Swimwear!

I spend a lot of time during the summer at the pool, and I like to vary which suits I wear each day.  I also wear rash guards so that adds more variety to my swim wardrobe.  The 3 suits I wear the most are my 2 versions of Jalie 3023, in blue (blogged here) and red polka dots (blogged here).  I also wear this one, which is a Jalie 3023 skirted bottom and a Jalie 2563 sport bra top.  

Link

Link

Link

Link

I love tankinis and wanted to make a new one in a different style.  I wound up copying a RTW suit I had that fit well, but whose elastic was showing its age and whose straps were stretching out.  For the top front, I copied the RTW suit, and for the back I used Jalie 3023 raising up the back to eliminate the back band.  I cut the straps extra-long so that I could decide later if I wanted them to cross in the back or not. 

The bikini bottoms I copied directly from my RTW suit, and once I tried it on, it was a little blousy on the back (I’ve never had that problem before!) and I removed some of the length between the legs by taking an extra large seam at the crotch.  There is still a little bit of extra fabric but it is acceptable as is. (Sorry: no photos of the bottoms). The fabric was a printed spandex from SpandexWorld.com that I bought quite a while ago and had been saving for something special.

As I said before, I wear rash guards at the pool since I don’t want to tan/age prematurely.  My current collection of rash guards, most of which were purchased from Land’s End, are starting to wear out.  The fabric in several spots have worn thin and they need to be replaced.  I have made one rash guard for myself using Jalie 2566, (blogged here).  Searching on Pinterest for some rash guard inspiration, I noticed that most of the ones I liked had raglan sleeves.  I owned Jalie 3245, the raglan tee and tank pattern but had only made the tank.  I traced off a size V (2 sizes smaller than I would normally) and raised the neckline up to be much higher for a rash guard.  For the sleeve and back, I used the size FF neckline.  The front needed to be raised up even higher than the FF level.   I did a quick muslin and was happy with the fit.  Instead of doing Jalie’s method for the neck binding (which is quite clever) I cut a 2” wide band and folded it in half lengthwise, for a Renfrew-style neck binding.  I also made the sleeves full length. 

The fabric is a very pretty navy background with dark turquoise rose and leaves.  I purchased it from Hancock Fabrics before they closed their doors for good (sniff sniff).  I absolutely love how it turned out!

(the sleeves are all twisted because I was already wet when it put this on!)