Beach Days

Now that summer is in full effect here in Florida I’ve been sewing up a ton of beach looks.  We spend almost every weekend at the beach as a family (often from 8am to 2pm or longer) and the kids and I head to the beach to enjoy the water, collect seashells and play in the sand at least once during the week.  We gear up for the sun here.  That means rashguards, leggings, full brim hits, Badger sunscreen and our trusty Kelty sun tent for the beach!  That tent is amazing, just 2 foldable aluminum posts so its super lightweight & I can put it up by myself, but provides plenty of shade.  Ami’s favorite part of our beach excursions lately is nap time.  She passes out on the beach on a blanket for at least an hour or two giving mommy a lovely break!

This make was my first foray into swimwear. You may have seen some early versions during Me Made May when I wore them on vacation. I made these up in May but they still needed a few tweaks to get them blog ready. :) The top is self drafted based partly on one of my old Title Nine swimsuits by Carve Designs, but shortened to a mid length bikini top.  Originally this was a tankini top but I’m much more comfortable with my body lately and didn’t want as much coverage, especially since I’m usually wearing a rashguard on top.  The fabric is from The Fabric Fairy in this cool geometric print. I’m really happy with this for my first make, but I definitely have room for improvement.  What I love most are the straps on this!  The sides have a fold over piece that they fit through.  The first pair of bottoms I made were way too small so I based these one’s off Ohhh Lulu’s high waist Ava panties.  I just cut about 2″ off the waist and folded over my elastic  in the legs twice.  I still need to work on tweaking the fit of the bottoms for slightly more coverage in the back but these work fine for now.

Kaleidoscope Nylon Lycra Swimsuit Fabric

The next make is my beach skirt which is made from a pink and orange paisley knit  and some orange swimwear fabric, both remnants from Joann’s.  I used the Lady Skater pattern in my size, 4, from Kitschy Coo to draft the skirt, but I had to alter it a bit, adding two side panels on the front skirt since I didn’t have quite enough fabric.  I did a simple knit fold over waistband and serged the whole piece plus added topstitching.

Last up is my first rashguard (which does have matching bottoms, not pictured) made up in this awesome floral swimwear fabric I got from The Fabric Fairy, sadly out of stock.  I love the almost impressionist look of this floral.  I used the Lady Skater once again with the long sleeve bodice for this make. Such a versatile pattern!  You can see my dress version here :)  I want to get some nice soft UV material for any future rashguards.  This one functions fine but it’s not quite as comfy as some of my store-bought ones.

I have another swimsuit in the works using a beautiful antique paisley that you can see below!  I also just made up a cute purple leopard print swim outfit for my 6yo niece that I sewed up when she was here playing last week. Hopefully I’ll get some pics of that make to show off soon too.