Adam went swimming yesterday in his very first bathing suit! I know I know, he started Guardian Swim "lessons" three weeks ago with cousin Gracie but we only had him in a swim diaper each of those times. Yes, yes, a friend has already pointed out that most other babies do have a bathing suit over their swim diaper (guilt trip) but I just hadn't seen the need for the half-hour classes.
Anyway after laughing about it with my friend I decided maybe it would be fun to sew one for him....like a retro 40's one-piece type (you know, the kind that looks like an Olympic wrestler's uniform).
I searched several fabric stores for polyester/lycra that would be suitable for Adam's new swimsuit and was quite surprised and disappointed with the slim selection. I thought it would be straightforward to find a black-and-white or blue-and-white striped bolt but instead found myself debating which of the choices before me could possibly be considered not girly.
I guess it hadn't dawned on me that swimsuits for guys are commonly swim trunks and not spandex, unless of course they are speedos. So naturally most of the fabrics out there appropriate for swimsuits are geared towards women and girls...but seriously, not all of us want be adorned with flowers, unicorns, and butterflies. After looking at multiple stores I ultimately settled on a blue poly that still has roses and hearts on it but was the only one I could picture a little boy in. It was between that, a bubble-gum pink floral melange, or tiger stripes. Geeze. I also picked up some cobalt blue poly trim for accents.
Sewing the swimsuit was easier than I had anticipated. My few experiences sewing with stretchy fabrics in the past haven't been wildly successful. This time though the poly held it's shape pretty well for the seams but did get a bit stretched out when I added the blue trim accents. I think the extra layers of fabric in the trim made it harder to feed the fabric evenly under the sewing foot. You can see what I mean in the photos where the side seams are nice and flat (not bubbly) but the arm holes and neckline look overstretched.
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| Racer-back style |
As I've mentioned before I don't have a serger but luckily poly doesn't fray. Still, I wanted to avoid raw edges for a more finished look so I did French seams along the shoulders, sides, and crotch (that is, sewing wrong sides together first, trimming the seam allowance, and then turning over to sew right sides together). Of course, as is often the case, I didn't think of this detail until after cutting out the swimsuit which meant the overall size shrunk by half an inch or so. I was about 2/3 of the way through the swimsuit when Adam woke up from his nap so I pulled it on him and discovered it was on the small side making him look like a sausage! Uh oh, time to start again. Luckily it's a fairly small and quick project so this wasn't a big deal.
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| Blue trim accent |
The only raw edges I left exposed are on the under-side for the trim. You can see this in the above photo if you look closely (edges by the rose are folded over and stitched down but edges on the backside by the faded star are raw). I thought it would just be too bulky to stitch down a double-fold trim which might make for even wonkier neck- and armholes :)
Well I finished up the swimsuit Friday evening while Mike was watching Adam and we tried it on him right before bed. I thought he looked adorable in it...my little Olympic wrestler. All set for Saturday morning swimming!
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| 5 min before class |
I bet all the other parents were jealous of Adam's new swimsuit! Okay, maybe not. In fact they were probably all confused because the legs of his swimsuit rode up in the water making it look like a girls' bathing suit instead. Might as well have just bought the purple unicorns :D
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