One of the major steps this year was starting to sew with lycra and sewing my first handmade swimsuit. It's really satisfying to see how my sewing skills evolve and how I can trust these skills more and more. But after sewing the swimsuit I realized once more that I mostly wear bikinis and that I feel more comfortable in a bikini. Therefore, I decided to sew some bikinis this summer as well and I decided to design those bikinis myself.
First, I sketched a few desings of bikinis I liked and which I think I could sew. Those four designs where the result and even tho I'm not really good at sketching you can get a great impression of my ideas.
Then, I measured my upper body following the instructions of a pattern drafting book I borrowed from a friend of mine and sketched a body pattern including the oultine of a bra pattern according to my measurements.
This sketched body and bra outline should be the basis for the bikini pattern and maybe also for some bra patterns later.
To have more stability and support I ordered some triangular bikini cups for my bra size. After those cups arrived (and fit) I decided it would make more sense to draft the bikini top patterns around these cups and not according tho the body outline. So, I just sketched out the bikini top pattern as I thought it would work according to my imagination. But for the panties pattern I used the bottom part of the body outline.
I decided to start with the most left bikini design which should be overlapping in the front.
I still had some of the DoubleGradient LeatherLook desert lycra from Astrokatze that I used for the sports outfit Bali (see my July Review). So, I decided to cut the first top out of this red lycra. Beside the remains of the lycra I also used remains of a swimsuit lining to build the bikini top.
After cutting the pattern pieces four times (2x lycra, 2x swimsuit lining) I sewed the lycra pieces and the lining pieces right sides together, turned them inside out and tried inserting the bikini cups.
Sewing the lycra and lining was quite easy but inserting the cups turned out to be more complicated than I thought. I had forgotten to consider the prefabricated form of the cups and kind of had to drape the sewn fabric pieces around them. But in a way it worked out and the top turned out quite close to my design.
Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of it for the whole panties as well so I had to cut into the second lycra I ordered from Astrokatze - the DoubleGradient Leather Look jungle.
But after finishing the first bikini I directly started with the second desing - a combination of the second and last drawing - which I also cut out of the DoulbeGradient Leather Look jungle lycra.
I realized that the thin straps I used in my first bikini aren't really comfortable therefore I wanted wider neckholder straps for my second design. And I also left more material to insert the cups. Besides that I followed nearly the same steps as with my first design.
The second design turned out even more beautiful in my opinion and I feel super comfortable and sexy while wearing it. But I also thought that the first pair of panties I sewed with my second design was a bit to low - I wanted a more high waisted pair of panties.
No sooner said than done - I cut another panties pattern using the body outline pictured above and made myself a higher waisted pair of bikini panties right before going on a short vacation to Italy. Sadly, we only had two sunny days and only went swimming once so I only took pictures wearing the bikini I designed second. But I'm looking forward to also wearing the bikini I designed first and I'm proud how both designs turned out!
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