sew like my mom Archives - Merritts Makes

Whew! What a year it’s been. Last year’s 2020 Suit Up for Summer blog tour was the last collaboration posted on my blog. Fortunately, the 2021 tour was the perfect opportunity to jump back into it.

This year I tried to keep things simple by sewing up two suits: one for myself and one for my son. They didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned but, all worked out ok in the end. Let’s get to it.

SUIT #1: A FLUTTER SLEEVE SEABRIGHT SWIMMER

FABRIC AND INSPIRATION

Fabric – Multi Stripe Swim, Inspiration

I can never say no to a good stripe and this pastel stripe swim knit immediately caught my attention. After selecting my fabric, a Pinterest and Google deep dive led me to find this Boden Limnos Wrap Swimsuit. I was drawn to the simple, romantic lines and the sun coverage on the shoulders.

CREATING THE SUIT

The Friday Pattern Company Seabright Swimmer seemed like a perfect starting point for my suit. I made a few small alterations to the pattern to get a look closer to the inspiration photo. The first simple one was overlapping the front wrap pieces by an extra two inches instead of meeting at the center front. Second, I added sewn in foam cups. Finally, I changed the sleeve to a small flutter. Below you’ll find a quick tutorial on how I created the flutter sleeve from the existing pattern piece.

SIZING

Based on my measurements, I chose to sew a Medium at the bust (I was between a Small and Medium) and grade to a Large at the waist and hips. I had no issues with the sizing and think the final suit fits quite well.

FLUTTER SLEEVE TUTORIAL

First, Grab your sleeve pattern piece. Cut it to your desired length. I cut mine about 3.25″ below the bottom of the armhole.
Then, start at the center and draw vertical lines every 1″.

Cut each line from the bottom. Just up to, but not through the top of the sleeve.
Place your cut sleeve piece on top of more paper and spread them each cut line apart evenly. Tape in place. I spread mine apart by 1″ at each cut line. If I had to do it again, I’d add a little more fullness and spread by 1.5″ at each cut line.

Redraw the bottom of your sleeve pattern piece.

Cut out your new pattern piece.

That’s it. Cut two mirrored pieces out of your fabric and follow pattern instructions for attaching the sleeve. You can hem the sleeves if desired. I left mine un-hemmed.

SEWING

This suit took about four times as long as it should have. First, I decided that I didn’t want the hassle of trying to match the stripes along the back so I removed seam allowances and combined the back bodice and back bottom pieces into one. It looks nice, but required me to change up the construction. This required too much thinking for someone who’s out of practice improvising and I spent a lot of time seam ripping my mistakes until I figured out a workable solution. In the end, the suit is fully lined but the side seams are just exposed serged seams on the inside. Not my most professional finish but, since nobody else will see them, I’m not bothered.

Overall, I didn’t mind sewing the pattern. It was a good pattern and the issues were all of my own doing. Trying not to destroy swim lining and swim knit when ripping seams for the second, third, and fourth times was a challenge and I may have uttered several choice words as I was doing it.

THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUIT

Despite saying this every time I make a swimsuit, this one might be my favorite. With a decent amount of sun coverage (hello, fully covered back and shoulders) and just a hint of skin with the low neckline, it feels sexy and practical all at once. If I made this suit again, my only changes would be adding some extra volume to the flutter sleeves and extending the shoulder seams out towards my arms by about 1/2″.

Now, for a quick tangent about these images because I love how they turned out. We don’t have a pretty place with decent lighting in our house for photos, our yard is muddy and dull this time of year, and I don’t really want to take photos in a public place in my swimsuit when its 40 degrees outside. So, each year we’ve made due by hanging a curtain in the garage and using it as a backdrop for swimsuit photos.

Maybe I just watched too much of it (made it through the full season twice) but the coloring of this stripe reminded me of Bridgerton. So, inspired by Bridgerton, I wanted to create images that felt simultaneously soft and bold. I purchased 2.5 yards of this floral ponte (now retired, sorry) also from Raspberry Creek to use as a backdrop.

Remember how I kept making mistakes and this suit took significantly longer to make? Well, we were originally supposed to photograph this suit last Thursday which was a beautiful, sunny day with highs in the 60’s. Instead, by the time the suit was finished, the only time we had to take photographs was on a cloudy, rainy Saturday morning with highs in the 40’s. The cloudy day made my garage too dark for photos so, our only option was outside. My husband had a good laugh as I was outside wearing my large snow boots setting up the backdrop. Then, he was a great sport as we spent about 15 minutes in the rain snapping these shots. By the time we took the ones where I’m sitting down, both my suit and the fabric were soaked through. What do you think? Were the images worth it?

SUIT #2: SEW LIKE MY MOM PALM EURO SUIT

I’ve been sewing this pattern for my son since the pattern’s release in 2018. He’s owned maybe a dozen of them through the years and loves the comfort of the fully lined and fully enclosed seams. I sewed up a straight size 7 and the fit is spot on. A pair can be sewn up in about an hour and uses surprisingly little fabric. This suit used less than half a yard (although I still needed 1/2″ for the length of the legs). He chose the rainbow floral swim knit from Raspberry Creek for this pair of jammers and I love how they turned out! He was so pleased with the suit that, after these photos, he wore it under his clothes for the rest of the day.

Due to the cold, we didn’t get many photos of him in his suit as he didn’t want to be out in the rain long and I wasn’t about to force him to do so. We snapped what we could get in less than 5 minutes.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this stop on the Suit Up for Summer 2021 blog tour. Be sure to check out all the other talented creatives this week as they share their suits. You don’t want to miss them!

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