New bathing suit: 5 Out of 4 Laura and Pegs Shorts

 

I made my last bathing suit in 2018 and it's starting to show a little wear. The colors have faded, the elastic is still ok, but looser, and some of the stitching has pulled out on the shorts hems. So time for a new suit. My last suit is really comfortable and really stable at the top, but the hem of the tankini top floats up and is really annoying.

I asked around on how to keep the top down. Some people just let it go, some do a band at the bottom and let it blouse, some have it tight all the way down, some suggested adding a tie to the bottoms. My sister's suit has a powernet lining and gripper elastic at the bottom. There's a looser layer over. 

So in the end, I decided to basically go with tighter. Then 5 Out of 4 had a sale on their Laura pattern and I just decided to try it. 

This is the lower V with the peplum and larger ruffles. I used the double hooks on the back. 

Both fabrics are from Spandex By Yard (see fabric haul here). The top is a polyester spandex and the bottom and top lining is a matte tricot nylon spandex. I really like both of these fabrics - they were a delight to work with. The colors are beautiful on the top, too. I used A LOT less fabric than I expected. That's sort of annoying but when you buy by the whole yard it happens. 

The top is lined with a mesh and the tricot all the way around. For elastics, I used 1/4" rubber elastic from Sew Sassy. I also used swim bra cups from Sew Sassy. I considered leaving them out but they actually seemed to help keep things arranged. 

So, how did it test? It did stay put, but I do want to add something at the front to help because it's super bare. The peplum pretty much stayed down, or when it lifted, it wasn't annoying. 

Legging shorts made into swim shorts 

The shorts are Patterns for Pirates Peg Legs cut to the bike shorts length. I added a brief connected at the waistband. 

I made my standard underwear pattern: Primrose Dawn Hellebore and in view a/b that calls for 3/8" elastic. I extended the rise 1", made them up, and then tried them on with the shorts bottoms and pinned around. I then basted them to the shorts and trimmed off the excess (which turned out to be about an inch all the way around!).  I then surged on the waistband to both layers. The briefs are made of a thin stretchy swim lining with 3/8" clear elastic put in 1:1 around the leg openings. I omitted the gusset.   

I also added 3/8" clear elastic 1:1 to the waistband to keep it from rolling. 

This is the third swim bottom I've made and it's by far the best. 

The first, I lined the whole thing. The lining forever tried to roll out the bottom of the leg. They also took a lot longer to dry. The fabric was expensive but cheesy swim from JoAnn. 

The second, I used the bunzies pattern inside Pegs, but with bands. Super comfortable, but you get "visible panty line" which is normally not something I care about, but it's a bit odd in a swimsuit.

I considered using the Greenstyle no-show, but instead just went with the hellebore. It looks pretty seamless to me. 

Since I have a bunch of each fabric left (more than a yard of each), I'm considering making a second top to switch back and forth. Still, I'm really excited about how this turned out.