Dive into Swimsuits: Taking the Lakehouse to the Shore

I am so excited to be a part of my first blog tour!!!!! Cole’s Creations is one of my favorite pattern shops.  I test for Nicole regularly and I am a big fan (I’m also a fan of her mom! Hi Miss Beth!).  Her directions are very clear and concise.  She makes “scary” fabrics a lot less scary.   Cole’s Creations has 3 swimsuits (All 4 One, Bow-a-licious, The Lakehouse).  I decided to do The Lakehouse (sizes 1/2-16!!) for this blog tour and as my 2nd swimsuit.  Nicole is a swimwear/leotard FANATIC.   She lives and breathes swimsuits and leotards. Me? Not so much.  I just purchased one for Darling Diva last month and it sat in the bag until a couple of days ago.  Why make one when I can buy one? Right? WRONG!! I couldn’t decide where I wanted to go with this blog post, and then I remembered the forgotten suit.  So we’re going to touch on the fit for a little bit.  The purchased suit is very cute, but since I’ve tried it on her I see some of the pitfalls of buying vs. making your own.

She’s sad because the fit stinks 😦

Glancing at it you might think it fits fine.  Taking a closer look you can see it does not fit her snugly.  The suit gaps under her arms, the front hangs precariously low and it’s baggy.  I feel like she might have a wardrobe malfunction à la Janet Jackson.  We don’t want or need that.  Come around to the back and you see her diaper.  Not just the leg ruffles, but you can start to see some of the actual diaper itself.  It’s also baggy down her back.  The fit is just not good all around.  Now don’t get me wrong it’s a cute suit, but now that I’ve made a couple I have higher standards. We took a trip as a family to Joann’s and started digging in the swimsuit fabrics.  I saw these and immediately thought mermaid. Got my fabrics home and got to work.  I realized right away this was a very slinky choice that I made.  It slips everywhere and was actually quite annoying to cut out.  When it came time to actually construct the swimsuit, pinning it was getting on my nerves.  Then I remembered I had fabric glue!   Sing with me…  HAAAAAL-LE-LU-JAH!!!

GO GET ONE RIGHT NOW!!

I glued the pieces together and ignored the pins for most of the suit construction.  If you do not have fabric glue you need to get some.  It will save you heartache and sanity. GO NOW! I’ll wait. Are you back? Good, let’s continue.  These slinky fabrics move and shift and the glue keeps them right in place.  No worrying that the serger will shift your fabric.  If you are like me and like to use your regular machine, get a walking foot.  Between the walking foot and glue the suit came together beautifully and quickly. The fit of The Lakehouse was great.  During construction I shortened the leg elastics by 1/2″ and I probably could have done a full inch.  You can see it’s not baggy, there is no gapping under her arms, and no diaper showing.  It just fits her better all around.

MA! Look at all of those store bought suits.

Once I had my mermaid suit completed we took it to the shore (the shore is NJ for beach) to test it out.  Well you can see for yourself.  It’s a great pattern and you can do so much with it.  You can make it as sweet or as sassy as you want.  The Lakehouse lasted the day at the beach.  She looked very comfortable and she wasn’t tugging at it at all.  Now, the hats I put on her she couldn’t rip them off of her head fast enough. I really enjoyed making this swimsuit.  Like I said previously, Nicole makes the scary things less scary.  You just need to get the knit fear out of your head and do it.  I don’t want to sound like a crazy fan girl, but I am what I am.  If you have not tried one of her patterns (or her baby sisters’ patterns Made for Mermaids and Patterns for Pirates) you seriously should.  You won’t be disappointed.

Have you been following the sew- along? If not, you can check that out in the Cole’s Corner and Creations Pattern Group.  Other designers and bloggers have joined in the Dive Into Swimsuits blog tour.  Check them out and don’t forget to follow them! There are prizes to be won!