children, sewing, women

Suit up for Summer with Raspberry Creek Fabrics

auschick
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What a wacky year 2020 is turning out to be yes? When I was first invited to join the annual Raspberry Creek Fabrics Suit up for Summer Blog Tour hosted by SewSophieLynn and Paisley Roots, I of course had no idea that there would be a chance we may not actually GET to wear our swimsuits this year, but one can always HOPE! I don’t know about you, but my emotions have been all over the place. Last week all I could see was a downward spiral of gloom, but this week I have a bit more hope. So, here’s to a summer of sprinklers, water tables, and HOPEFULLY swimming pools too!
Sale alert! This week only, get 15% OFF the swim collection at Raspberry Creek Fabrics with code: SWIMTOUR. Also remember to follow Raspberry Creek on Instagram for daily giveaways!
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For this tour, we were able to select up to 2 yards of fabric from the new and basics swim collections at Raspberry Creek Fabrics and 1 yard of lining. I had a couple of favorites that I wanted to do, and ultimately went with the following combo:

I selected a 1/2 yard of Bright Navy Pink Yellow and Teal Palm Leaves, 3/4 yard of Red Yellow Coral and Green Tropical Floral, 3/4 yard of Tangerine Orange and White Micro stripe, 1 yard of swim lining, and I purchased a 1/2 yard of Light Tangerine Solid in addition.

Using Photoshop, I sketched up a couple of options with various combos – I had one kid who wanted lemons, another kid who wanted strawberries, and another who wanted bananas. In the end I knew I had to streamline it all so I could fit under the 2 yard limit, but I figure I’ll show all of it to you for your own inspiration!

Now, you’ll notice that my sketches are not of the swimsuits I actually sewed up. I used the line drawings from Boo Designs Embrace Togs to make my comps even though I planned to use the Lil Luxe Patterns Peach Beach pattern for my girls suits. I did stick with my old faithful Boo Designs Leggings and Swimmers patterns for my son’s suit though.
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And while I had planned to only make suits for my kids, I ended up having tons leftover, so I whipped up a suit for me too!
So, without further ado……:

Lil Luxe Patterns Peach Beach Swimsuit

The Lil Luxe Patterns Peach Beach Swimsuit is one I’ve had my eye on a while – it’s just so cute! It comes in both a bikini and maillot version and runs from size 18m – 10Y (I received a free copy of this pattern for purposes of promoting it). I did find it a little tricky sewing that curved front – and you can see it has a habit of flipping down. The tutorial does include instructions on how to avoid this issue but it didn’t bug me enough to rip apart and try and fix. The instructions were easy to follow and do teach you to sew your swimsuit so that all seams are hidden inside the lining. I did have trouble getting the elastic to sit right around the butt though, and ended up pulling out my Boo Swimmers pattern to use their instructions for the elastic insertion instead.
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This one is trouble. LOL.
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Boo! Designs Swimmers (Rashie) and Leggings

I started out making just swim shorts for my son using the Boo! Designs Leggings pattern, because we do year round swim lessons and that’s all he wears for his lessons. However when I realized I had a lot of the fabric leftover, I decided to make a rash guard (Boo Swimmers) to go with it too. But my challenge then was, how should I color block this rashie without it looking weird?
I was flicking through the latest Boden catalog and noticed their rash guards had a strip of color running from the under-sleeve all the way down the side seam of the shirt. So inspiration struck! I reached out over Facebook to see how to do this, and then realized I probably had a pattern in my Ottobre collection. Bingo! I ended up looking at the Ottobre pattern and making adjustments to the Boo pattern based on that and feedback I received in the Boo! Designs Facebook Group.
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I was doubtful about having plain stripes on the front of my son’s shirt, so decided to try out using HTV on the front. He’s obsessed with turtles so I downloaded this turtle design from the Silhouette store and used my iron to attach it. I was really worried about whether it would stick to the swim fabric and whether it would hold up in the pool (jury is still out on #2!) but it had good reviews so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will be just fine. (I used HTV Matte (ThemoFlex) from Heat Transfer Source – they seemed to have the best pricing I could find).
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Patterns for Pirates Hello Sailor Swim Shorts & Jalie Crop Top 3247

For my swimsuit, I used the Patterns for Pirates Hello Sailor Swim Bottoms that I was able to get for free after attending DC Frocktails last month, and the Jalie Crop Top which I hacked with a flounce in the front (I’m a promoter for Jalie and already had the crop top in my collection, so figured I’d just try to modify it rather than buying yet another pattern!).

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I measured exactly into the size medium swim bottoms (huzzah! I am rarely ever one size!), and the fit is great for me! The pattern has various options – solid front/back, color blocked front/back, and a side ruching option.

The waistband isn’t supposed to have elastic in it, but I decided to err on the side of caution and add some to it (I used 3/4″ because that’s what I had in my stash).

I did catch one error with this pattern, and that is the back notches aren’t in the right place on the color blocked pieces – so you will want to relocate those notches so they match the solid pieces before you make this pattern.

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I really loved the strapping on the back of the crop top and just for fun, did a weaving pattern with them on the back. I knew I wanted a flounce in the front and it actually wasn’t hard to draft one. It is basically just donut with the strap line cut out ( Instructions for adding a flounce over here).

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Well, that’s it from me! I hope you’re inspired to sew some swimsuits this season, even though we’re in this period of uncertainty. Remember, this week only, get 15% OFF the swim collection at Raspberry Creek Fabrics with code: SWIMTOUR.

Published by auschick

I’m Natasha (Nat) and I’m an Australian girl who grew up in Hobart, Tasmania and moved to Northern Virginia, USA in 2005. When I was a kid, my grandmother taught me how to hand embroider, and later, between seventh grade home ec. lessons, my mother, and a lot of trial and error, I learned to machine sew too. I mostly sew children’s wear but I'm also trying to make more of an effort to sew for me!