Better than designer...

In keeping with Sherry's Fix-it-Friday series, I am going to show you a recent fix of mine.  No, no, today isn't Friday...the week didn't go that fast...I did fix these on Friday but my blogging is a little sporadic.

My sisters and I share a love of swimwear fashion.  Growing up in Queensland, we went through our swimmers pretty quickly, so there were always new ones to be made (thanks Mum!).  When I moved to Melbourne in my twenties I was surprised by the lack of fashionable swimwear on the beaches at even the height of summer...I guess Melbournians rarely wore their swimmers, so they lasted...meanwhile, I was severely lacking in the winter wear department.  Anyway, the October / November fashion mags are always my favourite because they contain all the new swimwear for the season.  When we were reading them this year, one of my sisters noted that I particularly liked the Anna & Boy designs, so when she saw some of their swimmers reduced by 85% she bought me a pair for my birthday.  Only they didn't stay up.  I'm guessing that they didn't stay up on anybody, which is why they were so drastically reduced.

The design is a one piece; basically strapless; empire line; with the upper front gathered at a centre front keyhole opening.  I could have take them in at the centre front to tighten the fit across the bust, but because the top edge was folding over to the outside, I thought there was another problem.

So I got out my gathered bandeau bikini pattern to compare the shape.  The gathered bandeau is only gathered at the CF, not at the sides.  If you compare my pattern to the swimmers in the photo below, you can see that it looks as though the designer has added extra length evenly across the front piece, which would have worked if the front was gathered onto the side.  My bandeau pattern was made by slashing-and-spreading  from the centre front to the side, which accounts for the shaping from back to front and the curved edge at the CF.

So I unpicked the casing and the elastic across the upper edge and re-cut the upper section.  I stitched the casing back up, reapplied the elastic, and now they stay up.  Well, perhaps not for surfing, but enough for me to dive down to the bottom of my pool and pick up all the leaves.