I’ve been working on a new swimsuit using the blue & orange printed panel, originally from Jets, that I bought from The Remnant Warehouse.  I loved the colours in the print but deciding what to do with it was a real headache.

The plan

The panel has two swimsuits printed on it, rather than being an allover print. This is what the printed panel looks like and a couple of photos of swimsuits using a similar print.

The printed sections weren’t quite lining up with my swimsuit patterns.  Since I needed to reduce the length, I’d end up with white space at the sideseams on either the bust or the hips.  I should have taken a bit more notice of the finished swimsuits as they use a band around the waist to break up the print. They are from different print panels but the idea could have worked.

Originally I had planned to make another version on Merckwaerdigh BAD24 that I made earlier in the year – I’ve almost worn it to death.  But the panels didn’t work out for it.  Even just using the centre front with colour and the rest plain didn’t work with the print.  Plus I was a bit nervous about the bright red and orange patches at the crotch.  Option 2 was the strapless swimsuit, similar to the second example.  I had trialled the bra in my previous post but without the right underwire, that pattern was on hold.  Eventually, I decided to use the pattern that I’d made up in 2012 as a knock-off of a Danskin swimsuit and make it more of a training swimsut.

I made a few modifications to the pattern:

• adding height to the neckline to capture the diamond part of the print
• widening and deepened the colour blocks panel to take in more of the print
• changing the location of the lower vertical seams to match with the pattern change of the upper front
• changing the back to add in the triangle piece from BAD24.  It is so comfy!

The sewing

The centre front was cut from one of the front panels, the back from the “straps” piece and the triangle from the crotch of the front panel.  In hindsight, I didn’t choose the print for the centre front well.  I guess I wasn’t thinking outside the square enough as I tried to use the front panel as it would have been on the Jets swimsuit.

I lined the upper front panel with some orange powermesh.  The bindings were from fold over elastic dyed to get the right shade.  The photo below shows the test strips as I added progressively more black into the blue dye.

Here is the finished swimsuit.  The fit is fine.  I’m not that wrapped with it.  Part of the problem is that in raising the neckline and changing the back configuration, I’ve made it hard to get into.  The backstraps are too chunky. but that is fixable.  But do you see those big splashes of orange to the side of the bust?  Would look good on someone with a small bust, but on me – no!

Should I rework it? 

I do like the print and the colours.  I just need it to work for me.

The back would be easy to fix.  Make the straps & triangle thinner – without the binding.  Reduce the height of the print section and add a bikini clip.

The front would still be a problem though.  I’ve played around with bits of the blue fabric looking at ways to reduce the impact of the orange flashes.  Adding in a side princes seam, and running into the vertical seam of the bottom appears to be the best option.

What do you think, does this look any better?