I've made my first swimwear piece - the Cottesloe swimsuit by Megan Nielsen Patterns!
Okay, I finished this swimsuit back in April, I think, but I only recently got around to taking pictures of it. And of course it needed a blog post on it's own as I'm super proud of this first ever make with lycra fabric.
I got that fabric from Spoonflower, where you can custom print different types of fabrics with various designs or even with your own design. I chose a black sports lycra with golden marbeling and you can find the design here.
It was my first time sewing with fabric from Spoonflower and also the first time sewing with lycra. I was amazed by the quality of the fabric even tho the shipping takes longer then with ready-printed fabric (understandable). Also, lycra was kind of easy to sew although I'm not sure if I used a Microtex needle (which would be recommendable) or a Stretch needle.
I already fell in love with the pattern by Megan Nielsen patterns last year but I wasn't confident enough to try it. So, at the beginning of this year I wanted to challenge myself with some of the sewing projects and I wanted to tackle swimwear sewing.
I made no adjustments to the pattern view A besides grading from a size 14 in the bust and waist to a size 16 in the hips. But I chose to insert an powermesh lining with a double layer in the bust area to have more stability.
The powermesh as well as two different width of swim elastic was ordered from the german online shop "Deine Dessous". I found they have the widest selection on material you need for swimwear and underwear sewing and a fast shipping.
Inserting the lining and the elastic was a bit more of a thinking task as you first sew the swimsuit out of the outer fabric and the lining seperately and then put them together. I feel like you loose a bit of width in your straps and in the crotch area. So, maybe I will also try sewing both the outer fabric and the lining as one next time (or increase the seam allowance).
But, in total I'm happy with how my first selfmade swimsuit turned out and I am already planning on some more swimwear sewing and this time I would also like to draft the pattern myself so stay tuned on how that turnes out!
And I'm closing this post with some more pictures of me in my selfmade swimsuit enjoying the summer in a pool or jumping from boats :)
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