Hi!
Welcome back to my channel, and to a brand new episode of “Get Thready With Me!”
If you haven’t watched the other videos in this series, Get Thready With Me is basically
a sew-a-long video, where I take you along with me as I try to sew something new or make
something that I’ve never done before!
So today, I’m going to be trying to make a swimsuit, using a COMMERCIAL pattern!
If you are at all familiar with this channel, you’ll know that I’m a little bit scared
of using commercial patterns.
But, in my sewing journey, I thought that it was time for me to finally bite the bullet
and try and use some patterns, particularly EASY, modern patterns.
So I tried this pattern out the other day and I made a bralette, and because it was
really cute and actually pretty easy to do, I thought I’d try and make another one,
but this time I would turn it into a swimsuit.
So, without further ado, let’s begin!
So that pattern I’m using is the Jasmine Bralette by Lingerie maker Ohhhlulu.
It’s not OH Lulu.
It’s OhhhLulu.
With three h’s.
The pattern I’m using is made for lingerie rather than swimwear, but it can be used to
make swim tops too if you’ve got the right materials on hand.
The fabric that I’m using is this dinosaur-print NYLON SPANDEX which is nice and stretchy.
AND it’s appropriate for use in water.
However, the fabric will still go slightly see-through when it gets wet, so I’m also
going to need some LINING.
For my lining, I am also using this scrap piece of plain, white nylon spandex that I
just had lying around, that has the same stretch to it as the outer fabric.
The next step is to download and print out the pattern.
Make sure you are printing out on US letter size, and you've ticked this box "Actual Size".
When it's printed out it has this little box that should be 1 inch across, so measure that
to make sure it's right.
Next, I needed to decide on my size, which I figured was around a size small, which I
obtained by measuring my bust.
All the different sizes correspond to different cutting lines.
So, to get a size small, I cut around this line here.
Then I taped the pattern pieces that needed taping together, and this is the full swimsuit
pattern, with the centre front, side front and the back pieces.
And just a tip before you move on: make sure that your bra clasp is only about an inch
narrower than the end of the back band.
If it's more than one inch narrower, you’re going to get to the end and your bra clasp
won’t fit on the end of the fabric, so at this stage you will need to taper off the
end of the band so that it's only an inch wider than your bra clasp.
Next, we’ll move on to cutting out the fabrics.
Now everyone has their own method for cutting out fabric but the one that works best for
me is to place my pattern down on top of my fabric, and then I put some heavy items on
top of the piece of paper, to stop the paper and fabrics from moving, and then I cut around
the shape using my rotary cutter and my cutting mat.
Of course, you can always stick some pins in it and use a pair of fabric scissors, or
whatever else works for you!
I'm also going to need two mirrored pieces of fabric from each of the pattern pieces.
And so I do that by folding the fabric over like this, and then each time I'm cutting
out my pattern piece I'm cutting out two pieces which are mirror images of each other.
So in the end this was the fabric that I ended up cutting out:
From the dinosaur fabric I have 2 mirrored centre front pieces, 2 mirrored side-front
pieces and 2 mirrored back pieces.
From the lining fabric I have 2 mirrored centre front pieces and 2 mirrored side-front pieces.
Now it’s time to do some sewing.
Starting with just one of each of the centre front pieces – we’ll start with the left
side, but it doesn't matter – I placed them wrong-sides together like this, so the nice
dinosaur-fabric is facing outwards – and then I used a basting stitch all the way around
the edges.
A basting stitch is basically a LONNNG straight stitch which is used to temporarily
hold together fabrics.
With that done, I collected up my remaining centre front pieces.
I placed the right centre front piece right-sides together on top of the left piece, dinosaurs
touching, and I pinned the three layers of fabric together here.
Then, I flipped this over, and I did the same thing with the lining – placing it right-sides
together on top of the other lining piece, and then I pinned the now FOUR layers of fabric
together here.
Then, I sewed down here using a normal-length straight stitch.
P.s.
Nylon spandex and lycra and linings are all really slippery fabrics and they're REALLY
annoying to sew, so don’t get mad at yourself if you have to sew reaaally slowly.
And sewing pins will be your best friend here, so make sure to use them.
Once all the 4 centre front layers were sewn together, I “graded” the seam, which basically
means that I cut away all the excess fabric as close as I could to the stitches as I could,
to reduce the bulk of fabric at the seam.
Then, unfolding the centre front pieces… this is what we’ve got so far!
Next I’m going to add the side front pieces.
And again, it doesn’t matter what side you start with.
So with this side-front dinosaur fabric piece, I’m going to place it right-sides together
on top of the right centre-front, and then I pin it on here.
As you’ll notice, the two curves don’t match up exactly, so using a lot of pins here
is key.
And pinning together slippery fabrics with curves that don’t exactly match is… not
a lot of fun.
"Uhhhhuh.
You're so difficult."
Once that’s pinned together, I flipped it around ANNND now I get to do all of that again,
yay! - with the lining piece!
I placed the right, side-front lining right-sides together on top of the centre-front lining,
and again, I pinned along here.
Next, I sewed through the 4 layers that are sandwiched together using a straight stitch,
like this.
And again, I’m going to grade the seam, and this time I also included some notches,
which is basically when you make little snips along the seam like this.
Notches basically just allow more flexibility into curved seams.
Then I unfolded all of this, and it is kinda starting to look like a swimsuit!
The next step was to repeat the addition of the side-front pieces, just on the other side
this time.
Now the front part of the swimsuit is complete!
You can remove the basting stitches at this point by simply snipping them and then pulling
them out – for some reason I only decided to do this on the top at this point, but you
can remove the basting stitches at any point – if they’re not first sewn up into the
seam allowance.
Now it was time to add the back band, which is these pieces!
So adding these parts was easy.
I simply placed the left side of the band down onto the left side of the swimsuit, right-sides
touching, pinned it on at this edge, and then I repeated this on the other side, and then
I sewed the two pieces on like this.
I cut away the excess fabric at the seam, and then I finished off THESE raw edges with
my serger.
If you don’t have a serger, also known as an overlocker, you can finish off the raw
edges using a zig-zag stitch right on the edges, or you can use some pinking shears,
OR you can leave the edges raw because it doesn’t really matter as this seam is going
to be hidden on the inside of the garment and it also won’t fray.
Anyway, this is what serging the edges looks like.
With all of the fabric pieces now sewn together, it’s time to add the elastic finishing!
The elastic is going to be added to both the top and the bottom edges of the swimsuit.
So I was debating over using two different methods to add the elastic, and I couldn’t
decide which one I would prefer – so I’m going to do both!
In the first method of attaching the elastic, I used
an elastic that was about ½ an inch wide and I applied
the elastic to the front side of the swimsuit first.
I sewed the elastic on right at the edge of the fabric, using a zig zag stitch, and while sewing it
on I also pulled on the elastic so that the elastic was stretched more than the fabric.
Because I wanted to make sure this swimsuit would stay in place while I was swimming laps,
I’m pulling the elastic a little bit tighter than I would if this was going to be a bralette.
Also, a tip for sewing on elastic with annoyingly-slipperly fabric – pull the elastic to the side,
away from the edge as you sew. This will stop the elastic from running off the bottom edge
of the swimsuit top, as it did here.
Also, don’t you hate that feeling when you’ve sewn something together really well
– only to realise that the bobbin ran out half way through?
HASHTAG-relatable. Am I right?
ANYWAY with the elastic applied to the right-side of the bottom of the swimsuit, what I need
need to do next is to hide it out of the way. This is achieved by folding the elastic over
towards the back of the swimsuit like this, and then sewing over the top. This technique is
also called top-stitching.
I did this using a zig-zag stitch in a thread that matched the colour of
the dinosaur fabric because these stitches are going to be visible from the outside.
OKAY! The SECOND method of attaching the elastic is to first apply the elastic to the inside of the swimsuit.
I also decided to use a slightly thinner elastic here – this elastic is about 3/8ths of an inch wide.
I used a slightly thinner elastic because I thought it would make it easier
to contour the elastic around the top of the swimsuit.
So first, I zig zag stitched the elastic onto the lining-side of the swimsuit. This is probably the trickiest
part of the swimsuit, so go slowly and take your time here.
Then, I flipped the elastic over, and I sewed it in place along the top,
on the right-side of the swimsuit,
again top-stitching using a zig zag stitch and a thread that matched the fabric.
So, now I've got elastic sewn to both the top and the bottom.
And I think that for swimwear, I like the second method better for adding elastic, just because it
looks a little bit cleaner. But either method will work
and is technically correct, so use whichever one makes the most sense to you!
Next, I tried on the swimsuit to make sure that it fit, and also to see if
I needed to make the back band shorter.
But, it looks like it’s going to fit pretty perfectly,
so I didn’t need to make the band any shorter than it was.
To add my bra clasp – which, by the way, I liberated from an old bra that no longer fit
– I lined one
end of the back band up with the eyelet side of the bra closure,
and the other end with the hook side.
I slid each of the band's ends into their respective bra
closures and then I sewed them on like this.
And a tip here for sewing on your bra closures – use a zipper foot OR set your needle way
over to one side, so that you don’t accidentally sew through the metal or the plastic of the
hooks and the eyes. Because that will destroy your needle.
The last part is adding straps! I am actually going to cheat a bit here and use recycled
straps, that I cut off that old bra – but if you don’t know how to make bra straps
on your own then it is included in the instructions that come with the pattern.
First, I had to add a loop of elastic to each of the rings down here so that I could sew
the straps on to the bra.
Then, I attached the front end of each of the straps to the bra at that point where
the centre front piece and the side front met, just underneath the seam there.
I attached the straps on the inside of the bra, on top of the elastic, by sewing two
lines of narrow zig zags over the straps like this.
Adding the back ends of the straps is much the same. I attached them to the inside of
the swimsuit, each 2 inches away from the back closure, again with two narrow lines
of zig zags going over the top of the elastic like this.
AND that is my swimsuit top done, so the next step is to go and try it on, and to test it
out at the pool!
(music plays)
So I was also really excited about the swimsuit because I also have this matching hat and
backpack made out of the same material, and because I’m a massive dork, this made me
incredibly happy.
And here’s the bralette that I made using the exact same method – just replace the
nylon spandex with stretchy cotton jersey fabric, and use slightly less tension when
applying the band elastic to the top and the bottom, and you’ve got yourself a cute bralette.
So that brings us to the end of the video – BUT WAIT, don’t go anywhere just yet
BECAUSE OhhhLulu was kind enough to donate THREE copies of the pattern to give away to
my viewers! If you’d like to win one a free Jasmine bralette pattern, then you have to
be subscribed to me on Youtube, and you have to leave comment below, any comment, just
letting me know that you want to win the pattern, and in a week’s time I will pick three winners
to receive a copy of this pattern. I’ll try and contact the winners via google
plus but because that NEVER works, I will also be announcing the winners via my social
media channels, so follow at least one of them if you want to be notified if you have
won. Yeah.
Thank you all SO much for watching, and thank you all so much for the really lovely and
funny comments you guys left on my previous video – me and Luci had such a fun time
reading all the comments where people were comparing him to other people that he apparently
looks like. My favourites were “Garfield’s owner” and “if Harry Styles, Elvis, Johnny
Depp, Flynn Rider and Jeffree Star all had a baby together.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video and I’ll see you all next time. Bye!
Thank you to EVERYBODY who signed up to become a Patreon supporter over the last couple of
weeks. You're such an important part of this community, and I couldn't do what I do without
you! If you want to sign up to become a Patreon supporter, go to patreon.com/annikavictoria.