I knew I wanted to sew my first real swimsuit this year. Last summer I sewed some self drafted items out of black lycra I bought off eBay for cheap and made them modelled on tops and underwear I owned, using not elastic but relying solely on the tension of the fabric. They turned out okay, but a bit of a hot mess. So this was the year when I would make proper swimwear.
The patterns:
Reno, Colette and The Vernazza Two Piece, Friday Pattern Company
I perused around for a pattern I’d like, thinking about bikinis and one pieces (I love Named Clothing’s Soma) and instantly loved the shape of Reno by Colette when I saw it. I bought the pattern thinking it included the bottoms because the photos showed the bottoms in them too (evidently Cora, what else is the model going to wear…) but I didn't think about this at the time, and because it didn't explicitly say ‘does not include bottoms’, my assumption went unchallenged. I also didn't realise because the price was similar to other two pieces around. Although it did cross my mind that that was cheap for Colette, I thought the price reflected the fact it had two pieces. Also, my first time buying a swimsuit pattern, I just didn't think they would be sold separately as I think of them so clearly as a pair!
In fact, I didn't realise my mistake until after I had stuck the pdf together, thought my printer hadn’t finished printing, went to look at the pdf, was completely stumped why there was no illustration of the bottom and then went online and saw ‘Dakota’ as a separate entry… Even the front cover of the instructions has a full page image of the shorts which further reinforced my assumption! I must have kept skipping over the words; 'Reno, the retro swim top’. I kicked myself when I realised and therefore needed to either buy Dakota or search around for other bottoms.
I wanted something high waisted. Before I chose Reno, I had been umming and ahhing between Reno or the Vernazza Two Piece. This pattern DID include two pieces (I could be sure about that). It was also a similar price to Dakota alone, so I decided to buy Vernazza, use the bottoms and get a bonus top that I liked anyway.
Fabric
My plan was to make two swimsuits; Reno with Vernazza bottoms -a Reno Two Piece- as well as the legit Vernazza Two Piece. The next problem was looking for fabric and I took my time about this, not only because it was really hard to find fabric from UK retailers but also because I wanted to make sure I was getting the colour and fabric quality right. I loved the shades used in the Reno photoshoot; deep burgundy, a dark forest green and a dull silver.
Fabric hunting boiled down to one shop, Funki Fabrics, a UK online retailer who sell specialist sports/dancewear. They had a range of colours, I decided I wanted to buy two colours and order a metre of each; one for each swimsuit. I went for the shiny Nylon Lycra (instead of the matte) and ordered 5 samples before buying, yay for free samples. I’m glad I did, as two I ordered were automatic discounts, nothing like the colour online. The forest green unfortunately was too bright; nice, but not deep enough. Eventually I chose the Burgundy with the pinker hue and a silver (Grenato and Slate Grey).
I ordered 1 metre of black lining; a thinner, stretchier lycra with a shiny, right side and a dull, wrong side. The price wasn't bad because of the small amount of fabric you need for bikinis, it was £12 pm and £9.60 pm for the lining. It’s four-way stretch and UV protected; fabulous.
When it arrived I realised that it was in fact a lot of fabric so I spent a long time trying to see if I could fit Vernazza and Reno into 1 metre of fabric. After a few hours- I could! This meant I could in effect have four swimsuits; Vernazza Two Piece and a Reno Two Piece in both colours! (Obviously, because my bottoms pattern is the same I would only need to make two bottoms; one in Burgundy and one in silver, thus making six separate pieces in total). I took a photo of my tetras pattern-placing so that I could replicate it on the second colour and set to work; cutting it all out to take with me for my annual three weeks in France with my family (and pool).
The idea was to get started before I left but I was working up until the day before I went on holiday and forgot to buy the coloured thread I needed in time. In France I managed to sew just over half of what I cut out; the silver Vernazza Two Piece and the burgundy Reno Two Piece. It’s funny, I have associated the swimsuit’s respective colours with them so much now that they have become part of their ‘character’ in my mind and I can’t imagine a silver Reno or a Burgundy Vernazza!
The process:
Reno / Size XS
Pattern
I didn't make any fit adjustments to the Reno. The pattern had good instructions, but bad images. The drawn pictures are so pixelated and lack the level of detail that would really help make it a smoother process. I was really surprised at the image quality and thought they hadn’t properly loaded on my screen, I expected better from a brand with such prestige. I made some mistakes along the way; sewing the under-bust piece so that it was twisted in the middle and I redid parts of my zigzag topstitching that went awry, but generally the process was straightforward.
They did not specify what stitch to use for the boning channel, which was confusing. Although I know the rule is zig zag for stretch fabrics, I had never sewn a boning channel before and I don’t know if it’s sewn to allow widthways stretch or not. I looked at the online model photos and it very much looked like a straight stitch, so I followed suit. When I remembered about Helen's Closet’s sew along I checked her process and she had zig zagged, so I redid mine. It would be nice to have a bit more information with the pattern; if there is a deviation of the standard stitch, state it and explain why or reiterate which stitch to use for skills that may be new to sewers.
Vernazza Two Piece / Size XS
Fit adjustments
Because I wanted the high-waisted style I added quite a lot of height onto my Vernazza bottoms, and I think I could even have added a bit more by making the waistband thicker, it’s a bit thin for my liking. I added 5cm of length to the pants itself which made for tricky ‘curve-matching’ at the sides.
Pattern
I love the way that Friday Pattern Company write their patterns; they are fun and enjoyable to follow and even to cut out the PDF, with their little images and motivational quotes!
The pattern mentions using an optional lining and therefore having 4 main pattern pieces (plus waistband) but it does not tell you anywhere when to insert the lining into the outside pants! Although this isn't difficult to do, without having made the pattern before, it would be nice to be told when incase my decision creates any problems later on. As it was, I inserted the lining after I had sewn together the side and crotch seam of both the lining pieces and outer pants. I put the lining piece inside the outer piece wrong sides together, stay stitched around the leg holes and waistband opening and then continued with the instructions.
Top
I think the top is marginally too small for me and I will think about grading between the smallest size and the size up next time.
I had some problems because I decided to amend my size after it was cut out and didn’t think through what I was doing. Once I had sewn the side and shoulder seams together I tried it on and the shoulder straps were much too long for me. The parts covering the breasts were way too low. I shortened each shoulder by 2 inches and this seemed about right for where the ‘cups’ needed to be. This meant I also had to shorten the amount of elastic I was putting into the arm holes and the neckline; 2 inches on the arms and 4 inches on the neckline. No problem...
However, because I had pre cut my pattern pieces out of my lycra I just chopped off two inches from the top of the shoulder strap instead of reducing the space in the middle. The shoulder strap gets thicker lower down and this meant that I had chopped off the straighter, thinner bit and placed the thicker part around my shoulders.
Once I had gone as far as sewing in all my elastic and trying on again, I realised that this extra width to my shoulder strap made it tighter on my body as well as creating a little fold in the fabric as it sat around my shoulder. Not only this, I forgot the elastic would make the armhole fit more tightly and so the armhole was now really tight around my armpit. I couldn’t make the shoulder straps longer again, so I decided to help things by making the curve of the armysyce deeper but also make the strap thinner by shaving off some fabric on the armhole side. I took out my elastic, unpicking all my nice topstitching too *sob* and cut some longer elastic, repositioned it, sewed it on then cut away the new excess created. This has helped, but it does not fit like a dream. It’s particularly annoying that I already have my Burgundy top cut out already so I can’t do much to alter it differently.
I didn’t insert elastic into the ‘waistband’ of the top, as they call it, because it was tight enough as it was, so I just topstitched around.
Bottoms
I made the smallest size and they are tight fitting, especially around the leg holes. After sewing the correct length of elastic in the leg holes, they were just too tight and I needed to adjust.
The elastic’s circumference is smaller than the leg hole circumference, and the leg holes were slightly tight on my thighs anyway on their own. I knew therefore that if I cut some elastic to be the same circumference as the leg holes it would still stretch around me and wouldn’t look limp or saggy. This is what I did, and therefore didn’t need to stretch the elastic when I resewed it to the leg hole. The result was better but still very tight.
The tightness I think is so prominent because of where the leg holes fall on my legs; the RTW bikini bottoms I have are a less ‘hipster’ cut, more like regular pants, whereas these leg holes stop lower down and therefore sit on your thighs rather than bypass that area entirely. That means that if you have even the smallest amount of fat on your thighs it looks like it is cutting into them…
I chose to insert the elastic into the waistband as suggested to limit stretching through wear so I topstitched this elastic in place at the very top of my waistband, through all layers of fabric once the elastic was inside. They don’t tell you to do this, but otherwise the elastic would migrate around inside.
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The second pair of vernazza shorts I made (silver) went smoothly until I tried them on at the end! All beautiful and glossy they were, and then something strange happened with the crotch. Somehow the crotch turned out 2cm wider than my first pair, maybe this is because I redid the leg holes on that pair which ended up making it smaller. The leg holes are also a slightly different shape too, the second pair are squatter. When I tried them on they created weird folds under the crotch which did not look great…
I was so frustrated; I had finally sewed a pair with no hiccups and the end result flops… arrghhh! I did a similar thing to what I did with my top’s armholes; took the elastic out and repositioned it so that it cut in further to the fabric, making the width of the crotch smaller. This has helped a bit, but I don’t feel entirely happy with the result. You can’t really see this in the photos because it looked so awful I positioned myself so it wasn’t visible.
Reflections
My favourite of the two bikinis is the Reno 'two piece'; the top is very different to anything I’ve worn before, which I like, and it's so comfortable to wear. There are no thin, sharp straps digging into my back leaving horrible indentations; the straps are thick and soft on the skin. The boning doesn't dig into me either, but I am worried it will pierce through the thin lining as it slightly curves inwards and is always jabbing through (not when I’m wearing it though, when the swimsuit is worn it keeps the boning straight). I also didn’t have any fit issues with it so therefore enjoyed the process more and am not disappointed with the outcome. I was worried the cups wouldn’t fit me as I’ve never sewn a bra from a pattern before, (and the fit is impossible to check before it's all sewn together) but they are fine. I think there’s maybe a little bit too much space but it’s not very noticeable.
I like the Vernazza too (have never had a top like this before either) but it is tighter than I would like and I think I'll alter this next time. Its tighter fit means I will probably reach for it less. It also has a thicker back ‘panel’ which means I will tan less on my back and I do like to have a swimsuit with good back tanning potential. What’s great about the ties with Reno is you can undo the back!
Patterns: Reno and Vernazza Two Piece
Supplies: Used 2m of fabric for 2 Renos & 2 Vernazzas plus 1m of lining
Shiny Nylon Lycra in Grenato and Slate Grey by Funki Fabrics
Boning and 1cm wide swimwear elastic (I bought mine from fabric land, buy extra incase you need to redo bits as it breaks easily while unpicking).