Sploosh! That is the sound I hear in my head every time I see this swimsuit!

The local lido’s (outdoor community pool) are about to open in the coming weeks here in Brooklyn and I’m so very excited about sporting this bad gal whilst splashing about in the pool. I’m even tempted to take it down to Coney Island and dip a toe in the sea!
I was actually working on an entirely different pattern, but sometimes no matter how much you try and make a design work, it just doesn’t want to play ball. Whilst struggling to accept that not all designs are meant to be, I had an irresistible urge to get this design onto paper. It wouldn’t leave me alone, so one day I got up and gave in to it, expecting it just to be a cathartic exercise of releasing my demons and getting out onto paper. But somehow it just worked, the first sample looked amazing on my fit model and with a few tweaks here and there, it fell into place. I think it was a lesson in itself that sometimes you’ve just got to listen to your gut, let some stuff go and embrace other ideas.
So at the 11th hour I decided to shelf the other pattern and work on releasing this swimsuit pattern that was getting me so excited. All THE FEELS!Enough of the touchy feelies, and onto the pattern itself!
The overall design concept for this swimsuit was based on the tie strings. This swimsuit has a lovely shaped décolletage with double rouleaux straps for the halter-neck ties. The bust cups have soft gathers for shaping and are fully lined. The leg cut is low but shaped at the front so it doesn’t cut straight across your hips horizontally and flows round to the back with full coverage for your bottom.  The ties at the side seams on the hips allow you to either leave it smooth with a low-cut leg or to scrunch it up and have soft gathers at the sides.
The pattern comes with 3 variations. The first version is a one-piece that comes with a higher back, providing a little extra coverage, which is good if you’re keen to add support with a shelf bra under the bust, as this version makes it easier to have the elastic going all around your torso at the same level.Version 2 is also a one-piece but with a lower cut back that joins up just above the waistline at the side seams.
Version 3 is a bikini, and in keeping with the retro feel of the low-cut leg I decided to make it high-waisted. The bikini top has a partial band that shows off your beautiful back and uses the halter straps as a part of the back closure. You can play around with how you tie them up at the back. I quite like the criss-cross look myself.
This pattern comes with 3 cup sizes – B/C, D/DD, DDD/E  so you can really tailor this swimsuit to you curves. I also want to note that the measurement chart in the pattern takes your under-bust measurement, instead of the traditional bust measurement, so you can fit the bodice of the swimsuit to your torso and then pick the cup size that’s right for you, much like when fitting a bra.
The swimsuit is designed for spandex with four-way stretch and needs 50% stretch on the crosswise grain and good recovery. Which means the fabric usually contains a minimum 10% spandex/Lycra. For the lining generally a Poly/Spandex or Nylon composition is best.
The format of the instructions with this pattern has been set up to make it as seamless experience to sew as possible. I’ve broken down the detailed instructions into 3 separate sections – one per variation – and there’s a hyperlinked menu so you can skip straight to your version and sew!
The pattern pieces for each version of the swimsuit are group together in the pattern file, with a ‘map’ and list of the pages you need to print found in the instructions booklet, so you can print the specific cup size and swimsuit version you want to make. The pattern pieces are whole, which I find makes it easier to handle as there’s not cutting on the fold.
I hope you love this swimsuit as much as I do! I think it has a lot of potential with different prints and I’ll be following up with some posts on some pattern changes you can do with it in the coming weeks.
You can get the pattern here.