and begged me to join them under the hose as we were taking photos, and I was sorely tempted. Once I’ve got my sassy new suit, I won’t have a reason to say no!

Talk to you soon,
Deb

Dear Dana,

OK, I am so envious that you had the foresight to order solids from Spandex World. Might have to get myself back over there and consider some options to do some sort of colorblock action… So chic, right?

I saw you mentioned needles. I’ve been doing some reading (consummate researcher, that’s me!), and Sandra Betzina recommends the ball point needles for Nylon/Lycra blends–she says the stretch aren’t as good. (I have a copy of Fabric Savvy and it’s SO useful for this kind of thing.) I’m thinking I’ll have both on hand and see which I prefer, but hopefully the ball points will do the trick.

Since I was already in research mode, I went out today looking for patterns. I’d love to make my own, but I feel pretty sure the wise course of action might be to construct something from a pattern first before winging it. Harks back to my archaeologist/measure-twice-cut-once days, y’know? I envy you that you jump in and see what happens–I would love to do that more often.

A rabbit hole search led me to Kwik Sew patterns for active wear–not really what I had in mind, but a start. Another led me to their swimwear patterns, which were more along the lines I envisioned.

Someone else recommended Stretch and Sew, which were OK too, but by this point, I was feeling inspired and impatient, so I went ahead and just dove right in. I know! I was pretty surprised too, but this whole project just has me so darn motivated.

I used a suit whose dimensions fit me well–everything I’ve read has said that the body length is the most important dimension to get right, since the fabric will stretch side-to-side.

I laid it out on some art paper I snaked from the kids, made a sketch, added seam allowances, and felt totally ready.

Somewhere along the way I read a hint to tape down the fabric, and I gotta say, it was totally right on the money–HUGE help when I got the rotary cutter going and started cutting.

So here’s where I am now:

Just the one at the moment, since the girls both took theirs out of town with them. I’m planning to stitch this one up and check the fit to see if my methodology holds water (hey, look at that! an archaeology reference AND a swimming pun! in the same sentence!), and then tackle the other two.

Are you wondering about elastic like I am? I’ve seen plenty of folks mention using swimsuit elastic, and others who say it doesn’t make a difference and the regular stuff is just fine. Call me crazy, but I don’t really want to do casings–what if we use fold-over elastic, instead??

Oh, we’re so close. I can feel it. But you ever notice that most of the mistakes in sewing happen riiiiight when you start to think, “Hey, this is going really well! I’m making such great progress! I’ll be done so much sooner than I thought!”? Ever notice that? And then your bobbin runs out.

Can’t wait to see what you’re doing on your side of the Americas!
Deborah

Dear Dana,

First, I owe you a huge thank-you: I’m not convinced I ever would’ve found Spandex World without you, and I think NOT knowing that a business under that name was out there in the world would’ve made my life emptier. I mean: Spandex World? How great is that? Second, can I even tell you how excited I am about this project?? Sewing side-by-side (virtually speaking) is going to be so much funner than going it alone. Being able to blog it back and forth, a la Mason-Dixon Knitting, makes it even more enjoyable for me, too, what with my blogland addiction and all. We’re, like, bi-coastal bloggers now!

I feel like we’re jumping in with the varsity stuff, too, in a good way. I mean, swimwear? My mom used to tell me she made her own swimsuits when she was in college, and it took me years to shake the image of her in woolens from wrist to ankle, with a rubber swim cap. When I finally saw a photo of her–looking disturbingly hot, I should add–on the beach with my dad, in a hipster bikini she’d made herself, I had to throw that initial image out the window, but still never really thought making my own swimwear was something I was likely to tackle. But I think you and I both know that–especially for our girls–what’s out there in the stores is sub-par, to say the least. And sometimes downright trampy. I kid you not, I saw a one-piece in a size 3T the other day with a looooooow back and cut-outs on the side. To make it what, sexier?? Yikes.

So that late night when you and I were emailing back-and-forth and you told me you were thinking you might try making Goose a swimsuit, I was instantly intrigued and wanted to hop on that bandwagon. Lucky for us, we both live in climates where we can start on these in July and be fairly certain we’ll still be wearing them four months from now!

I went on Spandex World and browsed and browsed, and finally narrowed down my selections–well, narrowed them down by my standards: I still ordered 10 different fabrics, plus lining. I had the girls pick out the ones they like best:

For Miss M, who will be 3 this week:

And for Miss E, who just turned 14:

For myself, I’m thinking this one:

Truthfully, I thought solids looked pretty dull at the time, so now I’m wishing I’d gotten some black. Every girl needs a black bathing suit.

Who knows? Maybe we’ll all get more than one! Totally dependent on the Swear Factor involved, of course, but I like to think positive.

I think the best part is that I won’t have to go through the whole learning curve all on my own. I mean, I know you’re all the way over on the whole other coast of America from me, but I love having someone to share the mystery and fun of learning something new! I’ve never worked with Spandex or Lycra before, so I suspect I’d've put it off and off and off if I didn’t have you to help me get past the initial hesitation. Hooray! Can’t wait to see what fabrics you picked out–am totally bummed that the red skulls were gone by the time I placed my order (E had her teenager heart set on them!).

Hoping your machine is fully recovered from its trip to the doctor, and crazy excited to see how this whole experiment goes!
Deborah