I’m feeling veeeeery brave, putting a picture of myself up here, in my bathers! Last year I was way too shy to do this. Please note I’ve modestly veiled my face, so no one can recognise me… (lol)
So I’ve made this year’s bathers for myself, the first project from the fabrics I bought in Melbourne from the Fabric store, on Brunswick Street. If you can you read the printing in the selvedge of the fabric, below, you can see it reads “Zimmerman”. Well, this is quite a classy Australian swimwear brand and I was pretty chuffed to see end-of-roll bolts of their fabrics stacked up at the back of The Fabric Store. I haven’t seen the Zimmerman range for this season yet, but I am curious to see what they’ve made out of this very fabric! I made a tankini, altering the one swimwear pattern I have to do this. I just drafted the body skirt part and added it on to the bottom of the bikini top at front, and redrafted the back piece accordingly. I had initially cut these body pieces quite long because they are self-drafted and I always allow myself plenty of extra fabric in case of problems; and at first I was planning for the ivory waistband of the bottoms to be on view when I was wearing them. But then decided I like the look of the top long and pulled down over the bottoms; so this feature is now hidden. I cut up an old bra to use for cups inside the bodice.
I didn’t set out to make the bathers “retro” in appearance (a word I’m getting a bit bored with in the sewing world, but not as bad as “vintage”) but they have turned out quite… old-fashioned. There. “Old-fashioned” is a less overused and therefore much more preferable term. I’m going with old-fashioned…
And, just because everybody loves a photo blooper I’ve included one below for your amusement, taken accidentally while I was setting up.
Details:
Bathers; McCalls 2772, with some modifications, navy blue with ivory polka-dot swimwear fabric
Hat; Country Road
