Sunday, March 27, 2011

Bathing Suit Progress - Kwik Sew 3238

I had a very productive day making bathing suit bottoms.  I kept sewing until I got really tired and sewed my "sandwich seam" together wrong and had to pick it out. More on that later.
Kwik Sew 3238
I'm using Kwik Sew 3238.  I cut a Medium in the low cut style to test my first pair.  I pinned them together and tried them on, and once I saw that they were too low, I didn't bother to line them.  The fit was perfect, though.  I sewed them together and tested out the elastic.  I'm using 3/8" clear elastic.  I disengaged my serger knife, and I'm having good luck just sewing the elastic in without stretching anything, except at the back of the bum.  I measured my elastic for the first pair, but it works better just to go free-hand.  That way I also save more elastic, as I'm not throwing out leftover chunks from each piece.
First test pair
For the second pair, I added some height to the waist.  I added 1/2" at center back, 3/4" at the side seams, and 1 1/4" at center front.  I left the leg openings the same, except I shaved off a scant 1/4" from the gusset area.
Second pair.  Wearable!
For the flame spandex, I'm using black thread in the needles, and orange wooly nylon in the loopers.  When I switch to blue, I'll use royal blue thread for the needles, and gray wooly nylon for the loopers.  I just got my serger back from servicing, and it's sewing like a dream.  I haven't used wooly nylon for years, and I'm impressed with how well it's working!
I thought I'd share my "sandwich" method that I used.  I've seen a few other people do this.  The pattern calls for lining only on the front piece.  I wanted to line the whole thing.  Layer front, back, back, and front.  I would recommend pinning it loosely and checking.  At the end of the day, it took me 3 tries to get it right, including sewing it together wrong once.  That was my cue to quit!  Thankfully, I still had my serger knife disengaged, so I didn't cut anything off.
This is what it looks like when it's done right.  I am loving doing everything on my serger, and I'm not even pressing anything.
Once I sewed all my side seams together, I pinned the lining to the outer layer. Once this was done, I serged the elastic on.
As of today, I have 2 pairs of flame bottoms done, except for the coverstitch, which I will be doing after all the other blue items are done.
I also cut out my 4 pairs of blue bottoms, and lining!  It's a lot of work to make 6 of anything, no matter how small!  I will be doing a lot of marathon sewing later this week to finish these bottoms and make the blue halter tops.
I'm so excited about the blue ones!  I love my flame fabric, but I've been handling it a lot lately, and cutting into the blue stuff was the highlight of my day!

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