Buying new swimwear can be a nightmare, but sewing swimsuits are easier than you think. One-piece swimsuits can be hard to find when shopping. Sure, you can go to the sporting goods shop and get one, but the price hurts. Store are filled with the gamut of ugly to hideous to that one great looking piece that IS NOT IN MY SIZE. Maybe that’s just my experience, but seriously, never in stock in my size. Oh, and they’re all two-piece suits, except the sole one-piece suit that may have been in style in 1910 but probably not even then.
This is where a sewing machine shines. 1/2 yard of swimwear fabric, another 1/2 yard of swimwear lining plus several yards of 3/8 inch swimwear elastic and you’re in business. You can do all of this on just your regular machine, or if you have them, invite the serger and coverstitch machine to the party.
Picking a Swimsuit Pattern
I collect sewing patterns so I pulled from stash. However, a glance at the Big 4 sewing pattern brands show both one- and two- piece options readily available. I have sewn up good looking swimsuits from every line, so really just pick one that appeals to you. Though I have more experience with one-piece suits than two-piece swimwear, the fundamentals are the same.
In this case, my daughter needed a new suit suitable for lap swimming, so I pulled out Jalie 3893 “Diane.” This pattern is a one piece tank design with a cutout back and a contrast band. In the child sizes, the neckline is high, but it is a scoop neck in the larger sizes.
Sewing Your Swimsuit
Pattern Alterations
My daughter by the measurements fits a straight size Q in Jalie’s sizing range, and she only requested two changes in the pattern tracing stage.
- Raise the neckline by 1” – I made a mark on the center fold line and used a French curve to smooth it into the shoulder strap area
- Eliminate the contrast panel and remove that seam line -this eliminated the shaping that seamline provides, but it was minimal. It fits her the same as when I’ve left that seamline in place
Cutting Fabric
For this suit, I used a navy blue nylon spandex 4-way stretch fabric. I got it at either Spandex World or Spandex House when they were within walking distance of each other. It’s been a decade, so forgive me for nothing being sure which retailer. It’s a great weight, comparable to the fabrics used on my old Speedo tank suits.
Swimwear is cut along the cross grain making this project economical on fabric usage. I started with only a yard of fabric and have enough left over for at least one more swimsuit and possibly some contrast pieces. The lining is black swimsuit lining bought from Jo-Ann. I chose to line both front and back of the swimsuit.
Assembly
Swimsuits are easy to sew, especially one-piece styles when they only have two pattern pieces
- Baste front and front lining wrong sides together
- Place right side of back lining to the front lining and right side of back to the front. Stitch the crotch seam through all four layers
- Flip all of your pieces so that the back lining is lying wrong side together with the back piece and baste. The crotch seam should be fully enclosed
- Sew seams right side together at shoulder and side seams
- Zigzag stitch swimsuit elastic into loops for garment edge according to pattern
- Zigzag stitch elastic to lining side of swimsuit along fabric edge, stretching the elastic as you sew to fit
- Turn elastic to edge and topstitch in place with zigzag stitch
If you have a serger, use it for all of the seaming instead. A coverstitch machine will give a nice twin needle topstitch when turning the elastic under with a ton of stretch. I recommend against using a sewing machine twin needle because this garment needs as much give in the stitching as possible.
My particular pattern choice required the keyhole opening to be finished before the rest of the suit assembly, but otherwise the stitching order is the same. The project from tracing the pattern pieces to finishing the topstitching only took one afternoon. I appreciate fast projects that look good and this qualifies.
Sewing swimsuits are a great project even if you are a novice at sewing knits and only have access to a sewing machine. They are a forgiving project fit-wise and you save money over store bought with only a few hours investment of time. Give it a try today!