Swimwear Sewing Tips: Part 2

In my last swimwear post, I mentioned that I was going to update with another post in a couple of days.
Apparently, in blogland, my "today, or tomorrow" is more like "one week".
Oops. Sorry about that!


Just so you know what's going on, I'm taking part in Dana and Deborah's Coast-to-Coast Swimsuit Sew Along

So far, I've plunged right in, cut my fabric and serged my seams.

Well, it came to sewing on the elastics, things got a little complicated.

Tip #3 - Use chlorine resistant elastic, if at all possible.
I was going to use regular elastic, but I was lucky enough to find some chlorine resistant ones at my local fabric store.

$4.00 for 7.3 m of regular elastic (68% polypropylene 32% rubber)
$1.70 for 2.7 m of chlorine resistant braided elastic (78% cotton 22% rubber)
Pretty comparable, eh? So, I ended up using the suggested elastic.


Tip #4 - When applying elastic, place the elastic under the fabric when sewing on the elastic.
It is easier to sew on the elastic, if the elastic is in contact with the bed of the sewing machine. With the elastic under the fabric, I serged the elastic onto the leghole, neck, armholes and back.




With the first swimsuit I made, I used a 1-to-1 ratio for elastic to length of fabric.
It turns out that this was not the smartest thing to do. Instead of pulling the leg hole in, this caused the hole to enlarge. Oops, not what I wanted. I ended up having to rip out some of the seams and cut out some excess fabric.
I would suggest using an elastic about 1 inch shorter to sew onto the fabric.

Tip #5 - Twin needles make the hems look quite professional
I don't have a cover stitch machine, to finish off the hems, but I finally succumbed and learned how to use twin needles to make the hems look more professional.
After serging on the elastic, I turned it under and top stitch with twin needles.


This is nice, but not strictly necessary. I just looked at my old swimsuit (bought for way too much money 8 years ago), and I notice that they use a zigzag stitch.

Well, I think I will end this post here. Hopefully, after my vacation, I'll be able to post some photos of the finished product.