Children's swimmers

 Summer sewing always means a lot of swimmers around here.  We are in and out of the pool several times a day, just trying to survive the heat.

The first pair is for little miss.  I used Jalie 2792, a leotard pattern, for the body, then added my own straps. 

The straps are rather cute and easy to make.  I folded a length of lycra in half and stitched a line 1 cm from the folded edge to form a casing.  I threaded rubber elastic through the casing.  The elastic was about half the length of the lycra strip, so it makes a pretty ruffle.

The fit of this pattern looks the same as on the pattern envelope.  There is quite a bit of negative ease, so it is a very snug fit.  She is very happy with the fit, and says that the elastic is not too tight.  I think if I were to make a ballet leotard out of cotton lycra I might go up a size or two.

I only lined the front.  Next time I will modify the front of the pattern to shape it more like the bikini top below.

She still loves to dress in the same clothes as me, so I made her a bikini very similar to mine.  The top was made using Kwiksew 3165.  The kwiksew instructions are very good and showed me a new way to apply the straps / elastic.  The bikini bottoms with this pattern have never fit her particularly well, so I drafted my own using Stuart's children's swimwear block.  The bottoms are reversible. 

She has plenty of swim shirts, so then it was onto the boys.  Again, I made the pattern for the boys' briefs.  For my older son, I cut the shirt off a perished RTW shirt.  The shirt for my younger son was made using Kwiksew 2888, which must be out of print, because I cannot find it for you in the catalogue.  I went up 2 sizes because the pattern is for a close fitting raglan sleeved top and bike pants (actually, I was too lazy to trace off the pattern.  Tracing is one of my least favourite sewing activities.  My children have nearly all grown out of this pattern so I just cut it in the largest size).
 

I bought the fabric from Glitter and Dance.  I think it was called "aqualife" and is supposed to be chlorine resistant, so I am hoping it lasts better than most swimwear.

Now, back to the swimming pool.