Day 2 - Sew-a-long with SEMS Fabric

Day 2. Sewing shoulder, neck & side seams

Welcome back for day 2 of the Sems L&K swimsuit sew-a-long with Sansahash patterns!! If you haven't read day 1, go back and visit our first steps HERE.

For the RACER BACK version

Today we are sewing the shoulder, neck and side seams of the racer back top (for the other versions, scroll down.) Sew your main and lining pieces right side together.

 

I personally like to sew my seams using a lightening bolt stitch with my regular sewing machine first, then overlock (or serge, as our overseas friends would say.) There is no real need to overlock as knit fabric doesn't fray.

 

Put your lining and main pieces right sides together and sew the neck opening. Be careful not to stretch your fabric while sewing.

Close up view of neck lines

 

 

Pull your top right sides out and press gently if desired.

 

Our next step can seem quite confusing if you have never sewn a garment using the
"burrito technique". Please check out this YouTube video by Melly Sews (it doesn't show the L&K top, but is similar enough to gauge what is happening.)

 

You will need to roll up one side of your top towards the other.  

 

 

When you get as close to the other edge as possible without going past it, pull the lining from underneath the main, over the roll up part to meet the edge of the main fabric. The right sides of the fabric will meet, wrong sides are exposed. Pin well and sew.

Top with both edges sewn, wrong sides exposed

Pull out the garment to show the right sides again and repeat the step for the other side. It will look odd!!

Top pulled out correct way with one side sewn

Top right way out with both sides sewn

 

Side seams: With right sides facing, sew your side seams. Refer to the pattern tutorial for more guidance.

 

Baste bottom raw edges of the main and lining together - a zig zag would be fine for this step. Put top aside, you are DONE for day 2! Well done!

Pleated halter neck bikini or tankini

 

Make sure you have marked all your pattern pieces carefully. Pleat your top carefully, from the back view, the pleat will face towards the underarm/strap area.

View from correct side

Once you have pinned both sides, your front bodice should look similar to these photos.

Baste your pleats.

Your lining will NOT have pleats. Sew your bodice fronts, right sides facing at the side seams. The back bodice piece will be WIDER at the TOP. Repeat for your lining.

Wrong sides together, baste your main and lining bodices together.

For TANKINI version only

Sew your skirt pieces, right side together, at the side seams.

 

Congratulations! You're done for day 2 if you're sewing the pleated version!

For Ruffled hack version

Measure your main bodice piece central height. Divide this measurement by 4, cut a piece of 6mm elastic at this length. Measure down/up 3.5cm from the top and bottom of your bodice. At these points pin your piece of elastic. Stretch your piece of elastic right out, pin excessively if needed. Sew on your elastic using a zig zag stitch. Repeat for the lining.

Your front main and lining pieces should look similar to this.

 

Right sides together, sew your main and lining bodice at the side seams. This step is exactly the same as the standard pleated version, scroll up to check instructions for further guidance.

 

Baste main and lining together, wrong sides facing.



Skirt pieces with side seams sewn

Sew front skirt ruffle pieces to back pieces at the short edge, right sides together. When placed right sides out, they should look similar to my pieces above.

 

Well done all!! You have now completed day 2 of the Sems L&K SAL. Please share your progress in the event (found HERE - you will need to be a Sems Facebook group member to view, join HERE.)

 

Stay tuned for Day 3, Tuesday 22nd January 2019.

 

~Zoe~

Day 1 - Sew-a-long with SEMS Fabric

 

Welcome! We are on day 1 of our Sems L&K swimsuit sew-a-long! If you have not taken part in a sew-a-long (SAL), it's very simple, each day for a week, we will all sew a step together of our L&K swimsuit. There will be 2 days to catch up at the end and then Katie & Amyee of Sems Fabric will choose 2 winners!

First prize will be a $75 Sems Fabric voucher & 2 Sansahash PDF patterns of choice. Then a second prize for most creative swimsuit will win a $50 Sems Fabric voucher.

The only rules are that you use Sems swimsuit lycra and the Sansahash L&K swimsuit pattern. You may hack, and embellish your swimsuit however you like! We can't WAIT to see what you sew!

To be in the running, you will need to join the Sems Fabric Facebook group HERE. (Entries can be a modelled or flat lay of your swimsuit and will need to be submitted to the "Final entry" album in the group.

You can purchase your Sems fabric HERE.

The L&K swimsuit pattern by Sansahash is available HERE.

Join the Facebook Sansahash pattern group HERE.

STEP 1. Choose a style 

  

This is my heavily hacked L&K ruffle top paired with vintage bottoms

 

The L&K swimsuit pattern comes with 2 top options and 2 bottom options. You will need to select the view you would like to sew.

 

You may also choose to hack these versions. I will show you how to achieve the 2 different looks I achieved with the L&K pattern.

 

Standard racer back top option with vintage bottoms

Hacked pleated top version paired with bikini style bottoms

Back view of hacked ruffle tankini and vintage bottoms

Back view of racer back top paired with vintage bottoms 

 

Back view of pleated tankini and bikini bottoms

STEP 2. Cut out fabric

Download your L&K pattern. Measure your child accurately and print out applicable size(s). Grade your pattern pieces if needed! This ensures a snug, well fitted swimsuit, very important for swimmers!

Fabric pieces for standard racer back version and vintage shorts. Don't forget to cut your lining too!  

I will be providing tips and a basic run down of the steps we are sewing each day, however, please refer to your pattern tutorial for in depth instruction.

 

Some of your swimsuit needs to be lined. I have used a soft stretch nylon, lycra blend netting for my lining. If you don't have specific swim lining fabric, then use your main fabric for your lining too. I strongly recommend a similar weight fabric for the lining for the RACER back version in particular as the technique used to construct this top will leave the neck and armholes prone to stretching out of shape as there is no supporting elastic in these areas.      

Pieces required for the pleated halter neck & bikini bottom version.

Skirt pieces for creating a halter-neck pleated tankini

To create the pleated tankini 

If you would like to re-create the tankini version of the L&K swimsuit, you will also need to cut out 2 "skirt" pieces for your top. The width of the skirt will depend on how much ruffle you like. Measure the width of your front LINING pleated pattern piece, then multiply this width by 175% - 200%, so your ruffle is twice or nearly twice as wide as your pattern piece. The height of these pieces can be cut as tall or short as you wish! I recommend holding the front bodice pattern piece up against your child and measure down to the desired length. For a size 5 height, I used a height of 15cm (or 6") for my skirt pieces.   

To create the ruffled tankini version

Draft a front bodice piece for the ruffled tankini version

If you have never drafted your own pattern pieces before this can be challenging! The ruffle tankini version will require you to print out the pleated halter neck version of the pattern. You will use the back piece as is, however you will be recreating the front. Use the pleated bodice version LINING piece, measure the HEIGHT from the centre bottom to top (so to the lowest part of the "v".) Then measure the WIDTH across the front - grade if necessary. Draw a rectangle using these measurements - remember that your piece will be cut ON THE FOLD.

 

After your rectangle is drawn, you will carefully need to curve the top right corner. This will follow towards your child's underarm. Cut out a MUSLIN FIRST! If your piece doesn't look right when holding against your child, re-cut! Remember there is a 12mm or 1/2" seam allowance!  

Skirt pieces for ruffled tankini

I made 2 layers of skirting, one half the height of the other. To recreate my look you will cut a total of 6 skirt pieces!

 

To cut your short top layer work out how tall you would like your skirt to be over-all. I worked using the 6" or 15cm height as per my pleated tankini. So my shorter ruffle is 3" or 7.5cm tall (this is for a size 5 height.)

 

Once again measure the width of your bodice pattern piece, multiply the width by 2. Cut 2 pieces at this size. Take one piece, fold in half and round off the bottom corner. A cup makes for a good template! Cut around the curve. 



 

Repeat the above steps for your lower layer of your skirt.

The above pieces show the front skirts sewn to the back - however we are not up to this step! This is simply to show you all the pieces required for the ruffled tankini!

For the ruffled tankini you will now have:

• 1 front curved bodice in main fabric & 1 front bodice in lining
• 1 back bodice in main & 1 back bodice lining (as per pleated version)
• 3 top layer skirt pieces
• 3 bottom layer skirt pieces
• Straps as per halter neck version - add approximately 10" or 26cm to the strap length if you wish to tie at the back as per my version
• Back loop piece 4" x 2" (10cm x 5cm)

 

Day 1 is now complete!

After today you should now have all your pattern pieces cut out ready for sewing! Go you! Please share your progress in the event in the Sems Fabric Facebook group, we'd love to see what fabric you picked!

 

Stay tuned for day 2 (Monday 22nd January 2019).

 

~Zoe~

Going down to Comfy Town with Rebecca Page

 

G'day there traveller! Welcome to my corner of the world, Western Australia. Our Christmases are always HOT and what better to wear on hot days? Yes.......comfortable, cool, cotton clothing! At my stop on The Rebecca Page Comfy Town Blog Tour you'll see the Paris Party Dress shirt paired with modified Pippa Pants.

 

Keep reading (or just scroll down) until the end, because you have a chance to WIN some awesome prizes just by visiting the Comfy Town blog posts!

 

You'll notice right away that I've adorned my daughters Paris Tee with a cute vinyl saying and image. This is a FREE......yes FREE cut-file available as part of the "Comfy Town" collection on the Rebecca Page website.

 

These Pippas are shortened into short shorts. The pattern comes with standard length and 3/4 length pants.

To achieve this look with the Pippa Pants Rebecca Page PDF pattern, you'll just need to chop off most of the leg part of the pattern piece. Work out how short you would like your Pippa shorts, then *zip* off they go! Don't forget to allow for hemming, 1/2" (12mm) should do the trick.

 

I also added a little side ruche. Easily done by creating a double channel on each side of the shorts and threading ribbon through. The ruching just kicked out the sides of the shorts a little and added in some bow-a-luscious fun to the shorts.  

 

The Paris Party dress is another FREE pattern! WHAT?! Yes! Another freebie for you! Just join the Rebecca Page sewing community on Facebook and find the coupon code in the pinned post.

I opted to sew the full length shirt with basic short sleeves and scoop neckline. Yes, I could have bought a white tee from Target for less than the cost of the fabric....but where's the fun in that?! We don't sew to save money now do we!! *Laughs hysterically, then cries a little.*

White shirt stayed white for a whole of 30 minutes.....but at least it was clean for photos!

 

My little lion child didn't want her hair tied back, so it of course went everywhere! (Can you believe she was bald until 2 years old?!) 

Doing her best lion impression for me!

Now let me just say this, if you're new to iron on vinyl, be prepared to make some errors! I don't care to admit how long this took me to get right......but here is my best advice:

 

Know your machine's software! This is important if you need to convert file types.

 

Make sure you mirror your image! (Yes I did cut one out backwards! Gah!)

 

Iron your fabric first to warm it up, then apply vinyl.

 

You need to press VERY HARD with your home iron to get it to stick well. By that, I mean your stomach muscles should be clenching and your knuckles white.....or use a proper press.

 

Buy good quality vinyl and follow the advice it provides you on correct temperatures and length of pressing time. 

 

Good luck! I know you'll be creating your own personalised vinyl printing clothing/items in no time with no trouble at all!

 

Here we are friends, at the end! Before I bid you a Merry Christmas please know that both The Pippa Pants and Paris Party Dress are available in children's and women's sizes, newborn up to 5XL. Like all Rebecca Page patterns they have no trim pattern pieces and excellent tutorials. So whether you are sewing for hot or cold climates, both of these patterns sew up comfort.  

 

 

To win some great prizes you MUST COMMENT on each of the Comfy Town blog posts.....it's as easy as that!

 

Please visit all the stops on the Rebecca Page Comfy Town Blog Tour. Don't forget to comment on the blogs each day and enter the giveaway posts in our Facebook group for a chance to win some prizes from Rebecca Page.

1. Monday, November 26: Rebecca Page (Intro), bigflynotions, Stitched by Jennie
2. Tuesday, November 27: Ropp Originals, Flaxfield Sewing
3. Wednesday, November 28: Simply Kyra, Seams Sew Lo
4. Thursday, November 29: Seams Like Style, Jot Designs, Sixth Snow
5. Friday, November 30: The Sewing Unicorn, PatchWitch
6. Saturday, December 1: Sarcastic Sewist, Bellephant, Princesse et Tresors
7. Sunday, December 2: Liviality, Soul Fed on Thread, The Scatty Sewer